Jitsu Wa Ore Saikyou Deshita

They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. With a name like Jitsu Wa Ore Saikyou Deshita, it is damning proof that the current anime trend and season is now flooded with all sorts of isekai shenanigans. Uh huh. With the title obviously stating that the main character being the strongest, oh yeah, you know what the deal is going to happen. Loser guy in real world dies, gets reincarnated as an overpowered main character as approved by God who does some obvious dumb mistake for some reason. Claims to do things for his own selfish reasons and to protect that interest of his but his actions are all typical heroic strokes that further pushes him up the heavenly pedestal in the eyes of others. Yes, the isekai trend is still going strong and the strongest of the genres, people!

Episode 1
You know the drill. Some hikikomori loser scorned by society dies in his room. Not surprising, hot goddess babe pops up to tell him he has been selected for reincarnation and will be given overpowered skills in this new fantasy world. You bet he is going to accept this sweet deal to relive his peaceful life. Born as Prince Reinhardt, the royal family is pleased. But when a mage takes his magic aptitude, his level is very low and has only barrier magic! For fear of embarrassment, the king abandons his own child and just to keep this a secret. Poor Reinhardt is left to fend for himself in the forest. Meanwhile it is revealed the goddess made an error. Like always! Because this world’s magic cannot go more than 3 digits, guess what his level 1002 looks like? Yup. Oh, she forgot to give him some elemental powers too. A giant wolf tries to eat him but luckily his barrier saves the day. When he uses his magic about to drop the cliff on her, Flay gives up. She wanted to eat him to replenish herself but seeing he is so powerful, she decided to give up. In order not to be viewed as a loser, Reinhardt refers himself as Haruto (since this German name is so hard to pronounce) and is the Demon Lord reincarnate! Flay now wants to be his master. Since Haruto is hungry, he wants to suck on milk? Flay turns into a hot woman form but she can only produce breast milk if she is mating. Uhm, you expect a baby to have sex with you?! Luckily this human, Gold Zenfis passes by and is willing to give some milk. It seems he lost a baby child and for whatever reasons, cannot accept the abandonment of this one and will take him in. Since Flay cannot leave her master, Gold is willing to accept her as their attendant. And for 9 years, Haruto is living in Gold’s household that includes his wife Natalia and little sister Charlotte. Strangely, Charlotte is fearful of Haruto but not Flay. Natalia hopes he won’t hold it to heart since Charlotte has no boys around her age to mix around. The plan is for Haruto to sneak away and that’s why he has studied some magic and created a life-like robot in his image. But today is not that day as Gold has him train with the sword. Surprisingly, Haruto can dodge like a pro and even his attacks are powerful. As Haruto continues to wonder about his magic level, Gold talks to Natalia and suspects he may be a demon. It could be the reason why Flay follows him. But strangely, he has no horns or tail. No matter what, they promise to give Haruto a happy life.

Episode 2
Gold returns with his men, all mostly injured. It seems they have been ambushed by bandits despite taking precautions and making well preparations. Haruto cannot stand this sight so he goes to secretly heal all of them! Wow! Miracle! It doesn’t stop there. He uses his surveillance to pinpoint where the bandits are hiding and then flies over there with Flay to force info out of them. It seems they are soldiers from the neighbouring country with a mission to disguise as bandits and cause mayhem. But with the border security so tight, how did they get in? Ah yes, an accomplice. Someone who wields more authority than Gold. Since that is all they know, Haruto thanks them by telling Flay to burn everything down! No mercy! So as Gold receives news of this mystery, he thinks it is Flay’s doing. However Charlotte has a different thinking. She confronts Flay and asks who Haruto really is. Because last night she saw them flying out. Then she went to check on her brother and saw him sleeping in his bed (his clone). Flay gives the story that he has a very awesome aura. Because she can’t reveal more, Charlotte now follows Haruto everywhere he goes. But each time he tries to talk to her, she runs! Isn’t that cute? One day, Natalia and Charlotte are to leave for some annual festival in the city. Their carriage gets ambushed. The bandits has goals to kidnap them. Mother and daughter run but it seems someone is telling Charlotte and giving her directions where to go. In a cave, Natalia leaves Charlotte there to go find help. However bandits surround her. Natalia is resorted to taking he own life but luckily Haruto has arrived. You bet he is mad! DIE! Charlotte then confronts him and wants to know if he is that mysterious hero of justice (as explained by mom). Well, Haruto plays along with it. Yes I am but please keep it a secret. Charlotte is impressed and is willing to lie to father to help him. Well, okay. Whatever. As Gold asks Haruto for his opinion, he manages to give hints that there is a rat within the empire. Gold thinks it must be that woman making her move. But a huge surprise because now Charlotte takes a liking for Haruto. She hugs him and loves him! Oh my! Oh well, as long as she doesn’t hate him, it is okay. Apparently a new rival for Flay…

Episode 3
Charlotte sticking to Haruto like a leech. Well, better than hating him. Learning that he is studying ancient magic, Charlotte guides him to the library where there are books about it. This leads him to talk about anime. Little girl so impressed she wants to watch! And WTF he sets up his old account here on this TV to let her watch some anime?! How is this even freaking possible?! Anyway, she doesn’t know Japanese but damn, after a few hours, she masters the language?! They’re lying to us Japanese is an easy language!!! Anyway, you bet Charlotte has turned into an otaku nerd! Next anime please! So much so, Haruto imposes a 3 hour limit per day and damn, she’s so depressed! One day, Gold and his men set out to find and exterminate the bandits. This has Charlotte asking why Haruto doesn’t join them. Yeah, you guessed it all those heroes of justice anime has influenced her. With those innocent doe eyes, you bet Haruto cannot disappoint her as he does his own transformation scene into his own hero of justice. Is this Code Geass rip-off? Since she wants to see him in action, he goes to find the bandits and beats them up. Then he stumbles into Gold and his men who want to know his goal. Haruto makes up whatever and leaves. Charlotte impressed as always and so Haruto continues this charade until he earns the nickname, Black Knight. As Haruto has completed his clone, even Charlotte can’t tell the real one. Too bad this clone also acts like him because he doesn’t want to do his bidding! Soon, a visit by Princess Marianne and her very arrogant and cocky Prince Laius. Laius thinks Haruto is scowling him and wants to duel. He looks down even on Marianne’s advice to not shame himself as he thinks of her as just a political marriage tool. Haruto obliges and takes a beating at first (don’t worry, he infused himself with armour). But with ‘permission’ from Laius to fight back, Haruto shows his true colours and whips his ass. Care to surrender now? Marianne asks about his true level but Haruto says it is what it is. Haruto is left to wonder if his real parents are looking for him. Why? They abandoned him, right?

Episode 4
It’s already tiring enough for Haruto to play a hero of justice. And now Charlotte thinks Flay is his partner? And Flay is more than happy to play the part? Oh well… Next time they go kick bandits’ ass, behold Black Knight and Crimson Knight! Yeah, Flay getting way too violent to burn those motherf*ckers! One night as Haruto does his usual surveillance, he sees strange hooded men doing something shady with a magic circle. He goes to ask them but they attack. That’s their answer. But whatever monsters they summon, Haruto easily turns it all against them. Haruto then interrogates the leader and threatens to bury all his men alive. He reveals they are the unit under the queen consort and their mission is to assassinate Charlotte. Oh dear. It is believed that Charlotte’s magic will surpass her one day and once that happens, the kingdom might be split if Charlotte has Gold’s backing. You bet Haruto promises to give his mom hell. Laius and Marianne are friends with Haruto and Charlotte? Well, okay. Laius suspects Haruto may be a demon, at least those born between a union between a human and a demon but of course he doesn’t have horns or a tail so things are still confusing. As the kids visit the wheat field, Haruto takes this chance to talk to dad. Hypothetically he asks what if the queen is out for Charlotte’s life? Gold then realizes the impact of this. He believes her aim is to annihilate them. Obviously they can’t just eliminate her. But if she was gone, the kingdom will be in turmoil. You see, the king fell from power and many nobles tried to take his place. It is only the queen who kept it all in check. If she dies, a civil war will spark. 2 years before Haruto was born, Gizelotte was part of the king’s army who went on to vanquish the Demon Lord. She was hailed a hero and became known as the Flash Princess. They married and became popular. But now she is trying to take the kingdom for herself. Unless someone more powerful shows up. As Gold isn’t fit for politics, he believes someone cleverer would usurp her one day. That person is Charlotte. Hence Haruto vows to protect Charlotte until she is old enough to become the queen. Knowing that she will come meddling again, perhaps it’s time for a reunion.

Episode 5
Gizelotte is not amused with the recent failures. She knows Charlotte will become a threat and thinks of taking out that meddling Black Knight herself. Well, speak of the devil, he is here! Gizelotte shows how powerful she is by using several magic. However as we know, nothing beats Haruto. He easily subdues her even in a sword fight. Then he places a slave collar on her. Try to rip it off and there goes your head. He tells her to stay away from the Zenfis family if she knows what’s good for her. Until he deems her no longer a threat, the collar stays. And just like that, the queen is defeated. Because 5 years of peace have passed. But sorry, Charlotte still an anime otaku. Or maybe worse. Gold is stumped but thankful the threats on Charlotte’s life has stopped ever since but can’t help wonder what happened. Gizelotte has disappeared from the public and everyone thought she wore the collar as fashion but soon questioned if she could ever take it off. But oh well, nothing to do with them, right? You think Haruto could return to his hikikomori life but wait! Gold wants him to attend the royal academy. Yeah, school is the most hated thing from his previous life. Well, actually the king personally recommended him. In fact, Marianne was the one who proposed it. Oh, did he mention Laius is going to be in the same grade too? Yeah, so do your best and make friends. Even more so, Gizelotte may be plotting her comeback using Marianne so you know just in case. Since Gold has done a lot for him, Haruto accepts. However he can bring an attendant. It can’t be Flay and sorry mom, you can’t tag along! Haruto tries to get his clone to take his place and as expected, he refuses. Sure, he might put up an act to get expelled to show the king erred in his judgment but Haruto himself can do that too, right? The clone wants his hikikomori life too! Man, clone throwing a tantrum. Eventually the clone is forced to take his place. Haruto retreats to his secret cabin he has built at the lakes to enjoy his hikikomori life. Yeah, Charlotte comes here to watch anime too. Since it is a pain to travel here, Haruto now can uses teleport magic. However he has never tested it on a live subject. Flay suggests his clone. Uhm, that thing is alive? Anyway, his clone even refuses to do it, knowing his guinea pig intentions well. This makes Flay mad as she hops through and brings him over. See, it works.

Episode 6
Haruto still needs to go find his attendant. He stumbles upon a nearby village run by skeletons! Oh, they are the skeleton army summoned by those hooded men back then. They now pledge their allegiance to Haruto. Led by Johnny, they have also taken in stray monsters to stay. Damn, this place is huge and the irony that the undead growing food?! Haruto thinks Johnny is a nice and loyal guy fit to be his attendant. Only, he talks too much! And those damn skeleton jokes… Then there is also Gigan the golem who was also part of the hooded men’s summon. Well, a gentle giant and she’s acting like a maiden in love! Obviously too big to be his attendant. Leave it to Charlotte to call this new town Pandemonium. Anime influenced, right? Gold tells Haruto about some wounded blue dragon was seen entering their kingdom’s borders on the run from some hunt. Fearing this might cause the dragon to go on a rampage, he hopes they can scope the situation. Haruto and Flay drop in to save the dragon from the pesky hunters. At first the dragon is puzzled why Flay is obeying a human but after hearing the touching story, she understands. So the Demon Lord back story still stands? She then talks about her circumstances. As she hates fighting, she didn’t join the war between demons and humans. She secluded herself in the mountain for 300 years ago. Wow. You bet Haruto is going to love this next level of hikikomori! One day an adventurer dropped a book. She read it and found it fascinating. To feed her curiosity, she turned into her human form to sneak into a human settlement to steal books to read back in her cave. But then the adventurers found out and they attacked her. She was forced to flee her home. She accepts Haruto as her master for saving his life. And now she will be called Liza. Yeah, a lazy naming from blizzard dragon… Despite in her loli human form, sorry she’s no Kanna! Flay tries to assert she is Haruto’s #1 servant. But Haruto takes a liking for Liza as they both fly off together. Flay runs like hell to keep up with them. Won’t lose!

Episode 7
Liza is introduced to the rest of the family and they welcome her warmly. Now as a maid, Flay tries to teach her how to do her chores. Guess what? Flay is clumsy with everything while Liza excels in everything after learning it the first time! Yeah, Flay is already forgotten as Charlotte becomes best friends with her. This is when Haruto realizes Liza is the perfect attendant for him but when he sees how close Liza and Charlotte are, he couldn’t bear take them apart from each other! Soon, Charlotte becomes depressed because her favourite anime has ended. And then Haruto drops the bombshell that he will be attending school next week. This has Charlotte call an emergency meeting with her Round Table comrades! WHAT?! It consists of Flay, Liza, Johnny and Gigan. They too are in shock to hear Haruto attending school. So what’s so bad you may ask? Well, Charlotte has seen too much animes on high school. She asked Haruto about it and in short, he doesn’t have pleasant memories of it and calls it the most dangerous place. It doesn’t help when the animes tell of some secret evil student council. Yeah, there’s going to be some magic battles. To help Haruto in this, Charlotte has the ladies gather info while Johnny and Gigan further expand Pandemonium. Liza wonders if they should consult Haruto first but apparently he shall not be trifled with such small matters! But of course later Liza goes to report to Haruto as he thanks her. However Liza still believes in that evil organization at school and is all confused. Haruto then plays along that he has been acting in secret all along. This is a chance for him to make her his attendant for school. Case solved.

Episode 8
Laius might have changed since his meeting with Haruto but he is still cocky. He has worked hard and trained himself but feels he is still way behind Haruto. The reason being he wants to know why he is so strong. As for Marianne, it is hinted she has a crush on Haruto. The siblings discuss about the weird cultists in school, Church of Lucifyra. It is actually a new cult disguised as a branch of the state religion, Church of Mija. They have extremist ideologies and worship the demon and their influence is spreading throughout the kingdom. Recently they have the idea of overthrowing the monarchy and there are nobles joining and funding it. They feel that their mom may be behind this and trying to use Lucifyra to achieve some goal since she is now on bad terms with the king and the cultist will definitely exploit this. Speak of the devil, here comes Gizelotte. She still instil fears in her children as she tries to strangle Marianne, thinking she is looking down on her because of the collar! And then she wants Laius to find out all about Black Knight and report only to her. Laius has no choice but to obey. He fears he might get Haruto involved in something terrible. As Haruto and Liza prepare to embark to the royal capital, Flay is in despair. Please reconsider to choose her! No way. Poor Flay. At the outskirts of the capital, the duo see a bison chasing down a stagecoach carrying civilians. Haruto dons his Black Knight attire to the rescue. But first he sees Irisphilia trying to distract the bison but gets owned in the process. Haruto easily takes it out and heals her. With everyone impressed with him and even more so he doesn’t expect payment or even further hurt the bison, Haruto refers to himself as Shiva the hero of justice! So he is going with that name? Irisphilia wonders if they will meet again. Who knows? After a tiring day at the capital, he returns to his cabin as Charlotte suggests they all eat out at the capital. After that, Charlotte wants to date him. Haruto is surprised. A guy like him being invited on a first date?! Hey, nobody thinks they are siblings, right? Besides, they’re not even blood related. But oh yeah, date it is! They have a nice time and at the end of the day, bump into Irisphilia. She finds Haruto familiar although he pretends they never met. She then rushes off as Charlotte feels something strange about it. Haruto notes this since Liza too had the same feeling of her.

Episode 9
Learning there is an entrance exam to take, Haruto decides to take it himself and fail! Well, he doesn’t even know what some of the questions are so he just simply answers. But for those pertaining his barrier or ancient magic, he passionately writes away. Hey, can’t make it look like he is failing on purpose, right? Next is the magic aptitude test. He is taken to see the school director who is a loli. Yes, Tearietta Luseiannel is another eccentric and quirky one. As Haruto places his hand on the orb, it explodes! Haruto is happy thinking that breaking the orb will have him expelled. But Tearietta is impressed! It means the orb cannot contain his magic and his power is way off the charts! Also, she likes his answers because it’s so unique! Especially the “I don’t know” ones! Apparently this is all just a setup so she can invite him to join her as partner in her research. Obviously Haruto will not take the bait. So Haruto failed in his bid to get expelled. He leaves the rest to his clone. After the entrance ceremony, he bumps into Schneidel Halfen, the cocky student council vice. Actually, he calls out to Irisphilia for not acknowledging him. Too bad she is bad in reading the mood. He further calls out to Haruto for the same. He runs so Schneidel fires his magic at him. Haruto takes a hit but is still okay. To escape, Haruto fires his magic gun and runs before Schneidel could exact another punishment. Back home, Haruto tells this to his original self. And then soon gets a letter requesting for a duel. He cannot turn it down nor lose on purpose if he knows what is good for him. Haruto then sees Irisphilia heading towards Schneidel’s residence alone. It seems she wants him to cancel the duel because all this was her fault in the first place and nothing to do with Haruto. However that won’t do so Schneidel has her strip and dance naked. She obediently does so and of course Haruto won’t further tolerate this. Shiva moves them to another dimension. He tells Irisphilia not to be so naïve and to go home. Then he goes to deal with Schneidel. Naming all his sins, he puts on some magic curse on him. If he tries to take it off in any way, it will hurt even further. He will live with it until he atones for his sins. Schneidel is returned to his lackeys (who are obviously trying to hide their laughter seeing him in pain).

Episode 10
To Haruto’s surprise, many students are praising him for teaching Schneidel a lesson. Yeah, everyone is talking about him! What could be worse than that? Tearietta still bugging him to join her lab! But it gets worse. Laius and Marianne are also here. They all argue over Haruto to join their club. OMG. What’s happening? They think Irisphilia is also here for the same but Haruto sees this as a chance to escape. He takes her hand and runs away. I guess that’s his choice. So long, losers! Later Irisphilia asks Haruto if he is the same person yesterday. Because she couldn’t feel any magic from him (the clone) yesterday. He then asks if she is a demon but thankfully she is human. Also, it seems she wants to be friends with him as she has none. After all, she keeps bumping into him and it must be fate. She tells of her past whereby she has been abandoned many times. It could be that she isn’t good in communication. Well, Haruto believes he is not the right person since he himself has no friends. However her logic dictates that they are both the right people for each other to learn how to communicate! He then thinks he can use her to get out of school. Seeing that she is joining the research lab for ancient magic, he will join her too. Meanwhile Flay talks to Liza about the previous Demon Lord whose goal is to have demons and humans coexist together. It could be that he lost to the Flash Princess on purpose without even putting up a fight. By sacrificing himself, he would be reborn as a human and try to change their attitude from within. But the irony that he would be born from the womb of the woman who slew him. He might have lost his memories during reincarnation to prevent himself from turning ruthless. This leads to her revealing the Demon Lord’s old name: Irisphilia! Haruto takes Irisphilia home to get acquainted with Charlotte and then after that fill in some paperwork to enrol in the research lab. Wow. This much to write?

Episode 11
With Haruto in the median class and the professor giving another test, he thinks of failing this to get expelled. But with the questions so easy and even those he used to teach Charlotte, maybe he’ll just answer some correctly and get 60%. Oh well, the class did so bad and the average is actually 20%! Haruto is once again the star! Yeah, this has him advance up to the top class where Irisphilia and Laius are in. Damn, the duo fighting for his attention? But they also have to deal with their eccentric teacher, Oratoria Belkam. It seems she has taken a liking for Irisphilia and Haruto and wants them to join her research lab. Sorry, got to turn this one down. And then some sub-elements lesson which of course I don’t really freaking understand. But Haruto is able to give an excellent answer about some hidden properties. This has Oratoria really impressed that he could be some sort of genius and really wants him to ditch Tearietta’s lab for hers. Gotta say no again. What a tiring day. So he lets his clone join Irisphilia to gather at Tearietta’s lab. But why is Schneidel here too? Apparently the pain was unbearable so he came to her for help. Obviously she turned him into a guinea pig to do all sorts of experiments on him. More mumbo-jumbo on this magic thingy. In the end, the difference between modern and ancient magic is that no one today can wield the latter because they must be higher than a certain level. She interrogates Schneidel who did this to him and from his description, Tearietta put the puzzle pieces together that Shiva and Haruto are the same person. Yeah, notice the coincidence that they show up in the same area? Now she is bugging Haruto (and foaming in the mouth!) for all the juicy questions. Luckily here is Shiva! It’s a good thing the original heard it all. He reminds Schneidel to call off the duel if he wants this magic off him. Obviously he agrees. Tearietta thinks she has bind Shiva with her magic but he easily breaks out and binds her with a stronger one. She is still haughty and unapologetic. Until of course she needs to go to the toilet. Okay, I’m sorry, please let me go now! Better hurry to the toilet before the damn bursts!

Episode 12
Tearietta holds a welcoming party for the newbies. Her assistant, Polkos explains he was once her teacher. But then she started to show her genius at a very young age. After she done all that she could at home, she enrolled in this academy and he was tasked to look out for her. Eventually she never needed his teachings to begin with. Irisphilia gets drunk and all over Haruto. But nothing lewd. Hopefully. Meanwhile Schneidel is upset that all his plans are for ruined. Students will soon find out about the cancelled duel and he has went as far as to side the Lucifyra to ensure his father becomes the next king. To prevent this, he summons his special assassination squad to kill Haruto and the rest of Tearietta’s research lab. Obviously Haruto has been watching this and won’t allow this. So when the squad arrives, they are stumped the building is surrounded with an unbreakable barrier. Then their members keep getting kidnapped by suspicious doors and clones of Shiva popping up, which is of course their kidnapped members. With the real Shiva popping up, he forces everything out of them. Then he confronts Schneidel who hasn’t learnt from his lesson. Maybe he needs a punishment? Schneidel denies but there is video evidence of his plot. Desperate, Schneidel injects some syringe that turns him into a monster! Is this going to be our big epic finale fight? With Charlotte wanting to save him, Haruto puts up an act and even that spoof Gilgamesh move from Fate/Stay Night! Swords descending from the sky to slice through Schneidel and turn him back to normal! Unlimited Haruto Works! Well, at least Schneidel is no longer a threat and now a caveman retard. Flay and Liza continue to gather info from the capital. As Round Table meets again, Charlotte believes Schneidel is a puppet for a hidden student council who is further controlled by an evil organization. Sure, Haruto can deal with it all himself but they don’t know where the base of the evil organization is and that could be a burden to Haruto. Hence it is time to move in as they will infiltrate the academy. Charlotte also renames Round Table to Camelot. Of course Haruto is watching all this but ponders if what Tearietta said about an evil organization lurking in the academy is true. Also, he can’t shake the feeling that Gizelotte is behind this. For now, he will watch over Charlotte and co diligently so he can continue his peaceful life.

Kekkaishi: Unlimited Barrier Works
Eh? Uhm… Wait. Is that it? I mean, did they miss out airing another final episode or something? Let me check. Nope. Just a dozen of episodes. And no next season announced too. Hmmm… So… WTF THIS UNSATISFYING ENDING?! Oh heck, I won’t even call it an ending. It just ends like that?! WHAT THE HELL?! And you thought the series wasn’t going to get any worse or better, then they pull off one of the most unsatisfying ways to end a season just like that. How can we not be so angry! GRRR!!! No wonder I feel like I want to become Flay and just violently burn everything down!!! This is unacceptable!!! NO WAY!!!

Obviously I wasn’t putting much hopes on this series in the first place. It is after all isekai and having watched tons of it in my lifetime, I don’t think there is going to be any sort of real difference. Hence as I expected, the story itself seems meandering. I feel there is no real plot whatsoever as each episode stumbles its way through the season. I mean, what else can there be? Haruto already so overpowered since birth. The first half showcases his brilliance and genius in using magic that surpasses everyone’s expectations. Whatever threats that come to be, Haruto easily neutralizes them. Then the second half gets weirder because, high school time! Oh yeah. Looks like kids still need to attend school even in the other world. Another round of the plot meandering about. Sure, there is the curious underplot of the church and Gizelotte’s plotting revenge. But all that feels undermined and underutilized. What a waste because all we see is just Haruto fumbling his way through school. He wants to flunk but it always backfires spectacularly as he continues to be a student. Is this some sort of running joke? Is God playing a cruel prank on him? By the time he is successful in finally failing, he would already be graduated! OMG! It would be so funny that I can’t even laugh!

The characters felt like mostly nothing burger. Take our Haruto for instance. Your typical cliché main character who is overpowered as f*ck. Wants to live his dream and ideal life but the more he tries to make that happen, the more he gets dragged into whatever shenanigans because of the thought that he should just play along with it in hopes that it will yield the desired outcome at the end of the bigger picture. Good luck in trying to achieve that. Sure, he has got his own secret cabin but it feels more like some sort of getaway summer villa than his own personal hikikomori man cave. Making him even more confusing is his clone. They are so alike that I can’t tell them apart and I sometimes get confused! So perhaps it is his running joke that his clone always gets into sh*tty situations especially now that he is enrolled in the academy. Such a great achievement to create an exact doppelganger. But now it’s like arguing with himself over the things he doesn’t want to do. Yeah, either way, Haruto still has to do it! Original or copy!

Because of this penchant not to let many especially his little sister down, hence this cosplay as the hero of justice. Now, where have I seen this whole getup before? Oh right. In this light, doesn’t Haruto look like a discount version of Cid from Kage No Jitsuryokusha Ni Naritakute?! OMG. The similarities are almost uncannily similar. Guy wants to live a peaceful and quiet life. Away from the crowd and society. Prefers to dwell in the shadows. But when evildoers run amok, he dons his superhero outfit and starts acting like a typical chuunibyou. No enemies can best him as he comes out tops and with style! OMG. Do you not see how similar they are?! So is Haruto actually truly the strongest? Well, I’m just going to say that everybody else is just damn weak!

Charlotte feels like she has no business being in this anime except for the role of being and looking cute. That is all. Whatever geniuses and potentials she is said to have in the future, that is all just speculation. Because right now, all I can see her is just an anime addict! Thank goodness she is such a cutie pie or else all of us would’ve cringe and vomit with this cringe. So yeah. Charlotte now having buranko complex and she’ll do anything for the onii-chan she obsessively adores. Otherwise, she could actually be done without in this series but then it will lose all that cuteness charm. Yeah. Then there is Flay who feels more like a joker than right hand (wo)man to Haruto. She’s a bit dumb and crude but we give her a free pass because she’s a hot furry. If you’re not a lolicon, perhaps a mature lady like Flay would appease you. But yes, she is more of a hindrance to Haruto than being helpful and it’s like her running joke. Completing this mini harem is the newbie Liza. If Charlotte exists for cuteness, Flay for comical purposes, then we have Liza for some honest goodness because well, she shows to be a lot more capable and earnest in her actions and words. But too bad like I’ve pointed out, she can’t hold a candle to Kanna from Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon!

Other characters also feel wasted due to the pace and direction of this season. It feels like the need to add more weirdoes into Haruto’s life. Such as Laius and Marianne, both have taken a liking for him and it’s just freaking weird to see these royal siblings fight over him. It also remains to be seen if the duo will actually become a puppet for Gizelotte whom I believe is still a great threat. Even with the slave collar on, she holds some influence at least towards her children. Who knows how deep her hatred and revenge for Black Knight (or is it Shiva now?) runs. All I know is that we definitely haven’t seen the last of her. Schneidel feels like the bad version of Laius had he not turn over a new leaf. Yes, another guy whom we will not see the last of and there is a probability that he might team up with Gizelotte to give Haruto a run for his money. But then again, we all know the outcome, right? Uh huh. I thought Haruto’s fight with Gizelotte would last longer but I was a fool to believe in that and just like that, she got overpowered and lost. Maybe next time? Yeah, Haruto’s pacifist ways to let his enemies live may come back to haunt him in the future. And I thought he was a bit different when he mercilessly killed bandits who tried to mess with his father or family. Oh well, that was before he became a hero of justice. Some stupid unwritten law that heroes aren’t supposed to kill or take lives.

Then there is Tearietta as the mad loli professor obsessed about her research. But yeah, I figure it is still way better than having a middle aged single woman who can’t stop b*tching about not having a man in her life and always getting drunk! I hope Oratoria is not that kind of woman either! Irisphilia is a curious one because the plot twist that she could be the Demon Lord reincarnate. It could all be just a big red herring because remember, she has communication problems so she may not relay her origins that well either. Yeah, it is all just a coincidence. Otherwise as far as this season is concerned, she feels like one of those retarded characters since she is unable to read the atmosphere although she is an honest person. So yeah, now Haruto can have somebody he can truly call a friend or someone who is similar to him. But that would defeat the purpose of him being a hikikomori, right?

That’s right. The irony that he wants to live a solitary life but ends up making more connections and building rapport. Haruto is going to be super famous one day. So it’s like a twisted cruel prank by God to tell him to be more sociable because if he is going to be the same hikikomori like in his previous sh*tty life, might as well stayed in that world. There is no difference of being an overpowered hikikomori in this world! A shut-in is still a shut-in and all that powers bestowed wasted. On a trivial note, seeing this magic level is only 1002, I guess it is safe to say that it is NOT over 9000! HAHAHA!!! And can I call this a harem anime because many of the characters here just want Haruto. The most eligible hikikomori bachelor!

The art and animation are pretty standard. Lots of cute looking guys and especially girls. But the colouring and hues may be a bit light on the side although that doesn’t break anything. But if all that including some of the character designs look a bit familiar, it is because Staple Entertainment did this and their only works so far is Kinsou No Vermeil. Now do you see why Liza looks so familiar because she looks a bit like Cheryl? Or Tearietta resembles Rin. Or Irisphilia could be Elena’s long lost sister.

In the voice acting department, such a pleasant surprise to hear Yuko Goto as Natalia. So has she already reached her quota of voice acting this year? I mean, the only other anime she voiced in was that sleazy fanservice filled guy-turned-doggie anime and even that she only had a cameo as a side character. Not to say Natalia is main character but it feels she had more lines this time. If you’re wondering why Charlotte’s cuteness has been ramped up like 100% more, it is because she is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki who also voiced Anya from Spy x Family. Yeah, now I am seeing shades of Anya in Charlotte because they sound so similar. And cute! Oh hell, are they trying to turn me into a lolicon! While I recognized Ami Koshimizu as Irisphilia, Misaki Kuno as Tearietta, Yuu Kobayashi as Gizelotte (glad to hear that trademark psycho voice of hers) and Yuuko Kaida as Oratoria, the shocking one is Nobuhiko Okamoto as Schneidel. Is that really him?! His character had a lower voice for the most part so it never occurred to me. Even if I went back to listen to his lines again. Only in moments when he was screaming, only then I picked out it was him. Strange.

The other casts are Ayumu Murase as Haruto (Menel in Saihate No Paladin), Ayaka Shimizu as Flay (Misa in Val x Love), Wakana Kuramochi as Liza (Cuff in Shinigami Bocchan To Kuro Maid), Masayuki Katou as Gold (Demiurge in Overlord), Manaka Iwami as Marianne (Mahiru in Otonari No Tenshi-sama Ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen Ni Sareteita Ken), Shinnosuke Tachibana as Laius (Tomoe in Kamisama Hajimemashita), Nobutoshi Canna as Johnny (Lancer in Fate/Stay Night) and Chitose Morinaga as Gigan (Umiko in New Game). The opening theme is Reset Life by Lezel. Weird lively rock piece and it gets even weirder with the opening credits animation having the characters do really chaotic and weird stuffs like, uhm, dancing?! Especially that group walking one. No wonder they’re wagging their fingers after that, “No! No! NOOO!!”. Heh. The ending theme is Himi Chu Pre-love Magic by Star Shiμ’ne, a generic denpa rock song. Cuteness level ramp up as we see chibi animations of Charlotte, Flay and Liza. So I take it, Irisphilia not part of the group? Yet?

Overall, this series is just average and in a way, disappointing. While it is not all that bad because of all the dumb funny illogical and typical isekai clichés from your dumb but lovable cute characters, it obviously doesn’t stand out from the rest of the already oversaturated genre. Making it worse is the unsatisfying abrupt ‘ending’. I haven’t seen such conclusions to a series for a very long time (Gangsta, Mahou Sensou to name a few). Otherwise, I’m pretty numb from all the average isekai animes that I watch in every season WITHOUT FAIL! For some reasons. And will continue to do so for many season to come. Yeah, my loyalty to isekai crap remains strong. So in this context am I actually the strongest? Nah. More like I am actually the dumbest for continuing to fall for this nonsense! :’(.

Eiyuu Kyoushitsu

Long ago, there was a classroom for assassins. And then there was also a classroom for elite children. And then recently there was a classroom to train spies. And now what kind of classrooms do we have? That’s right. Classroom for heroes. At least, that is what Eiyuu Kyoushitsu means. I guess in a world where the Demon Lord and his minions are running rampage, we need a school that creates and hones the skills of future heroes to save mankind. Well, unfortunately this isn’t that kind of series. Sure, training to become heroes but it feels more like the daily antics and shenanigans of these hero wannabes and especially the transfer student who is believed to be the world’s greatest hero enrolling into the academy.

Episode 1
An epic fight between the hero and Demon Lord ended with both sides taking each other out. Now we see Blade as a new transfer student to Rosewood Academy to train heroes. Such an eager beaver, he wants to make friends! So he quickly makes friends with Clay, Kassim, Yessica and Claire. Wow. At this rate, he can achieve his 100 friends goal and more! However, Earnest Flaming is not impressed and thinks he is a cheat since he is here to make friends and not train to be a hero. So she takes him to the headmaster’s office only to learn that the new headmaster is King Gilgamesh himself! Her hatred for Blade increases since Blade acts casually before the king and that Gilgamesh wants to speak with Blade alone. It seems both guys know each other. Although Blade wants to live a normal school life, that won’t do for Gilgamesh as he plans to turn the curriculum upside down and turn Blade into a hero. During training class, Blade continues to make friends so an unimpressed Earnest challenges him to a fight. Safe to say with his Dragon Eater blast whatever, part of the walls get destroyed, some classmates get bruised and yeah, some bits of Earnest’s clothes get torn. There’s your teaser fanservice. So who is he? He claims he is just a normal guy. During lunch, Earnest is forced to eat humble and apologizes for her b*tch attitude while admitting his powers are real. He learns she has no friends because everyone is scared of her. With that cold demeanour, I can see why. In that case, he’ll be her friend. Back home, she seems to be happy she has made her first friend but some curse still haunts her. During another training, she goes all out and to a point she collapses. She wakes up in the infirmary after Blade carried her here. She continues to act tough and warns him to keep whatever was heard in the infirmary a secret. Blade then beats all the security bots and hack into the school’s data to find out more about Earnest’s demonic sword, Asmodeus. So he confronts her again about this secret. Despite giving her a lot of power, she is not its owner. She reveals how the sword tried to take over her body since young when she tried to touch it. She has been on a constant fight to prevent it from claiming ownership of her. Don’t worry, Blade will let her fight Asmodeus and if anything goes wrong, he can defeat it. He has proven himself already, right? And so Earnest summons Asmodeus to fight him. With Blade’s backing, she has the motivation to defeat him. Now that she is free from the curse and smiling, the other students are in shock. Yeah, look how pretty she is! That earnest face is the ticket to earn her more friends! Pun intended!

Episode 2
Sorry Earnest, Blade doesn’t even notice your changed hairstyle. Anyway, she has him watch over Sophie since he is the only person she has reacted to. So as Blade talks to her and when he tries to get training started, class has ended. Should have stopped the talking… Luckily there is time to train her after class. Later as Gilgamesh talks to Blade about having made new friends, with Sophie being the current one, Gilgamesh thinks he did so because he knew of her past. What past? You see, Sophie is actually created from a lab in some artificial hero programme to surpass the hero that is Blade. She is the 12th reincarnation of Sophitia Femto and using the forbidden and lost knowledge, she has been experimented on countless times to manifest the powers of a hero. Gilgamesh has long put an end to that organization but when he found her and took her in, she was still asking for commands. This has Blade rush out to make Sophie get back to her normal life. But WTF, he doesn’t know what normal is! So he goes ask about that. So normal means youth means love means date. Yeah. Got it. Sorry Earnest, he isn’t dating you! WTF Blade barges into the girls’ shower just to ask Sophie to go on a date with him?! Is that an order? No, but it’s important. Okay. And so we see Earnest, Yessica and Claire tail them on this so called date. Blade making a real schedule on what to do but WTF he is panicking because they are behind? Sophie is cooler in leading him. So they do cliché lover stuffs that would definitely make Earnest jealous. Yeah, just calm her down with some sweet treats. At the end of that day, because Blade considers her his friend, she reveals her secret being a test subject to be an artificial hero. She demonstrates her powers to bend the laws of physics but she cannot control them. She can also stop time albeit for only 10 seconds. This makes Blade sad that he too reveals his own past. He blames himself for this curse on her. He claims he got this heroic powers at a young age and thought it could save everyone. However he soon realized he couldn’t save everyone and even got blamed for it. He questioned the meaning of being a hero. Sophie consoles him, even if he didn’t choose to be a hero, he was still one. He did save some hero so he should be proud of that. The same reason why she was created to be an artificial hero and thus she takes pride in that. He promises not to let this past bother him as they both agree to keep this secret just between themselves.

Episode 3
Haven’t you heard? Gilgamesh brought a magical beast to the academy. Don’t look now, this dragon is running amok! And gets knocked down with a single punch by Blade! Everyone is in shock although Blade claims this is normal! In fact, this dragon is just a child and got scared separated from her parents. Soon the dragon transforms into a loli version and starts latching herself onto Blade, calling him her parent. Blade seems receptive of this idea and treating her as his own daughter! So I guess this means bathing with her means nothing. But it means something at least for Ernest. Indecent! She is named Cu Chulainn after some devoted knight. Cu now descends into a bratty child who wants Blade to only see and attend to her. Damn, he agrees?! And when she claims her loli body is enough for him and that he should stop staring at mature adult female bodies, WTF everybody takes this chance to punish Blade as guilty?! WTF?! When Cu sees Blade interacting normally with his friends, this makes her sad. She wanders off to other parts of the academy. Other students invite her to join in but she is reluctant. But of course she is back to normal once Blade picks her up. Later he asks if she wants to make friends so she corrects him about dragons are far sturdier than humans. They live and die alone. Besides, he is the only one she needs. Gilgamesh is the only other guy who can babysit her but Cu doesn’t like his prickly beard so she runs away. Blade has to go find her and sees her playing in her room. Aren’t those dolls supposed to resemble his friends?! What astonishes him is that she has dolls for every student in this academy and knows their names! Oh Blade, you don’t even know them! This makes Blade sad that he hits his head on the wall till it bleeds?! Thank goodness for Earnest stopping him. She finds out what happen as Blade realizes he has not even noticed it. Dragons cannot acknowledge anyone weaker than them as equal. Thus to recognize her as a friend, one must defeat her. He has failed to be one even after defeating her. Uhm, I thought he was the parent? Anyway, it is Earnest’s turn to lecture him about asking for help. He once did it for her and now it’s her turn to repay the favour. Blade and Earnest seek the help of other students to fight Cu. They even prostate themselves. Even their close friends come to do the same. And so the day is here where everybody minus Blade fights Cu. This isn’t unfair for the record. Because do you think it is unfair for bees to fight as a swarm?

Episode 4
Everyone work together to fight Cu. Especially attacking her blind spots. But this is all a distraction so that Leonard can dig a huge hole in which Cu takes the bait and falls into. She tries to fly out but Sophie pins her down with her gravity. Earnest then abuses her sword for power to take down the dragon. It’s easy with everyone lending their power. With Cu defeated, she is sad thinking Blade will abandon her. Of course he won’t do that. More importantly, she asks everyone to be her friend. Will they say no? Of course not. During lunch, Blade notices something different about Earnest. Yeah, she’s fat! OMG! The rest try to hint to him not to say it but he didn’t get the message. And so, poor Earnest runs away in tears. Yup, this one is on Blade. Guilty. The gang go to talk to her as she locks herself in her room. But what do they see? Earnest eating more snacks?! So this is the culprit. Turns out she got very hungry after her fight with Cu and couldn’t stop eating. Oh Blade, don’t shrug off everything after you find out that you’re still friends with her. Time for Blade to once again extend his hand to help her. That’s right. It’s training time to lose those fats. Oh wow. Earnest really struggling in her training. When she weighs herself, the machine broke! In fact, her weight goes up! HOW THE F*CK?! The only method left is to summon Asmodeus and burn off all those fats. Yeah, so sorry that the most badass fire demon is reduced to fight the enemy known as fats. It works but now Earnest is hungry as she goes out of control. Her friends looking pretty tasty… Luckily Blade stops her with his, uhm, blade. Wind version whatever. Ah there it is, Earnest back to her sexy hot body. But soon the same problem because now she’s back to being fat after continuing to eat more snacks in her room. Don’t worry, she can always burn it off, right?!

Episode 5
Maria who is a night demon seeks a favour from Blade: She wants him to kill her! Of course as she explains, there is a very powerful magic beast inside her and she has a hard time suppressing it. She feels it is going to come out anytime and wreak havoc. Aside Blade, everyone is eager to help her. In the arena, Maria dislodges all her limiters that keeps this magic beast in check. Then she turns into the Demon Lord! Everybody attacks her and if Earnest in her Asmodeus mode can’t do the job, you think the rest could? Even Blade is having a hard time and his sword broke. Until Earnest lends hers and he is able to draw out an awesome power that surprises and puts the Demon Lord in her place. Whole place destroyed but no casualties. Blade is okay but the nurse is so worried about him since he promised not to be reckless with his power as it could cost him his life. The Demon Lord AKA Mao is now a student at school. She knows Blade’s identity as a hero but will keep it a secret for his sake. Gilgamesh soon reveals Maria’s mother is human and has long died. Her father’s fate is currently unknown but now they know his identity and he is the previous Demon Lord. Woah. How did a human and magic beats bang to get a child?! With Mao taking over, there is a possibility that Maria will never return. That night, Mao forces Blade to date her since she shows great interest in him. She admits that she is attracted to him, the reason she is staying here (to also test this hypothesis of falling in love) and offers him to be her mate. They then talk about Maria who is still hiding in the recess of her mind. Mao can tell dark shadows are forming all over her heart. Maria has always blamed herself for all the misfortune. And when mom died, she started doubting if father ever loved mom and if he was the cause of her suffering. So to escape that painful thought, Mao was born. Mao is telling this to Blade as he is closer to their kind than humans. Maria’s friend, Eliza claims the pendant isn’t a sealing item. How convenient she analyses it to be some memory keepsake. It is warned that activating it may make Mao disappear, something she is okay with. So they play the pendant, a recording of the Demon Lord claiming he must leave his wife (who was currently pregnant with Maria) to face a fated foe. He allowed her to hate him for this as he did not wish for her to follow him down this bloodied path. In the end, he loved them both as much. This touching recording has Maria come out and take back her body. But in the aftermath, Mao still exists so they take turns coming out as Maria wants a future where they both exist. Now Mao can happily fight with Blade all she wants.

Episode 6
Noticing a centaur, Dione stuck with a huge load, it seems Blade knows her. Almost giving his identity away, Blade has to constantly remind her not to. She is here because Gilgamesh has assigned her to be a new instructor at Rosewood. During practice, Dione shows her chops by easily breaking through iron blacks with her spear and even melting them. Of course, almost giving her relationship with Blade away. As some of the girls are suspicious, during bath time they make Dione spill the beans. She recounts first meeting Blade when he was 5 years old. That time, he was like a wild beast who couldn’t speak. He bit her ass and the mark is still there! Although she joined Blade’s party, he forbade her to fight along his side against the Demon Lord. She thought she was weak and underwent lots of training until today. In town, a pair of huge sacred birds known as simurgh hover across the kingdom. They don’t attack humans but did Earnest jinx it because one attacked a carriage before flying off! They go talk to Gilgamesh and true enough, this idiot is the one behind it. The cargo that Dione was transporting was a simurgh’s egg! That explains the simurgh’s anger. Before you accuse him of stealing it, he explains that the simurgh eggs need a couple of conditions to be hatched. A certain height and direct sunset light. However its parents were poor in making the nest so he wants to help them hatch. Which is due tomorrow. This means, Blade and his pals have to keep the parents busy until the eggs is hatch. So we see everyone doing whatever they can to keep the big birds at bay. Until it is evening when the hoist to the top of the castle is broken. Everyone gives Blade the green light to take it to the top while they continue to hold back the simurgh. Blade is able to get it to the top with the help of riding on Dione’s back. A third simurgh pops up as it is Gilgamesh’s turn to repay the favour. It is revealed a simurgh saved his life and that is why he went through all this trouble. Too bad he got flicked away. Thanks to Sophie’s time stopping ability, this is enough time for Blade to save the egg from toppling. In the end, a pair of simurgh twins hatch. Oh dear, are they imprinting Blade and Sophie as parents?! Well, Blade has more kids now! More importantly, more friends as the baby simurgh lets him ride freely in the sky.

Episode 7
Oh my. What’s this?! Blade turned into a serial killer and killing off everybody?! Sophie is the last one standing in his way but her skills too weren’t enough as he kills her off. Of course this all turns out to be a new virtual reality training simulation courtesy from Gilgamesh. He adds an incentive for whoever is the last one standing, gets the right to use this machine as they want. Oh wow, Earnest turning into a killer as she overkills Leonard! Is this her true colours?! Final confrontation with Blade, she still loses. While Gilgamesh revels in this brilliant idea of his, Blade turns up the difficulty of this machine and then has Gilgamesh fight all the monsters and traps. Yes, he respawns when he dies too. Welcome to hell. As the students rest, it seems Clay and Kassim are down. That’s because they lost to Yessica and Claire. There’s a first for everything. Hotspring shenanigans because it’s a mixed bath because Gilgamesh allows it. This guy doesn’t even bat an eyelid to claim he wants to see naked girls or at least in their swimsuits. Hey, he is king and can do whatever he wants. He even rallies the guys to do it. Earnest who has been hiding behind her towel is forced to show off her swimsuit. Don’t worry, Blade doesn’t seem that interested. Are you gay, Blade?! Clay and Kassim still down. Fun ruined? Later Blade talks to them about the big issue over losing to girls. As you would have guessed, they are in love with their counterparts. Blade didn’t get the hint because he also notes he loves everybody. Cu invites herself to offer her 2 cents worth of opinion. Want to get girls to like you? Get stronger! Blade can train them! Meanwhile the girls are discussing about this too and feel bad about making the guys so. Should they pretend to lose next time? No, that will be worse. Oh, look who is here to offer her advice? Yup, Cu telling them to get stronger because guys love strong girls! We see Clay and Kassim under tough training from Blade. On the day they fight again, the guys vow if they win, they will confess. At first, the guys are going great guns and it looks like Blade’s training has paid off. But in the end, the girls are still better and defeats them fair and square. The guys are feeling better this time and thanks them for not going easy on them. While they made up, it seems Earnest can’t take this sh*t and lectures them about the need to be stronger just to confess. Because she can’t accept this! So, she’s talking about her own predicament?! I bet it is!

Episode 8
The girls find a strange robot around. Then when they show it to Blade, he instantly destroys it! He warns them this is a Guardian and there’s no telling when it will go berserk. Furthermore, one cannot easily destroy it. True enough, it returns the next day. But as a hot android chick? Still. Blade destroys her. But as expected, she is back. This android nicknamed Iona has a mission to destroy Blade although she is in observation mode for now. Claire then invites her to join them because everybody here wants to defeat Blade! And so we see the Blade suppression committee as Iona discloses how Blade forcefully infiltrated her intimate zone and desecrate her body repeatedly. That’s an ambiguous way of saying he infiltrated a forbidden zone. Blade did trespass the forbidden underground library but it was to do research on Earnest’s case of Asmodeus. With everyone blaming Blade, he leaves pouting, thinking nobody appreciates his effort. He was just trying to help and after all, it’s not like one can easily destroy a Guardian because its soul is kept in a separate location. As Iona explains she took a form of a girl because Blade goes easy on her, Eliza has a suggestion. Put her soul back in this body. If Blade knows that, he will not easily destroy her. And so during their fight, Iona tells Blade about this. She has severed ties with Mother and is operating independently. To destroy her means to kill her permanently. Iona goes on the offensive as Blade takes a beating. She notes he is defeated because his moves are too strong. It is also because she didn’t give him any chance to use less powerful moves. With Blade surrendering, everyone cheers over this victory.

However as Iona joins them, they note something is wrong. It seems despite her victory over Blade, as a Guardian she is supposed to receive new orders from Mother. Without one, she will go berserk of self-destruct. Because Iona has detached herself from Mother, she was deemed ineffective and there is a counter counting down to her self-destruction. The only way is for her to take on a new master. That’s you Blade. And just like that he becomes Iona’s new master. But all this doesn’t sit well with Sophie. She is jealous Iona is her overlapping character. Even more so, Blade gives orders to Iona but not her? And so it becomes a challenge to see who is worthy of Blade’s orders. Yes, strange and dumb challenges like a staring contest and even watching him go to sleep?! So as he sleeps, the duo talk about how they were always alone except for Blade who gave them his attention. He was always there for them. Ironically, they bonded over this. But soon, Blade notices something still wrong. He has Iona show her counter and damn, it is still ticking. Being her master only slowed down the countdown by a tenth. She will still self-destruct. When asks what she wants, she wants to be with them till her last moments. And so as she forms a barrier, she gives her last speech to each of the girls. Now it’s time to explode. Iona feels scared and doesn’t want to die. A teary and emotional scene from everyone vowing not to forget her. But the explosion didn’t come. Blade arrives at this party explaining he went to see Mother about it. He managed to change her mind after using a bit of force. Yeah. Even computers are scared of him now. With Iona linked back to the system, she is now free to continue existing. Iona then breaks down with full emotion, hugging her master. Will Earnest allow this moment? As long as it doesn’t take too long… Any time now…

Episode 9
Once again, everybody loses to Blade. Somehow Leonard is the last one standing. Can he be the one to defeat him? Yup, a fool to put your hopes on him because he too easily loses. So as Leonard ponders about all this, Maria talks to him on the same topic. Eventually they agree to try and take Blade down. However this won’t do for Eliza because ideals are one thing but they need to brainstorm to actually see what needs to be done. And so everyone minus Blade gathers in this committee meeting to take down Blade. We see everyone taking turns with their ideas to defeat Blade but they’re all defeated. Mostly for the dumbest reasons. With so many meetings come and go, we’re wondering if such is even effective. Oh yeah, Earnest getting desperate to take that f*cking overpowered Blade down! Even if Leonard frowns upon the idea of taking hostage (because from Iona’s case, he gave up when her life was on the line), damn Earnest is going through with it! So during class, the guys masquerade themselves as terrorists to take the teacher hostage. Because she is looking cool at that role, all the other girls fight to be the hostage. Well, the teacher lets all of them be the hostage. So will now Blade give up? Apparently he doesn’t even know the meaning of terrorists and hostage! Yeah, incorrect interpretations by Cu has Blade even more confused. Politics. Violence. Non-perishable food. Yeah. I’m confused too! So when Leonard gets really serious in cutting Earnest, all Blade need to do is swing his sword and his force disarms (and unclothes) the ‘terrorists’. Last desperate attempt as everyone gangs up to fight him. We all know the outcome. Yup, Blade easily beats everyone again. Now he thinks this terrorist is some pretend game. Can we play it again? NOOOO MOOOOORE!!!!!!!!

Episode 10
Looks like Blade doesn’t even know what a birthday is. The girls talk to Dione and learn that nobody knows Blade’s true age. As he was taken in 17 years ago, they assumed that is his first year. Also, he is named so because he was holding a sword. Imagine if he was holding something else… As they ponder what they should get him for his birthday, Gilgamesh suggests a special royal tonkatsu curry. Also, to help with their training, the whole gang is taken underground to the royal pantry. Uhm, there is a whole new wilderness and ecosystem down here! So basically they have to hunt for food and won’t leave until they hit the mark of consuming a total of 1.13 billion calories! Holy sh*t! And so this series becomes Toriko as everyone dons their loincloth and start the hunt for strange beasts. One night, Earnest tries to ask Blade about his past. He can’t remember much except that he was fighting for survival, the reason why he became stronger. Just when it looked like a romantic moment for her to confess, Claire won’t allow this indecency. HUH?! With everyone’s survival going well, Gilgamesh adds another quest for everyone. It seems they have to hunt specific ingredients and everyone is up to the challenge. Is it me or do these plants they hunt are rejected plant designs from Plans Vs Zombies?! On the final day, they are faced off with the super huge behemoth. Might sound tough and all until Gilgamesh says its meat is super delicious. Yeah. Bring that beast down! Everybody cooperate to take it down but eventually Blade and Mao combining their great technique to defeat it. A huge success. Blade is tired and hungry! In the aftermath, Blade is surprised the nurse tells him that his strength has increased. Proper exercise and dieting, huh? Blade then gets a birthday surprise by the rest. Then he is ushered in to eat the curry dish they made. At first he feels weird out for this but as he eats it, he is trying to contain his tears. A man can’t cry? Gilgamesh even had to pull back his decree of that so that he could shed some tears. Make that lots of tears. For once, Blade feels like he is truly been born in this world. Best food he has ever eaten.

Episode 11
You thought Sophie was going to use the new move she learnt but she is trying to kill Blade?! The real Sophie shows up to protect her as her imposter escapes. It seems there are 5 of them. Une, Deux, Trois, Quatre and Cinq. Each with different personalities as all claim Une failed her mission to kill Blade although she claims it was a scouting mission. On another training day, Deux now shows up to kill Blade in which he accepts this challenge. Since she can’t kill him, she seduces him instead to kill her. Real Sophie shows up mad but then Deux escapes. Later as everybody discusses about it, it makes Sophie surprised that they realize too late that there are assassins after Blade’s life. I don’t think they’re worried too. Seeing how strong Blade is, right? As the clones ponder their next move to kill Blade, they are summoned by their zombie professor and reminded of their mission to kill Blade. Only then it proves the validity of their research to clone an artificial hero. That night, Sophie faces off with Une outside the dorm. Une claims they cannot disobey orders despite Sophie warning them all of them are failed subjects. Because they are not as ultimate as Sophie, they have shorter lifespans. A short skirmish in which Sophie wins. So I guess finish the fight in another time? Blade and co now stumble into the violent but child-like Cinq. She accidentally reveals everything before beating Blade to death. Seems it was all part of the plan to lure her into the virtual world to trick her into killing Blade. Too bad she found out and now she’s mad. Destroy! She is also joined by Quatre who is another violent psycho. Not sure how the other students can help to stall them because isn’t it in the end Blade is the one who has to protect them? Quatre and Cinq then use their ultimate power to create a black hole. Sophie manages to absorb it. With both sides out, looks like they’re going to have this rematch another time. Not again! That night as Sophie recuperates in the infirmary, Blade hears her out about this artificial hero programme. Unlike Sophie who was rescued by Gilgamesh, she laments her sister clones did not have that luxury. She gets emotional to think their only sole purpose is to kill Blade. Here’s a Blade hug. Feel better? Yeah well, that night Sophie slips out and Blade must be sleeping on the job to not even know she is gone!

Episode 12
Everybody is in shock as they demand an explanation about Sophie’s dropout. Well, as Gilgamesh puts it, it is her decision. She even put it in writing. Obviously everybody wants to bring her back but Gilgamesh reminds them the reason Sophie did this is not to get them involved. Because the only way for Sophie to stop her sisters is to kill them. Otherwise they will continue to stop at nothing to achieve their mission. Even so, the answer is obvious. Yes, Blade and co are going to find Sophie. Sophie is trying to locate her sisters’ hideout but to no avail. This is when her friends arrive and Sophie tells the truth about her origins. Although the research has long been abandoned, someone stole the data and its samples and continued on his own. He continued to incubate them and gave them orders to stop at nothing until they kill the hero. If that is the case, why are they after Blade’s life then? Yeah, how nice of them to think if they can’t kill Blade, they are not worthy to kill the hero! Okay, we’ll go with that. Sophie thinks she has had her fun with them and now it’s time to settle things. Obviously they won’t let her have this narrow way of thinking. Blade has not plan but Eliza sure would. For some reason, the challenge letter for the sisters reached their base?! How the f*ck they know where it is?! And so the quintet take up the challenge to fight and kill Blade at the school’s arena. This is just a distraction for Blade to fight them until they wear out their energy. Eliza believes the mastermind is giving them orders from nearby and when his girls lose energy, he’ll make his appearance. They will then arrest him and force him to reprogram their parameters so they won’t die. Wow. That simple. But easier said than done as Blade has to fight 5 sisters who are really hell bent on killing him. His friends promise not to get involved but they do throw him some gear to boost his weapon or skill when the time calls for it. This allows Blade to tire them all out. When the last one goes out, it is revealed that their lifespan will only last till today’s sunset. Which is now! I don’t even know how Eliza found where the mastermind is but he is already dead. WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED! He has died a long time ago, way before the sisters awakened. Yeah, Eliza cursing himself for not being a genius enough. Science has its limits! But don’t worry. Sophie has an idea. With Blade’s help, the sisters’ mind and soul enter Sophie. In the aftermath, all of them live but in the same body as Sophie. So take turns to speak. Now we see everybody fighting a monster as part of their training. As expected, nobody could beat it except Blade. Easy as pie. Don’t you just want to kill this monster?

The Misfit Of Great Hero Academy
I don’t know, the final felt a bit rushed, trying to give Sophie and her sisters some sort of closure and happy ending. Whatever it is, it is a happy ending and status quo, right? Nobody really dies and Sophie’s French sisters get to technically live. I suppose their researcher is French because of the way he numbers them, right?! And if he was already dead a long time ago, whose voice was it that spoke to the girls?! Don’t tell me it’s a tape recorder! Or maybe the sisters have some sort of weird bug in their programme and hear voices in their head! Whatever. Don’t want to explore that any further. With the sisters inhibiting Sophie, at least this saves space and energy. Imagine having to copy and paste 5 more Sophie in the future! Goodness gracious.

Initially I have no idea how to story is going to turn out. But if my guts were right based on the synopsis that I read, it was going to be somewhat like standalone episodes. And how true it was. There is a good and bad side to such. While it doesn’t have a very complex or complicating plot in which viewers are forced to remember and strain their brains to think (people have such short attention span these days), however with many of the episodes feel like filler episodes, it makes the whole series somewhat incoherent. Therefore it is not clear where the direction of the series is heading save for the fact that it is about Blade having fun in his high school days and making new friends. Doesn’t that all sound pretty boring? Even more so, Blade is overpowered as f*ck and this isn’t even isekai to begin with! Or is it?!

The one thing that made me feel weird was how many of the jokes felt somewhat cartoonish and close to being amateurish. For example, when Earnest was tailing Blade and Sophie on their ‘date’, the punchline reaction for the joke is for Earnest to become a human rocket and blast off into the sky complete with vapour trail smoke. I understand they were trying to pull off that punchline reaction as a joke. However they couldn’t do it in a better way and that just felt more like a whole lot of cringe instead. At least that is how I feel about it. Hence in many of such instances, those kinds of reactions have that sort of feel and obviously I’m not very impressed. Joke of the scene is one thing, but the reaction to it killed it and fell flat. Some scenes even left my hair stood on ends!

Now that the series lacks any proper plot, then the burden of making it interesting falls on the characters, right? Unfortunately, not really. I have seen so many animes throughout the years and it is going to take a lot more than this to actually heap praises on it. In short, they are mainly boring and cliché. Take our main character Blade for instance. Overpowered and has a shady past. Shady as in an unknown factor. So the only way to ‘reward’ a hero for his services in defeating the Demon Lord, is to have him attending something that he has missed out on what many people his age normally do: Attend high school. Ah yes. Youth. Therefore an entire series which is solely about Blade trying to make friends and rivals because that is the stuffs that high school students do, no? My conspiracy theory is that everybody actually knows he is the hero and just playing along because they want to continue to be his friend. Because they actually couldn’t be this dumb not to realize it all, right? OR COULD THEY?! In that case if they’re too dumb to actually realize that, they’re not capable enough to go fight the Demon Lord! Geez, no wonder everybody still struggling with whatever weird monsters Gilgamesh brings in for training!

They also make him look like a retard because there are some ordinary stuffs he doesn’t understand. Yeah, makes him look all so innocent, doesn’t it? That is why he is compensated for that lacking area in power and strength. Nobody can best him and that becomes some sort of a running joke for his fellow friends to challenge this superorganism to try and beat him but the script says they must lose. Even under special circumstances in which Blade ‘loses’, he didn’t really lose but was forced into admitting it. Just a paper loss in my perspective. He doesn’t even struggle and that’s why we don’t even relate to him. Boring. Not even his past is fully fleshed out and having said so, it must be as boring as f*ck as he was pluck from the wilderness and trained to be civilized, HUH?! And to think he got his name because of a certain weapon he was seen carrying at first. Imagine if he was holding a dildo… Yikes!

The other supporting characters especially Blade’s circle of friends are also boring and unimaginative. I believe it serves to tick off the checklist of this harem genre. Isn’t this a harem theme?! Doesn’t Blade’s girls come from all walks of life. From humans to a clone to a dragon to a demon and even a robot? Variety is the spice of life, they say. Each of them are given an episode in focus in which they will have some sort of problem or insecurities. Somehow they can’t solve it on their own and Blade has to intervene. It gets solved and now Blade is officially friends with them and part of his groupie. A big chunk of the series feels like that. From Earnest’s cursed possession of Asmodeus to Sophie being an artificial hero to Cu wanting to acknowledge to have friends to shy Mao and her split personality to Iona needing a new master to serve.

Earnest is supposed to be the main heroine (based on my guts) but she is rather forgettable and felt more like a minor background character. I have a feeling they don’t want to make the whole thing cheesy by playing up the harem clichés. But because of that, the whole thing felt boring and for Earnest who obviously has a crush on Blade, did nothing more to pursue that interest. Not sure out of embarrassment or fear of rejection, it led to her being a forgettable character. Even poker face Sophie too. But at least the final arc puts her back in the spotlight with the appearance of her clone sisters. Then there is Cu who is the most annoying character because of her selfishness. True, she is a child but she is really at her own pace and acts more like a spoilt brat and daddy Blade often complies with it. Oh yeah, she acts a bit like a retard too. But we give her a free pass because she is loli cute, right? Iona’s deadpan looks that overlaps with Sophie gives her the right to post deadpan jokes and some are naughty ones. Don’t we all love our own sex doll? Oops, I mean cute android girl.

Claire and Yessica exist only because of Kassim and Clay, right? Or is it vice versa? But I guess it is better than Leonard who is more often a punching bag. This Earnest loyalist only serves that role and be a loser so that every time he gets owned, it is all for laughs. That’s much ado about him. Eliza is the only one in the group I feel the odd one out because she doesn’t get her own focused episode like the rest. One day, suddenly she is there among the groupie and she’s supposed to be the brains of the group but I just don’t feel it that way. Just that everybody else don’t really bother to plan and think and that’s why she looks like a smart girl. She and Maria are the only ones wearing glasses after all. There are a bunch of other students in the special advanced hero class (you can tell the difference if they are wearing personalized outfits or the standard school uniform). However they don’t do much except to prop up the numbers in this class and they look more like cosplay weirdoes. Or as I would say, rejected character designs of fighting games! Gilgamesh instead of being a scary headmaster, he is your idiotic character instead. Like many glorious heroes of the past, now he is of a joker role and sometimes exacerbates the students’ problems with weird brutal trainings. Well, he is the headmaster of his own school and can laugh in a silly matter and nobody can say anything.

There is a tiny bit wee of fanservice here and it is mainly when some super powerful move is executed, to show how ‘devastating’ its effects are, parts (or all) of the students’ clothes will be ripped or blown to bits. Yeah, I wonder how many more of the same clothes Earnest has in her closet. Like as though those torn bits of clothing and showing a few skin would turn us horny veterans on. Pfft. Even Cu’s non-existent boobs makes her look weird than anything stimulating. Oh well, I guess we have the curvaceous and scantily clad Yessica, Mao and to a certain extent Iona for better fanservice. Gee, thanks?

Art and animation feel quite mediocre. In many scenes, the animation quality would feel sketchy and somewhat rough. This is perhaps one reason why I said earlier on some of the punchline reactions look amateurish. The character designs are pretty basic and looking very much standard. Some characters look strange especially those minor background characters in the special advanced class and Cu to a certain extent looking cartoonish. Adding to that effect even more is her bratty behaviour. Even the overall colouring and hues are somewhat light. It’s like they’re trying to save budget on the colouring department. This anime is done by Actas who did the Girls Und Panzer series and the Princess Principal series and movies.

For the voice acting, it’s great to hear Rikiya Koyama back again after a long absence. At least, I didn’t watch the animes he voiced in for quite a while. As Gilgamesh, he is still recognizable. Unfortunately I didn’t pick up Nao Touyama as Sophie since she was so deadpan and not in her usual chirpy trademark voice I often identify her with. If Cu’s voice sounds annoying, she is played by Hina Kino who also voiced bratty character loli characters like Alas Ramus in Hataraku Maou-sama S2 and Fa in RPG Fudousan. Now I know why the annoyance is so similar. I thought Misaki Kuno would be fine voicing this character too but oh well…

I don’t recognize any of the other casts which are Reiji Kawashima as Blade (Finn in Mashle), Misuzu Yamada as Earnest (Koushi in Megami-ryou No Ryoubou-kun), Sarah Emi Bridcutt as Mao/Maria (Yuzuru in Date A Live), Aya Uchida as Iona (Kotori in Love Live), Konomi Kohara as Eliza (Chika in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Shizuka Ishigami as Dione (Mito in Shokugeki No Souma), Eri Yukimura as Claire (Emma in Kouya No Kotobuki Hikoutai), Haruka Shiraishi as Yessica (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy), Shuuichi Uchida as Clay (Terafune in Fuufu Ijou Koibito Miman), Tomohiro Oono as Kassim (Makoto in Tomodachi Game), Tomohito Takatsuka as Leonard (Roderich in Hachi-nan Tte Sore Wa Nai Deshou), Kanna nakamura as Une (Urushi in Sore Demo Ayumu Wa Yosetekuru), Natsumi Takamura as Deux (Raiha in Go-toubun No Hanayome), Yoshino Aoyama as Trois (titular character in Bocchi The Rock), Saya Aizawa as Quatre (Castiella in Strike The Blood) and Nene Hieda as Cinq (Misa in Maou Gakuin No Futekigousha).

The opening theme is Bravery Naturally by Kaede Higuchi. Rock piece tries to sound edgy and dramatic but ended up sounding pretty generic to me. Yup, not really impressed. The ending theme is Another Self by Akane Kumada and is another rock piece although it is not as edgy and dramatic as the opener and is more moderate. But still generic and yes, not really impressed with it either.

Overall, this is a rather boring and disappointing series. Part of the huge pile of garbage that the industry churns out every season and forgettable when the next season arrives. There is no real story here and the characters are just mediocre. As I have read, one pointed out this series is just a glorified showcase of an elite classroom for chuunibyou! May I further add that all this could one be big mental asylum because all the characters we have seen are just freaking weird in their ways. I mean, the Demon Lord has been defeated, why do they even have a hero academy?! Sure, to prepare for that return in the future but the way I see it, looks like everybody here is having their second or extended childhood, having fun being high school kids again. If these people are released back into the wild, I’m sure it is the start of mankind’s doom! Don’t count on them if you want these heroes to save the world, let alone the anime industry! We don’t need heroes. We need a miracle at this point!

Genjitsu No Yohane: Sunshine In The Mirror

At this point, I have resigned to the fact that the Love Live franchise isn’t going to die. Why am I even concerned since I’m not a huge big fan? Yeah, got to keep milking dry those fans and keep them cheering on forever these idols of yesteryears! Heh. So while the Nijigasaki team is still relevant today and the Superstar franchise going to have an unprecedented third anime season, what about the old ones? Like Aqours? Still remember them? Are they still around? Yeah. Now they are. But instead of making the boring story of down to earth plot of saving their school or any other realistic narrative, the only way to spice things up is to turn the whole thing into fantasy! You mean like taking those idol girls and giving them fantasy roleplaying roles? Yup. But how? Oh yeah. If you remember in Aqours, we had a member who is highly delusional AKA chuunibyou. Ah yes. So it’s the perfect excuse to create a spinoff via fantasy theme using the Aqours name. And so here we are, Genjitsu No Yohane: Sunshine In The Mirror focuses on our chuunibyou girl as she returns to her hometown after failing to make it big in the city. Of course with the support of her friends, she’ll slowly realize the meaning of life and get back on her feet. And yes, some magic!

Episode 1
Yohane attends an audition. Even telling her big dreams in the city of Tokai. Well, she failed! Then she gets a call from mom. Forgot her birthday is today, huh? Yohane requests to send some money but mom rejects her and reminds her why she left her town 2 years ago. It was to become some big star, right? And how is that coming along? Yeah… Mom then wants her to come back because she needs to leave for some work. Yeah, Yohane has to take care of the house! This will be perfect chance for her to think about her future. And so Yohane reluctantly makes her way back to her little town of Numazu. She’s mad nobody welcomes her back? Hey, you’re a nobody! Only her talking dog, Lailaps welcome her back. Lailaps knows she doesn’t want to come back here. Yes, she admits to it since she has no good memories of the place nor friends. So is Lailaps not her friend? Well, she considers this guardian doggy as her sister. How sweet. So as they go around town, many recognizes Lailaps but not Yohane. Yeah, who are you? Except for Hanamaru. Suddenly a strange eerie vibration rocks the place. Hanamaru explains nobody knows why it keeps happening and it seems that has affected their fruit harvesting too. But everyone decides to stay positive and carry on. Yohane goes off as Lailaps wonders if she should’ve talked more with Hanamaru. As Yohane is indifferent, Lailaps notes why she left Numazu in the first place since it has nothing for it. Yohane has no intentions of staying and doing some small time job here. Sad. Lailaps brings her to a huge tree stump in the forest. Remember this place where she used to sing and dance? She always looked like she was having fun. This makes Yohane even sadder as she starts to realize herself as a failure. Hanamaru disagrees because she often watched Yohane singing and dancing and it gave her the motivation to go into baking that she loves. She wants to see her sing and dance again. Time for Yohane to put on her idol worthy performance. Once that is done, it must have been so magical that a wand pops up for her! Happy Hanamaru gives her some sweets as thanks. Lailaps notes that Yohane has also enjoyed talking with Hanamaru and she should be more honest with herself. Yohane herself admits she has not felt this enjoyment for a long time and it makes her happy. So she thinks her talents are finally blooming? Lailaps thinks she barely passed. Yohane can’t use any magic but she can still scare Lailaps with her phobia of bugs!

Episode 2
Since it’s boring, Yohane wants to leave. Lailaps: Do you have money? Okay then, time to work. And so Yohane becomes a fortune teller. Still waiting for her first customer… Then a few kids come by to ask help find their lost ball. Not paying? No service! Next is Hanamaru. I guess Yohane doesn’t want to entertain her so she closes the shop. That’s good too because Hanamaru wants to bring her to meet a few people! So Yohane meets Chika who works at an inn and Dia who is the boss of Numazu’s admin bureau. At the end of the day, Yohane is unsure if she can handle so many people. Then she notices Hanamaru making lots of money from selling her sweets. Hanamaru says that working isn’t all just about money. Yohane is now torn about everything. Should she leave town with nothing? Obviously not because that won’t feel right. Yohane is soon happy as she gets her first real customer. Riko is a zoologist and wants to ask some questions about some animals. So as Yohane gets ready her stuffs, yeah, pretty impressive ‘magic’ setup. All for show. But as Yohane figures out about Riko, all her answers are wrong! Even getting today’s weather wrong too! Oh my, is she a scam. Riko would love to leave now but spots Lailaps. She wants to research this animal and will pay any amount. Tempting at first but eventually Yohane won’t sell her partner to her. Riko apologizes for her rudeness when those kids return with some money. Still not enough to help them find the lost ball? And when other townspeople seek Yohane’s help, oh well, can she turn them down. So yeah, Yohane is now an errand girl, doing everything at their request. In the midst of it, finding those kids’ lost ball. At the end of the day, Yohane seems fulfilled as she thanks Hanamaru for introducing her to other people and listening to her song. That night, not sure why Yohane is wandering around in the woods. Didn’t Dia warn about not doing so because of dangerous creatures? Unless she wasn’t listening. Mysterious fog envelopes the place as Yohane gets trapped. WTF who these strange people coming to her rescue?! Million Dollar who?!

Episode 3
Yeah well, Million Dollar is Chika and her sisters from the inn. After freeing Yohane, they confide in their boss (their mom) about what to do with those monster deer. As the deer are innocent and under some evil influence, they must not hurt it. Meanwhile Dia has received the same reports so she and her fairy sister, Ruby make sortie. Is she some kamen rider? Dia also kicks ass but it seems Chika is not her ally as both have differing views on how to solve this. They would’ve continued to be loggerheads had not Yohane tell them they should be working together. They put aside their differences and we can see the miracle in teamwork as they save the day. Or night. Everyone thanks Yohane for her help as Dia continues explaining that she knows something is happening in Numazu but the people have ignored their warnings. That is why the bureau is trying to tackle this from the shadows. As for Yohane’s power that she derives from the staff, since she too is unsure about it, they suggest to go see the Demon Lord of Warshimer Island. So they head to this underwater fantasy and meet the Demon Lord who is no other than Mari. It seems she is not fond of being called so. Asking about the staff’s powers, Mari believes that power is her resonance. She might be able to save Numazu. Though, Yohane is sceptical about that. Yohane hopes the town will be peaceful as she plans to stay here longer. However Mari has already noticed and could hear Numazu screaming but yet the people hasn’t noticed it. Perhaps those who can hear are children and animals. According to the legend, this world was once flowing with heart but it began to stagnate and that’s when the dark powers start to grow. This will eventually bring calamity to the land. Yohane wonders why Mari can’t save Numazu herself. She attributes her weird appearance but Mari doesn’t think so. Those horns make her look cute and after talking to her, she knows she’s a good person. Wow. Such kind words. Mari sends her off with a gift. Lailaps praises Yohane for making friends (with a Demon Lord nevertheless!) but Yohane can’t help notice her being lonely.

Episode 4
You is here to deliver a letter for Yohane. It’s from mom. Figured out the answer to her homework yet? Oops! She forgot! For some reason, You has Yohane help deliver her mails. You’re getting someone unauthorized to do your job?! Is this even legal?! Oh heck, as long as they have fun. Part of the fun is taking a pair of makeshift wings as they fly to Kanan’s island home to deliver the mail. Yeah, got to do it in style. They also meet Tonosama who is a mechanical frog made by Kanan and a very intelligent AI. As Kanan is the recycling queen, she collects junks to be recycled. She receives the letter from kids wanting to repair the swing at the park which has broken down. So everybody gets down there to fix it but Yohane is screwing up a lot. Obviously she’s having some confidence issues so Kanan put it this way. Look to the future. Don’t see a rundown swing. Envision the kids having a good time playing on it and thus it makes you glad you work hard to fix it. In the end, it is fixed and everyone is happy. Yohane hopes to find the answer to the homework but everyone wants to chill first. WTF Yohane dives straight into the sea?! Yeah, cue for their music video. Now Yohane feels at home and really loves Numazu. Just don’t forget these feelings.

Episode 5
Yohane goes to see Mari again who then shows her an old book handed down by generations. Can’t read the language. It mentions about the fate of this town but I guess it is all cryptic language and something to do about resonance. When Mari learns about the symbols on Yohane’s staff (more pops up the more friends she makes), this makes Mari sad. Something about she swore never to go back to that town again after leaving as a child. When she gets anxious she can hear those awful sounds of the people. Yohane leaves also sad because she can’t find a way to help her. Yohane then sees Dia who has received many warnings from Mari before any bad incident happens. Dia wanted to see Mari but was always refused. She will try to help her as much as possible. Yohane then talks about this with Kanan, You and Ruby about being different. Ruby can relate since as a fairy she was scared at first but after taking that first step, she wasn’t anymore. Yohane returns to talk to Mari again but she asserts she doesn’t need friends. Yohane doesn’t like the sad way she talks and assumes things. Stubborn Mari stays adamant to be alone forever until Yohane talks about herself being in the same shoes until she starts making friends. Then everything started changing for the better. Mari remembers always crying because she could hear thoughts. But father told her to use that power to help those in need. Mari decides to believe in Yohane and follow her through town. Still nervous as her horns attract attention, but with Yohane around, she gets by. But soon it gets too overwhelming for Mari as she could sense and hear all their stares and voices. Yohane then tells her to close her eyes. Then open them again and the whole world will be different. She does so and now she sees everyone being amazed with her. Everyone is also grateful about her warnings as Mari puts up the nicest smile ever. So she can smile like that too. After meeting with Dia, Yohane brings Mari to her tree stump. She is about to sing for her when lightning strikes! So God doesn’t want her to sing?!

Episode 6
The girls start screaming. Oh wait. It’s just Riko. Damn, they scared each other. Anyway, she is investigating the strange behaviours of animals in Numazu since they are more sensitive to humans. Too bad she can only speculate. Including if this resonance thingy is the cause. Marin explains a little about such in the legends that has happened numerous times. This could be another one of this incidences. They head to Dia to find out more about the town’s history. Dia praises Riko for her research but still scolds her for doing such things alone. Riko seeing Ruby for the first time, wants to examine her?! Almost caused an accident there. As the girls leave, it seems Riko isn’t going to stay here and is leaving Numazu tomorrow. So yeah, everyone feeling gloomy about this. Next day, Yohane and Mari see off Riko. Riko feeling bad about this because she is an outsider? Mari understands because she too was an outsider in her own town until Yohane reached out to her. Similarly, Yohane too didn’t open up until recently because everyone treated her kindly. Cue for Riko to explain why she doesn’t make friends because her parents would move often and just when she gets close to someone, it’s time to say goodbye. Therefore the logic of not getting involved with others so as not to feel lonely. Until she met a lost dog. They become friends for a while until the dog found its owner. Then it’s back to being lonely again. She ended up reading and interested in researching animals and thus travelled all over but never stayed long. So by this logic, the reason she is leaving. But Yohane has heard her heart and now she understands her. Cue for Yohane-Mari duet. So they continue to hang out as Mari thinks resonance is everyone’s feelings she can’t hear. There is someone who can sing it as a song and fill the world with songs. That song will resonate in the hearts of many and make the world whole again. Perhaps such people have disappeared from this town a long time ago. Because of this, Yohane thinks her song can be of help. All this has made Riko changed her mind so she is now staying. Power of friendship. Dia suggests to deepen their friendship in order to work more effectively, they’re going to have a girls’ night.

Episode 7
Unsure what to do on a girls’ night out, Yohane goes to ask others since she is put in charge of it. So, basically everybody has their own stuffs they wish they want to do, huh? Luckily Dia will take care of the accommodation so Yohane is free to concentrate on that. We see her putting in all the effort for 2 weeks. Hope she is having enough rest. Then on the day of that meeting, everyone arrives. Uhm, Ruby in normal human size? Yohane hands out her thick hard handmade programme to everyone. Too bad everyone starts doing their own thing. Then they want to hear Dia sing and Dia has even reserved a stage for her. All the stress causes her to pass out! Look what you all have done! But don’t worry, she’s just tired. When she wakes up, she apologizes but everyone feels guilty because she worked so hard for this. Lailaps is also here to help provide moral support for them. Lailaps talk to Yohane that she doesn’t need to push so hard and take it all upon herself. It is okay to ask others for help. Yohane admits doing so because she wants others to acknowledge her. Yohane returns and they start it all off by making sweets. They have more fun for the rest of the day and oh boy, Yohane never knew it would be this fun doing things together. Because now she feels stupid for trying to act tough and leave Numazu. This is her place of birth and has always been here. With that, she doesn’t want to sing along but with everyone. Nobody actually thought of that and think it is a good idea. Let’s do it!

Episode 8
The festival in Numazu is in full swing. We see everyone having fun in experiencing it as well as those who are stationed at their jobs. Yohane then gets dragged into a man a takoyaki stall. Others would love to help but they are busy with their own duties. Can Yohane keep up with the orders? Oh man, this is tough! Eventually with all that practice, she gets used to it and is somewhat a pro. Luckily she gets help from the local kids so it’s not all that bad. The stall owner thanks her by giving her a free box of takoyaki. All that hard work for 1 lousy freebie?! Oh well, it tastes good. Then as Yohane and co go round having their fun, soon Yohane realizes she has lost her staff. Panic sets in. She can’t sing without it. Hence everyone goes into high gear to look for it. Oh damn, using high-tech surveillance cameras and even handing out posters?! Have you seen this staff! This is serious. So when everyone comes back emptyhanded, they ask Yohane to remember hard when she last seen it. Basically, she left it on the float. So they stop the parade just to search it?! Wow, everyone must think something is wrong. Is there a bomb? As they cannot find it, Lailaps tries to calm Yohane down. Maybe she can sing without it. But Yohane snaps back at her and even blames her that she was supposed to look out for it! My, my. Lailaps then freaks out upon seeing a bug. But this helps pinpoint the missing staff. It’s right there in the bird’s beak of the float! OMFG!!! WHERE WAS EVERYONE LOOKING IF IT WAS HIDING IN SUCH AN OBVIOUS PLACE???!!! Footage shows she left the staff near some ponies. They ‘fought’ over it until the girls playing the shooting gallery, spooked them and it flew into that beak. Wow. After Yohane apologizes to Lailaps, now everyone can sing their song to close the festival. So is this official? Aqours is back as a whole?

Episode 9
It has been a week since the festival ended and Yohane is lazing around doing nothing. Lailaps asks her next move but I guess she prefers to laze around. She’ll think about it later. Lailaps then leaves since today is some important day. Curious Yohane goes to tail her and sees a few different sides of her helping the townspeople. Of course Riko and Ruby are also observing Lailaps so they continue to tail and observe Lailaps interacting with others. But soon they lose sight of her. And as they go in round in search, rumours then start to spread that she is missing or kidnapped. Yeah, Dia even initiates the entire town to help look for Numazu’s treasure! It’s really a big deal! Yohane is at the outskirts of Numazu and finds this place familiar. It is the place she first met Lailaps when she was young. Yohane notices a kitten stuck on a tree and going to fall. She tries to save it but luckily Lailaps is here to help before an accident happens. Yohane and Lailaps talk as the latter knows she was being followed. Then they reminisce about this place where Yohane first met her when she got separated from her mom. Yohane begged mom to keep Lailaps and she agreed after setting some conditions. Thanks to that, she got close to her. Lailaps also reveals she made a promise to mom to keep an eye on Yohane till she grows up. So today is a special day as it is the anniversary of their meeting. Yohane continues to talk about all the experiences and fun she had here and it’s all thanks to her. When Lailaps is about to reveal something about her magic, the rest has found them as Yohane happily joins them.

Episode 10
Yohane realizes she loves singing but can’t find herself to commit to it. Well, maybe this one can. Because a judge from the city has seen her performance at the festival. She is thrilled and gives her an invitation to an audition in Tokai. While it is a great offer, Yohane still has doubts. But soon word goes around that Yohane will be going to Tokai to become a big star. To a point where Dia personally summons Yohane and thinks she will be representing Numazu on the big stage! Because of that, she has arranged for a special party to send her off. Yohane continues to have doubts, especially everything being turned into a big deal. Then she heads to the location where the party is. Still unsure? Can’t blame her, she thinks she can still fail. But her friends ask if that is a bad thing. She might have failed the last time. But she came back and polished herself up. She is better than before. That night as Yohane practises what to say to mom, Lailaps wonders if she can make it if she still sounds this nervous. Then she drops the bombshell that she will not attend the party or follow her to Tokai. If she wants to be independent and make it on her own, can’t always rely on her, right? Though, this leaves Yohane very confused. On the day of the party, Yohane gets a lot of well wishes from the people. Then it’s her turn to give her speech. The usual how she failed at first but returned to Numazu and the incredible friends she made. But she also rants about Lailaps not wanting to see her off. She sounds so sad. But suddenly Lailaps returns. She says the party is over and warns everyone to run. Too late. The calamity strikes. The place turns into some haunted zone? As everyone evacuates, Yohane is told Hanamaru is missing. Looking for her, it seems she can’t leave her pet boar who is too scared to move. And then a monster pops up…

Episode 11
Well, deer monster is scared off easily but boy, it’s damn fast! However Yohane is not impressed. She faults herself as the cause of it. Unheeding to Lailaps’ advice, she throws away her staff, believing it to be the source of all the misery. Now she’ll go back being magicless. The morning after, Yohane stays in bed and remains depressed. Her friends visit but she is in no mood to see them. She is also done with the audition and be going. She even tells off Lailaps if she doesn’t want to tell what happened that day, it’s fine. It’s not like her heart can take it. While the rest are discussing about the calamity, they can’t help worry about Yohane. They still believe she is very much needed to get through this. So how? Maybe they can continue the party. A party to cheer her up. Dia and Ruby continue their patrol. It’s that monster again but Lailaps chases it off. But doggie isn’t done yet. She dives into the river to retrieve Yohane’s staff. Oh, it’s still there? Oh wait. Now the current carries it away! Swim doggie, swim! Meanwhile Yohane gets a surprise as her friends show up and usher her to the inn. They give her the best treatment and service before putting up, uhm, clumsy performance? I don’t think it’s part of the script. But Yohane still isn’t happy. She feels she has no right to accept their kindness. Yes, that same self-loathing talk that she can’t do anything. Of course her friends say all the positive things and they are all doing it because she is their friend. And Yohane can’t forever be gloomy so she picks herself up and gets her groove back. Remembering she said something mean to Lailaps today, the rest cheer on her to go apologize. Yohane makes her way but where to find her? Oh, here comes Ruby that something has happened to her. She’s got the staff but on the verge of death from the stunt. So dramatic. Maybe she’s just overly tired?

Episode 12
I guess the calamity is getting bad so the whole town is evacuating. Lailaps is in the care of Riko and although still unconscious, her condition is stable. A young girl soon shows up filled with anxiety because her friend is missing and they had an argument. Don’t worry, Yohane will go look for her. She does find her but as she approaches her, some power knocks Yohane unconscious. Cue for snippets of how she met Lailaps. All the times they spent together till Yohane left for Tokai. The friends find her so she is safe and so are those young girls. But at this point, Lailaps is missing. Uhm, wasn’t Riko keeping an eye on her?! As they look for Lailaps, Yohane starts to remember more of their past. Especially when she wished she could talk. Because that day Yohane botched in her talk and felt she didn’t want friends anymore. All she needed was her. And then it’s like some magic as Lailaps was able to talk, much to Yohane’s happiness. All great times until Yohane told her she wanted to go to Tokai to become a singer and be famous. A worried Lailaps asked if it was the right thing because she feared she might end up hating singing. But Yohane got mad and felt puzzled why Lailaps wouldn’t support her dream. Their relationship strained until the day Yohane left Numazu and Lailaps wasn’t even there to see her off. Yohane realizes Lailaps is. Yes, she is at the tree stump, the place where it all started. The big revelation is that Lailaps is actually a part of Yohane. Hence that is why she is like her mirror. Lailaps explains her insecurities as he watched Yohane grew, she feared she wouldn’t be needed anymore and that’s why spoilt her as a child to make her feel needed. But after all that, Lailaps realizes she herself is the one who needs to grow up. Lailaps have now come to accept this day has come as Yohane now has her own friends to support her. This means the magic spell will be broken. Now we see Yohane singing a farewell song for Lailaps. Thank you, Lailaps and goodbye.

Episode 13
A recap about the legend that brings calamity and only the resonance will be able to bring the happiness back to the people. So now the calamity has engulfed Numazu that nobody can leave. Everybody is doing what they can. Where’s Yohane? She’s going to confront the core of the calamity. By singing! And yes, she won’t do it alone but the rest of her friends. So as they put up the greatest idol performance ever, apparently the calamity is not impressed and zaps them. Yohane trapped in some bubble. Her mind in some unconscious state. But she hears the voice of Lailaps and her friends so she revives. Yes, the singing continues and this time it is able to defeat the calamity and bring back the sunshine to Numazu! In the aftermath, we see Numazu being rebuilt. Everyone helping out with it. Yohane? Well, she’s singing alone and she’s already made up her mind to stay here forever. She realizes going to Tokai was just venting out her frustrations. She thought she had to live up to everyone’s hopes but it’s not the case. She’ll try to find something only she can do that is fun. Let me guess. Singing, right? And of course she is not doing it alone but all her friends also want to sing together with her as it brings everybody together.

Keep On Walking On Sunshine: Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone
Yeah. It was that simple in defeating the calamity, huh? Just sing your heart out. That’s it. When the world is a song that is obviously the only thing to do. In a way, making it feel like this calamity thing is like one big celestial idol fan because the only way to appease it is to do an idol performance! Holy sh*t! Do you not think so?! But yeah, I guess it is better than sacrificing virgins by ripping their hearts out or throwing them into the volcano! So yeah, the calamity being appeased and satisfied like an idol fan seems to be a way better solution. Sunshine through my window/ That’s what you are/ My shining star/ Making me feel like I’m top of the world/ Telling me I’ll go far…

So the story is still pretty basic and nothing extreme. Well, at first I have this thinking that if they were going to make a fantasy theme, they might make in such a way that Aqours will be on a journey to go slay the Demon Lord and protect the world from his tyranny and evil. Yeah. Something like that. But I forgot this is Love Live so it’s not going to go that far. This means it is still somewhat an idol or music genre although laced with some magic and fantasy elements which of course I feel that it is quite mild. After all, idol genres are already magical themselves, no?! Yeah, I’m thinking hardcore fans will find their favourite idols to be magical in the first place! In fact, the calamity here felt so mild because no animals that were affected by it were even killed or harmed! Just some bad looking fog with a dash of scary lightning and thunder here and there whatsoever. Wow. So magical. So miraculous.

Forgive me (or not) if I find the plot for this spinoff to be somewhat boring. I mean, I should have expected this kind of story from the start. It is after all a Love Live franchise. Thus the whole series is about Yohane trying to find herself and getting herself back on her 2 feet. Because she can’t do it alone, hence ushering her friends in to help her overcome what’s been eating her and all her other insecurities. Feels like a pretty generic and normal friendship drama to me. But of course to keep in line with that magic theme, hence that very flimsy and enigmatic calamity thingy which I don’t even understand till the end. I feel that this is just a stepping stone for the friends to work together, to bring out whatever drama needed and of course explore the relationship between Yohane and Lailaps. After all, the calamity is like biding its time, not sure if it is waiting for some right conditions or something. A monster pops up but nothing that can’t chase it away easily. Yeah, just to add to the drama effect. Boring! Oh right. Got to remember this is part of Love Live! Don’t it dare steal our sunshine! I know it’s done for me/ If you steal my sunshine/ Not something hard to see/ If you steal my sunshine/ Keeping dumb and built to beat/ If you steal my sunshine…

Character wise, I have mixed feelings but if I to be honest, I find them boring! Yeah, hate me all you want because I am primarily not an idol fan. Even if Yoshiko was my ‘favourite’ (term used very loosely) girl in Aqours, that is only because she is funny and made me laugh. Of course as the title already indicates, Yohane as the titular character is not without her flaws and is far from being perfect. She has big dreams (like everybody else) but became down in the dumps when she experienced a few failures. Lost. Sometimes the best way to ‘reset’ is to go back to your origins and it was Numazu, the sleepy town where she was born. It was quick for her to realize she loves Numazu because it would leave a bad aftertaste if she would continue sulking and hate the town she grew up in! And as already said, Yohane is going to discover herself once she makes some friends because there is all there is to it. When she finally realizes all that, only then she can move on and do things with pride and confidence. That’s what you call maturing and growing up, right? Good day sunshine/ I need to laugh and when the sun is out/ I’ve got something I can laugh about/ I feel good in a special way/ I’m in love and it’s a sunny day…

Then there is her companion AKA Lailaps. Yeah, it was strange to have a big talking canine as the animal mascot because if they wanted an animal mascot, they would’ve used Chika’s dog for it. Uhm, looking a bit goofy so yeah, maybe not (though it does have a cameo here). As we can see, Lailaps has been a pillar of strength and a great companion for Yohane from start to finish. She is very calm and reasonable, the voice of moral support whenever Yohane is feeling the jitters. Even being very patient with her on not lose her temper when Yohane starts mouthing away. A very good friend indeed. My dumb conspiracy theory to label Lailaps as her guardian angel or even a deity watching over Numazu collapsed when it was revealed in the end that this doggie is all part of Yohane. Yeah, should’ve got the hint in the series’ title and that this girl has a chuunibyou counterpart. Now that Yohane has got her groove back, Lailaps may look like she is not needed anymore but of course they will always be forever connected in their hearts, right? Oh wait. Big doggie still around. Just that she lost her voice and can no longer talk like normal. Yeah, it would be sad to kill off the animal mascot who has been part of Numazu’s family. So yeah, Lailaps is still there. But now a normal dog. On a trivial note, the official English title for this series is Yohane The Parhelion. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon of the sun. Sometimes it is called sun dog. So is this what Lailaps is? Here comes the sun then! But the title indicates it is Yohane… I’m confused… Little darlin’ the smile’s returning to their faces/ Little darlin’ it seems like years since it’s been here/ Here comes the sun/ Here comes the sun/ And I say it’s alright…

With Yohane and Lailaps been given a bulk of the limelight, the other members of Aqours have been relegated to supporting roles. Well, if you are a fan of those others, you’re going to be sad. But from my perspective, they also don’t do much so as not to take away the focus from our main girl and sometimes it feels like they are there because they are Aqours and the need to use their name. Thus they don’t really have a lot of fleshing out and if you know how they are from the start, this is how they will be in the end. Nothing really interesting, though. Not even if Dia doubling as a sentai warrior or Chika as the masked Million Dollar vigilante. Or Mari as the Demon Lord and Ruby being a little fairy who can somehow become human size when needed. Don’t ask or think too much about it. Just the need to give them some fantasy-like roles. If that’s too fantasy-like maybe some having down to earth roles like You being a postal worker, Riko a zoologist, Hanamaru a sweets seller and Kanan an environmentalist-cum-inventor. What great variety of friends Yohane is blessed to have. I’m gonna soak up the sun/ I’m gonna tell everyone to lighten up/ I’m gonna tell ‘em that I’ve got no one to blame/ For every time I feel lame I’m looking up/ I’m gonna soak up the sun.

The only Aqours girl who doesn’t appear is Yoshiko! Hell, you might argue she is Yohane but I’m looking at them as separate personalities! Oh, what if the one behind the calamities is Yoshiko! Because she felt left out from all this friendship fun! How dare her chuunibyou persona get the main character treatment! GRRR!!! Heh. I hope this is not the case. There are a few other minor characters like the neighbourhood kids, Chika’s inn colleagues who double as her vigilante assistants as well as Dia secretary. However they are just minimal in their roles and forgettable. Just like that mechanical frog created by Kanan. What’s its name again? Just like the Aqours friends, they too help in playing their minimal role to cheer up Yohane. With so much support, Yohane certainly can’t stay depressed forever, no? I won’t let the sun go down on me/ I won’t let the sun go down…

Art and animation are quite okay. This spinoff is done by Sunrise who also did the Love Live series so it is good to see some quality and consistencies maintained. Yeah, it would be weird if you can’t recognize your Aqours idols because they look completely different! They are only so because of their outfits. Slight redesigning but they’re still identifiable. Numazu being the sleep seaside town, the background sceneries of the sea as well as the mountains and even the town itself, they are quite nice to look at. There is also some CGI but thankfully they are not very obvious and do not break the series. After all, even in the Love Live series itself, CGI was also employed but they have to make sure the idols look pretty and kawaii or they’ll never hear the end from fans and the internet! If only other animes could make use of CGI effects like this. Might not be a masterpiece but at least it is watchable. On a trivial note, doesn’t Lailaps look a bit like Ranga from Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken? Ironically, both series had a very short collaboration when this spinoff started airing. Oh no, my conspiracy theory of that time Lailaps being reincarnated as a Direwolf…

Obviously the same voices behind Aqours are retained to voice back their characters. The only one I recognized is Youko Hikasa as Lailaps but she is quite docile here as her character doesn’t go through various emotions. And I think I spotted Misaki Kuno as one of those kids but that’s not important. As an anime whose genre is about music, once again I am not impressed or even take a liking for any of the music that were featured here. Yeah, the irony I’m still watching this. Is my taste in music that complicated? Nah. They just sing songs that don’t resonate with me! HAHAHA! Anyway, I don’t find any of the insert songs whether Yohane sings it herself or with the rest of Aqours to be appealing. Not even memorable. Even the opening theme, Genjitsu Mysterium feels too dramatic for my taste. I think they want to make the song sound edgy with some effects but with the dubstep and techno-like beats, I just felt this song is suitable for animes with darker themes. It’s good that the ending theme sounds way different. Yeah, need to sing the same songs? Kimi No Tame Boku No Tame is still upbeat and lively and is very idol-like. But is it me that some parts especially those strings and piano combo somewhat remind me of Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles?

Overall, I only believe that hardcore Love Live fans especially those of Aqours would only welcome such spinoff because it has been like 6 years since the 2nd season graced the airwaves back in 2017. Oh sorry, there was a movie back in 2019 but I didn’t see that. But to turn this into fantasy might sound a bit refreshing to attract non-fans to watch but it gets boring once you realize it’s the same boring drama of friendship and self-discovery. I’m not saying this spinoff is bad but it’s just a tad boring for my tastes. Yes, I still prefer violent and gory ones or those slapstick high school romcoms. Even better with some fanservice! And then get disappointed by it anyway in the end! Oh well, I guess such sunshiny wholesomeness isn’t so bad sometimes. Aren’t we feeling a bit sunshiny today? You are my sunshine/ My only sunshine/ You make me happy/ When skies are grey/ You’ll never know dear/ How much I love you/ Please don’t take my sunshine away…

Lv1 Maou To One Room Yuusha

Long ago, once great enemies fought each other. The hero being the victor of course. But the vanquished Demon Lord isn’t dead, not by a long shot. He vowed his return one day. But when that day comes, the hero is now a lazy bum?! And even though the Demon Lord is also a weak ass being, he vows to bring him back up like before so they can settle their unfinished business. Yeah, Lv1 Maou To One Room Yuusha may sound like Jashin-chan blended with Milky Holmes because it wouldn’t quite cut it if you defeat your enemy at their weakest. But of course you know, when an ex-Demon Lord and an ex-hero spend too much time together in daily life, do you see where this is going? I wonder if this brings a whole new meaning for yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend.

Episode 1
Max the hero and his party fight the Demon Lord AKA Maou. They struggle but in the end they never give up and successful strike him down. But before Maou ‘dies’, he proclaims that he will be resurrected and in time, he will get his revenge. Fast forward 10 years later, Maou is now a little demon girl?! The only minion awakened is her secretary, Zenia. I guess Maou’s resurrection has caused her to regress back to level 1 power. Maou is interested in Max’s whereabouts and believes he has become king or an important figure revered by many. However Zenia claims he has disappeared and not resurfaced since. Even so, Maou wants to go see him, something Zenia refuses. This has Maou believe she is hiding something. Using her sense to track down Max in his human world, Maou rushes there and relishes seeing Max’s surprised face. Yeah, Maou is going to be the one surprised because WTF this filthy and unkempt room?! Uhm, this bum is Max? Maybe she got the wrong room. But wait! That’s the holy sword that slew her! And he treated it like trash?! Definitely the hero. Max remembers Maou’s resurrection or something but doesn’t care. Maou is further shock that he is indifferent. What happened to the Max filled with vigour 10 years ago? Well, after Maou was defeated, a hero was no longer needed and thus he was abandoned. Maou refuses to accept this as she does her research on the internet. What’s this? A scandal with a married woman?! Dating with 10 girls simultaneously?! Assaulting a civilian too?! He claims he was framed. Really? And then there’s this cringe interview after he defeated Maou, promising to preserve the peace. Laughable. Max has lost touch with his party members too. Maou now understands why Zenia tried to stop her from meeting him. When Maou threatens to destroy the world again, Max tells her to go ahead. He doesn’t care. Maou is so pissed she tries to kill him now but wait! He slams her out! Yes, his skills are still there. But why didn’t he just kill her? Well, he can see the article about him abusing and causing the death of an illegitimate child! Besides, even if Maou wreaks havoc, he is not interested to become a hero again. A new one will come and do the job. A sad Maou leaves. But she soon returns with ingredients. So, she’s going to cook for him? Yes, she’ll be staying here for a while and cooking for him! Is Maou scarier this way? Anyway the food tastes good…

Episode 2
Max goes out by himself as Maou thinks he is going to do some secret training. Maou disguises herself as a high school girl and tails him. Only, if that sexy figure didn’t make heads turn! Maou sees Max bumming around at the park doing nothing but drinking beer, playing with the neighbourhood kids and then even gets harassed by local punks. Because Max doesn’t fight back and gets bullied, Maou can’t stand it and puts those thugs to sleep. Max hopes Maou understands his predicament now but she is impressed he didn’t fight back. She has him come home and she’ll cook whatever he wants. So after Maou finishes cooking a hearty dinner, who is that ringing on the door. Why, it’s Zenia! I guess Maou never returned so she came looking for her. Yeah, she’s famished and eats up all the food! There goes Max’s dinner. Zenia can’t use magic so she walked all the way here… Zenia is not amused Maou decides to stay here although she claims it is to experience the human world. After all, why so obsessed with this useless bum? Well, Maou can’t let this idiot die. Zenia will sever Maou’s attachment with Max and will beat him down. She ignores Maou’s warning as Max easily overwhelms her. Now you see the difference in power? Zenia then borrows the bath since she got a bit sweaty. After done, Maou goes out to buy more food, leaving Max with Zenia. Oh dear, a single beer is enough to make her drunk as she accuses him of trying to get his hands on Maou. With a little accident, a drunk Zenia goes on an attacking rampage. Knowing the room will be destroyed, Max runs out with naked Zenia chasing him! At the park, Max is going to go all out against her when the police arrives. It is then Zenia realizes herself in the nude and breaks down in embarrassment. Max covers for her by saying she is an acquaintance. They let them off the hook. Next day, Zenia has completed the procedures. For what? She has moved next door to keep an eye on Max as she still doesn’t trust him. Also, to spy and collect data on the human world. You know what they say about two’s a company…

Episode 3
Zenia has returned with her intelligence on Leo (Max’s former comrade). Something about his rebellion. However Max doesn’t want to talk about it and leaves. Outside, a reporter starts hounding him questions about this naked girl chasing him! Yeah, that video has gone viral! Max’s manages to cover for Zenia without blowing her identity. But Max isn’t too happy when she starts asking about Leo so he gives her the slip. Upon returning to his room, someone rings the door. Max can definitely tell this powerful aura and tells Maou to hide in the closet. Oh, who could it be? Yes, it’s his former comrade, Fred who is now the head of the Magic Bureau. Fred is on his way for some business and stopped by. He talks about their old times together but Max isn’t amused. Then he talks about his real intention. After Leo betrayed the kingdom, he formed a new country called Gamma Republic. Of course in the eyes of many, he is illegally occupying the kingdom’s territory and they’re just a group of traitors and sociopaths. War is believed to be inevitable so Fred wants Max to join his side. Perhaps seeing Max with them, Leo will be persuaded to give up and the war will end before it even starts, minimizing and casualties. Of course Max refuses and claims he is not the right guy for the job. Despite Fred offering rewards and other incentives, Max still turns him down. Fred respects his decision but as he is about to leave, he talks about that viral video. He is hinting he knows that woman is a demon. While he has no qualms about humans and demons cohabitating, but what will the public think? That’s right. He will be labelled a traitor like Leo for being with a demon. Hence the ‘threat’ be a hero again or a criminal. In fact, Leo could sense a demonic aura from the closet. As he opens it… OMFG! WTF IS SADAKO FROM JU-ON DOING HERE?! Well, it’s no surprise if you have kept your eyes peeled, this ghost girl can be seen peeping out from the closet at times. Fred gets scared and leaves. Though, he hasn’t given up on convincing Max to join his side. Flashback shows Max and Leo entered Fred’s hometown and seeing him sell charms that guaranteed protection against demons, they thought he was a scammer. But demons attacked the place so the trio cooperate to fight them till they retreat. Max offered Fred to join his party and the rest is history.

Episode 4
Oh wow. Maou has compiled a book of (demon) girls for Max so he can get a girlfriend?! Have a look. There’s Zenia. Lots of sexy shots. Too bad, Max isn’t into dumb girls especially one who chased him while drunk! But the rest of the girls are monsters and he rejects them all. Oh Max… ARE YOU A RACIST???!!! So what kind of girls he likes? He describes them as Maou takes note. Aha! She transforms into her sexy human form. Hey, Max can’t help stare. Could this be it? Both get embarrassed and this whole charade ends with Zenia coming in. Long ago, Maou did ask Max to join his side and become a demon to live forever. He turned him down. Now she asks the same thing and he too turns her down. Maou and Zenia go on to explain about all the perks and equality of becoming her subordinate. Sounds very good. All he needs to do is sign this contract and be reborn as a demon. Of course this is all just formality and they can continue their relation as it is now. However Max still refuses. He explains this human dignity thingy. Well, even if he got all those perks, he won’t be himself as a human anymore. It will also be inconvenient if he can’t die. That is what it means to be human. Maou is sad because she wanted to be with him. Oops, did she let that slip? Too make up for it, Max will work hard and earn more. By being a live video streamer on PooCube?! WTF?! Well, let’s say his first video didn’t do too well. Boring commentary. 14 views. It’s a miracle he got that number. Other videos he made are a pain to watch. Yeah, toxic comments. Eventually he gives up and thinks this isn’t for him. Maou pleads to do 1 more and if he fails, he can stop. She’ll even help. Oh really? Because now Maou in her human form is the star as Max directs from behind. Oh yeah, the subscribers are quickly rising! Then as they do more sexy and risqué videos like licking ice cream and even taking off her top (f*cking viewer count is going through the roof!), it all comes crashing down as their account is suspended for term violations! OH DAMN!!! Sorry girl, should’ve been on OnlyFans! Or OnlyB*tches if that’s what I call it, HAHAHA!!!

Episode 5
Max and Maou go out shopping. A woman offering food samples seem to hint she knows Max and wants to talk. Max tells Maou to go home first. Turns out Anego is one of Leo’s subordinates and this means she is from Gamma. She talks about Leo always talking about him and wondering how he is doing. Of course, she is here to invite him to join and as expected, he turns her down since he doesn’t want to get involved. Nevertheless she gives him air tickets to Gamma in case he changes his mind. Meanwhile Maou is approached by Will and is told to come with him if she wants to see Max again. She knows he is from Gamma and plays along and follows him. This is all part of Will’s plan to take Max’s ‘girlfriend’ as hostage to force him to join them. Anego isn’t pleased he resorted to terroristic ways, something that Leo is against. Even if Max still won’t join (what can a useless old man do?), Will won’t let him go since he knows their existence. So as he is about to get rough with Maou, Max instantly bolts towards him and throws him into the sea. Hope he learns his lesson. Anego and Will retreat for now and will return to Gamma. Back home, Max thinks of selling those tickets for money! Maou is not impressed and suggests they take up the invitation to visit Gamma. Don’t worry, she puts this teleportation mark in the closet so they can return here instantly if something happens. Max isn’t convinced but those puppy dog eyes tricked and hypnotized him. Before he knows it, they’re on a flight to Gamma. Hope this goofy disguise will do the trick as many ex-comrades will recognize him. They enjoy a lot of stuffs at this tourist attraction. Gamma doesn’t seem like a bad place, right? Well yeah, have to raise money to fund things and run a country. Plus, Max explains this isn’t about Gamma being good or evil but its very existence is enough to cause dispute. He wants to know why a demon is interested in petty human squabbles. To invade everything in the midst of the confusion? Then they see Leo being the star attraction by diluting the hotspring water temperature for everyone to enjoy. This brings back memories of Max fighting Leo during a martial arts competition final. It was a heated battle and they became friends after that.

Episode 6
The duo seem like having an awful lot fun. Then they hear the border is closed off because of fighting and the citizens are not to go anywhere near it. In fact, the citizens find it all normal and continue to live happily. Maou decides to go and see the fighting as she wants to gauge both sides’ fighting abilities. Max isn’t so fond of it but he has to since she is holding the tickets home. As they watch, it seems both fights are in a deadlock. Gamma’s side manage to use magic items to put the kingdom’s soldiers to sleep. Just when they thought it is over, Botka sends highly concentrated shots through the wall. One of them grazing Anego’s arm. But don’t fear, Leo is here. He uses his immense strength to blow everyone away. Not even freaking magic! He talks to the captain whom he once served under although the captain is adamant peace talks will never go his way. Botka fires a lethal shot right at Leo’s throat but he survives! Then he easily knocks Botka out and tells the rest of the army to GTFO. Maou has seen her fill and prepares to teleport home. That is when Leo detects a demonic presence and instantly goes to hunt her down. If not for Max’s quick thinking and reflex, she could’ve been a goner. A short chase until they can run no more. Max tries to cook up some lie as passer-by but Leo doesn’t buy it. He wants this demon child hand over and he’ll let this incident slide. Maou is willing to go with him so as to give Max a means of escape. After all, she can find an opening to teleport and in worst case scenario if she gets killed, she’ll get resurrected later. Of course Max will not do it and goes to fight Leo to buy time for Maou to activate her teleport. Max is able to parry and block all of Leo’s moves. Even when his disguise comes off, Leo doesn’t recognize him! Only Maou gives him away by calling his name. The teleport is ready as they disappear back home. Leo believes everything makes sense now even if he doesn’t understand why Max is with a demon. Maou thanks Max for protecting her and hugs him. And yes, it was a hell of a fun trip.

Episode 7
Maou wonders why Zenia hasn’t come back yet. You see, when they were away at Gamma, she had Zenia undergo a mission to infiltrate the Magic Bureau. So we see her sloppily infiltrating the building and thinks she’s helluva great spy. Until of course while hacking the server room, Fred finds out about the intruder and captures her. Dumb demon girl unintentionally spills all the beans to him and it seems Fred also knows she was the one running around naked chasing Max. But it’s time to get serious as he threatens her to reveal why she is trying to get on Max’s good side. But timing is on her side since a high ranking minister, Grimms is here to see him. Hence he has his assistant, Lim watch over her. We see Grimms fooling around and being friendly to a very patient Fred. They talk about how Max is doing and they don’t believe that Max is the kind of guy who took bribes and somebody framed him. On to serious business, Grimms thinks of making a peace treaty with Gamma. As many of their own kingdom sympathize with them, he thinks he can get some support although a few other ministers are against it but he’ll try to convince them. After all, Gamma has not attacked the kingdom directly except out of self-defence. This has also worsened the kingdom’s image. His long term goal is to establish a strategic alliance. It’s way better than this fighting so he hopes Fred can join him in achieving that since he is quite popular in public. Fred agrees. Meanwhile, Zenia gets desperate to break free. This oily lotion, she messed up. But she manages to break out although Lim quickly neutralizes her with her flame magic. As Grimms leaves, suddenly an explosion rocks the Magic Bureau’s office. Grimms tells his driver to keep driving as he doesn’t want to get involved with those terrorists. Noting this will turn up the pressure, he is going to wait and see what Fred does.

Episode 8
Zenia is okay but remembering Maou’s words, she can’t let injured Lim be and saves her. As the bombing is all over the news, Max wonders if Maou sent Zenia to do it. Nah! She can’t be that dumb, right?! Well, here she returns with injured Lim. When Lim wakes up, she is in a daze of her whereabouts. Because Maou senses her great magic ability, she tries to make her sign a contract to be her underling. Luckily Max stops her. Maou and Zenia apologize for everything and claim they did not do the bombing. As to explain why they are living with Max, Maou concocts the greatest lie how they were left to starve after the Demon Lord’s defeat and this kind soul took them in. She bought it. Fred then calls her and seeing there is no reason to hide, Max allows her to tell him everything. Then Fred talks to him for an explanation. It will be easy to pin the blame on him, Max colluding with demons to bomb the building. But he wants to meet up and talk things up. Now we see all the 9 ministers of the kingdom discussing that their next action with Gamma. Yes, all this has been set up as an excuse to start war with them. Of course Grimms draws the short end of the stick as they want him to get Max and Fred on their side to fight. Max and Maou meet up with Fred at a fancy restaurant. Fred of course knows Max isn’t the kind who would do such bombing. He also knows Zenia wouldn’t do it as she has left obvious traces of infiltrating the building. End of story, right? Well, not quite. Fred can turn a blind eye on this if Max does him a favour. Sorry, it’s not getting his way with Zenia or Maou’s body! Seriously, Fred doesn’t want to go to war but still needs Max’s help to stop it. This or he’ll implicate Max colluding with demons. Return being a hero or banished as a criminal forever. Guess what? Max hints he wants to go become a citizen of Gamma. This is treason but Max doesn’t give a sh*t about all this. Leave him out of this stupid war. The guys are ready to fight and only Maou’s threat stops them. That’s it for tonight. It isn’t over by a long shot. Well, Max comes home and has a bad tummy ache. Curse that laxative! Thank goodness it isn’t poison. As the terrorist attack reaches the Gamma side and of course Leo knows his underlings will not stoop to this. But if this is war they want, then he’ll bring it to them.

Episode 9
Grimms talks to Fred about the recent bombing incident and hints there is no choice but to go to war. But it seems that as long as Leo is around, Gamma will not fall. So theoretically if he is no longer around, Gamma will fall by itself. Fred knows what Grimms is up to but assures that he alone will be the one to do the job. Max is meanwhile in tears. Lost a bet in a boat race! Maou scolds him for losing so much and should bet on a winner. Okay, he’ll do that. He asks for some money and Maou would’ve given him had not Zenia stop her! Then they go out as a neighbourhood kid has them play badminton with her. Then as Max and Maou play with each other, they start arguing about Max not wanting to get involved in this war. Yeah, it soon turns into some power battle! Kiddie so impressed! I’m even more impressed the shuttlecock survive all that beating! The kid then gives Max a candy from someone but he knows what it implies although he isn’t sure what he is supposed to do. Meanwhile Fred disobeys the army and will attack first. This includes destroying Gamma’s fort although there is no one in it. He will now go in alone and warns everyone not to cross this line. Grimms notes it would be best if Fred wins by killing Leo. But in the case if Fred loses and dies, Gamma will continue their terror attacks and this will cause some country to stop backing them, effectively making Gamma slowly starve to death. Suddenly everyone is abuzz because there are video clips of Fred beating up Gamma rebels online live. This is being broadcasted to the whole world too. The culprits are a couple of PooCubers (?!) who are secretly using drones to upload the truth via their multiple fake accounts. Fred did notice them but lets them film anyway. Fred now faces off with Leo. Only 1 shall survive…

Episode 10
Flashback shows while Max, Fred and Leo were travelling to go defeat the Demon Lord, they met a mage named Yuria who too had the same goal. However she isn’t friendly and keeps her distance. Even more so, not a team player. Until one day a Demon Lord general ambushed her. Can she take him on alone? Well, hero’s party is here to help her out. Now we see Fred and Leo going all out to kill each other. It’s not joke. Everybody watching is worried. Maou is trying to persuade Max to do something before the inevitable. Max remains indifferent. To a point he tells Maou to STFU because it’s like she’s trying to make him choose. Maou gets disappointed in him and leaves. This is of course to come in between Fred and Leo’s fight. She also makes herself known to the world that the Demon Lord has returned. Yeah, good luck convincing the world. Yeah. How cute, this little girl. She tries to show her power but gets owned by Fred and Leo. Yeah, better get that nuisance out of the way before she interrupts their fight. At this point, Max can’t take all of this stupidity. Hence he doesn’t care anymore as he sets off his journey. So, he is going all the way to Gamma carrying his sword on a bicycle? Don’t laugh. He actually can do it! Get out of the way! Max coming through! Before Fred and Leo deal the fatal blow on each other, Max comes in between. Poor hero gets owned. Well, at least that saved them from being butchered by getting butchered himself. Flashback continues with the Demon Lord general escaping after exhausting all his ammo. Yuria can’t believe they saved her. Why? Because they’re friends. And that was how she joined their party.

Episode 11
With Max now in the fray, looks like this is going to be a 3 way fight. Simple. Last man standing wins. So we see the ex-comrades pulling all the stops as they hit heavy on each other. It seems Max goes down first. Over? Then he remembers an old mission where his party was fighting some behemoth. They were on the verge on giving up until Yuria told them to keep fighting and never to give up. Whatever strengthening spell she did to concentrate all her magic into their weapon, it did the trick. And now Max does the same as he uses some bead from Yuria to summon that same power. Though, it comes with a projected hologram of Yuria for some added morale booster. With Max at maximum overdrive, Fred is pushed off as Max goes head on with Leo. The fight until it is dusk and at the end of the day, Leo falls first. However Fred is not amused with everybody’s foolishness and unleashes the ultimate magic that could actually kill them. Only to be knocked away by Maou. This allows Max to counterattack and send Fred to his defeat. Then as he brings both unconscious comrades to the camera, Max shocks the world as he prostrates himself and apologizes for this incident. He hopes all those who are watching would be considerate in dealing with this matter. Please resolve this in a peaceful way so that they don’t have to fight again.

Episode 12
Maou has cooked a lot to celebrate Max as the MVP! Wow. She sure has fatten him up! Both Max and Maou remain humble that they didn’t do anything and credit and thank the other instead. Zenia comes in with bad news. The data she stole from the Magic Bureau contained some virus and now all the data is gone. Oh well, it can’t be helped. Max’s kneeling has become viral and popular worldwide. So much so it forced the kingdom to acknowledge and give Gamma autonomy. Hence Gamma is now known as Gamma Autonomous Region. GAR!!! Both sides are now helping to build a road to connect both nations. Lim gives Fred some valuable data. Inserting the USB, it seems this is some cringe videos of Max doing stuffs to be uploaded to PooCube. Please subscribe. But the worst part is that ghost girl climbing out of the screen to grab him! OMFG!!! IS THAT REAL???!!! Meanwhile the minsters are discussing the events that have happened. They have to accept it whether they like it or not as the public approves of it. However the main topic at hand is now Fred. He is summoned to face the consequences of his actions. His actions of attacking his own side was also recorded on video. Then there is the explosion at the Magic Bureau which is now claimed to be a botched magic experiment. Fred is willing to accept any punishment that includes resigning from his position. But as the police step in, it is not to arrest him but Grimms! He is under arrest for embezzlement. Based on the Magic Bureau’s financial log, there were huge amounts transferred to Grimms’ virtual account. Grimms realizes he has been setup. Whether or not it was Fred’s doing, he accepts his fate but warns Fred that all this may not profit humans. Demons maybe? With a vacated seat, seems this is all part of the ministers’ plan to get rid of Grimms and install Fred in that seat. Max can’t catch a break in town as reporters are hounding him. Even back home, he isn’t happy Maou and Zenia are still staying. Isn’t the fight over? Shouldn’t they head home? Maou claims it is not and if they leave, he can’t taste her cooking! Okay. Maybe just for tonight. Time for another celebration. Flashback shows when Max’s party was victorious and disbanded, Max told them he might not see them again. Because this is what they call peace. All then went their separate ways.

Maoyu: Maou-sama Wa Kujikenai! Yuusha Yamemasu!
Wait. Is that how it ends? I don’t know, but it just felt a bit anti-climactic. It didn’t end on a cliff-hanger and the whole thing felt like a low keynote affair. The war has been averted, everyone is happy to return to their peaceful normal lives. Okay. Fine. So I guess it must be just me who felt the whole ending was underwhelming. Yeah, what was I expecting? More conspiracy theories that would usher and hint another season? After all, the manga is still ongoing and the adapted anime could all be just scratching the surface of what is more to come.

Well, I didn’t expect the story for this series to turn out something like this. Because of my experience watching the Milky Holmes series as well as that Jashin-chan one, I was expecting the story to follow that sort of flow. Oh you know, Maou trying real hard to get Max back into shape like he was 10 years ago. Hence all the slapstick comedy and jokes will be on Maou failing real hard to get this bum back to how he was. But she won’t give up because of her ultimate dreams to see Max become the respected adversary she once fought and lost to. Unfortunately for better or worse, the season soon turned into some sort of weird war between the warring nations and Max who doesn’t want to get involved in this sh*t was forced to. Maybe that’s the way Max can return to his good ol’ days? But yeah, it was far from what I expected on how the story should be. Which isn’t actually a bad thing. Because if what I expected happen, I would have eventually labelled this a copycat of Milky Homes and Jashin-chan. Heh. Thank goodness.

Only in the earlier parts of the season all that seemed so just to establish some sort of setting between our titular characters. At this point, it would have been very obvious that Maou doesn’t exactly want Max to become that strong hero. All she wants is his company, am I right? That’s why she doesn’t easily get disheartened whenever she fails or rather he continues to be indifferent and not give a f*ck. The same can be said for Max. Because otherwise, why does he not kick out this annoying little chubby demon weakling? Yes, they may have fought fiercely 10 years ago but in those good ol’ days, as such they have created an unbreakable bond with each other. Something like an alumni, I guess? You know what they say about old pals needing to stick together and that’s why this seemingly weird relationship they are having right now. It could be that with all the scandals that has befallen on Max, Maou may be sympathizing with him. The great hero who has saved the world and this is the thanks he get in today’s world? Yeah, why not we old pals hang out together and have a great time? Uh huh. The flow of this series and their relationship would soon turn out this way rather than what the synopsis told us. Just short of becoming lovers! Oh heck, that will be so weird! I don’t know, last episode seems to put them this close with each other…

So I suppose in this way, it keeps their relationship and interaction with each other dynamic. Like I said, had they follow the route similar to Milky Holmes in which every episode it is nonstop nonsensical slapstick comedy about Maou trying to power up Max, that would ultimately become boring and a blatant copycat. So with the focus shifted on the kingdom’s thirst for blood, it diverts our attention from that as they turn the kingdom into the villain of the series. Oh yeah. You know men. Always fighting whatever stupid wars for whatever stupid reasons for eternity. If it is not fighting other races, they would be fighting among themselves. So what a way for Max and Maou to eventually team up and save the day. Because after all that we have seen, that is the best outcome that is to be expected from the duo, right? So being weak and fallen could be a blessing in disguise to bolster this unlikely friendship of theirs.

In many episodes, they randomly show us snippets of flashbacks during Max’s heydays. The days when he and his fellow friends go on a journey to defeat the Demon Lord. I don’t know, I just feel that such clips here don’t really connect. Mainly because the times then and now are so vastly different so I don’t actually see how it all connects to the Max now except that it is to show more of his valour and friendship as a hero back in those days. So it is pretty jarring to me to see those clips since eventually they are all unrelated in today’s time. Perhaps in the future, a greater threat will befall on the land and these ex-comrades will be forced to join hands once more? This time Maou in tow?

As we all know the dynamic relationship between Max and Maou, what about the rest? Well, feels like a hit and miss. Especially Max’s ex-party members who were once close to each other, they are like big sworn enemies now, torn apart by the different ideologies of the nation. Hence Leo and Fred have not actually changed much as I can see they are the same as before. However it is only because that they are serving on different sides and that just complicates everything and throwing a spanner into the cogwheel of their friendship. Who could blame Max for being a pessimist after years of scandal and he should know better even if he gets involved, nothing would change. That’s why he prefers to do nothing. But eventually he has to because well, he is the hero. The greatest redemption story? Making up the quartet of Max’s party is Yuria but I feel her character is most negligible as she is not even seen in present time. As said, she is married and pregnant and that’s why she is no show but because of that, I feel she is quite redundant in this context.

As for the other characters, love them or hate them. Like Zenia, I am figuring she is only there to provide some sexy fanservice and distract us (swimsuit or catsuit, take your pick) and provide some balance because Maou is some short chubby ugly loli! HAHAHA!!! True. Even Jashin-chan is cuter than this blob! Ugh. Don’t want us to fap to her? Well, Zenia’s the best next alternative! Then there is Grimms who is of course a very cunning fellow but it feels like the rest of the round table of ministers that he is in, they’re a bunch of cosplay weirdoes. I swear one of them I thought is a granny witch and there’s a clown kid whom I believed popped came out from Alice In Wonderland story. Yeah. Weird group of people. Although Grimms is out of the scene, it remains to be seen if he is totally out of the picture yet. My guts tell me that guys like him will not take it all lying down and he’ll try to get back by pulling strings behind the shadows. Or in his case, behind bars. He is after all still quite a powerful and influential person.

However the most mysterious and curious character of them all that would make viewers guessing and concoct dumb conspiracy theories is that ghost woman residing in Max’s closet! Who is she?! I thought she was Yuria but apparently she is not. The mystery deepens. Why she lives in there is also anybody’s guess. But she makes very teasing appearances and actions as we always see her peeping out from the closet and nobody notices her presence. Very curious indeed. Don’t tell me this is Max’s guardian angel! Or did Sadako get lost and entered the wrong series?! Or is she even a ghost in the first place?! What if she is a fanatic fan of Max who is stalking him!!! Or even his dead mother???!!! Or Fred’s ex-lover?! Because he is the only one who is seemingly aware of her presence! OMFG!!! WHO IS THIS GHOST GIRL???!!! Oh my God, the tension of the mystery is killing me!!!

Art and animation are rather okay. However the general feel of the characters seem to be, uhm, should I put it less appetising? Because for many mature ladies, they have this thicc or masculine-like body. Anego is understandable and to a certain extent Yuria, but take a look at Maou in her high school girl version. Cute and thicc but uhm, doesn’t her body look a bit manly? Oh right. Maou is actually male! Otherwise, some characters look chubby like those neighbourhood kids and I thought they were Maou’s siblings or something. Even with all the voluptuous curves Zenia has, is she also a bit fat?! Not sure if it’s the swimsuit but yeah, that’s the bait to make horny amateurs fap to her. Also, the general character design looks simple and almost bordering cartoonish. Because take a look like Leo. Doesn’t he look like some sort of discount Disney’s Tarzan? And sorry if I thought Fred is the anime version of the Scooby Doo’s Fred Jones. Yikes! This anime is jointly done by Silver Link (Non Non Biyori, Hamefura, Baka To Test To Shoukanjuu, Kokoro Connect) and Blade (Saikin Yatotta Maid Ga Ayashii, Iwakakeru! Sport Climbing Girls).

It’s an all-star cast here! The other main reason why I was attracted in giving this series a look. Naomi Oozora helming Maou is perfect. That’s why I keep seeing shades of Jashin-chan in her. Looks like sugoi dekai or sugoi chicchai characters best suit her! Then there are Yuuichi Nakamura as Max, Youko Hikasa as Zenia, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Fred, Hiro Shimono as Leo, Ami Koshimizu as Yuria and Shizuka Itou as Anego. With such all-star veterans, why isn’t Mamiko Noto here?! GRRR!!! But wait, there is one more whom I didn’t catch. Yuu Kobayashi is that closet ghost girl?! She doesn’t have much lines and only usually groans and gruffs so I didn’t quite catch her until I went back and listened again. Yup, it’s her. The rest are Nanako Mori as Lim (Dorothea in Sirius The Jaegar), Kenyuu Horiuchi as Grimms (titular character in Guin Saga), Kazuyuki Okitsu as Will (Nagare in K) and Ryou Sugisaki as Botka (Hoshikage in Gyakuten Saiban).

The opening theme is One Room Adventure by Madkid. It’s a rock piece mixed with some hip hop elements. I guess it is pretty okay but for some reason hearing this song somewhat brings to mind Boku No Hero Academia. Maybe it just means I think this song would’ve been more suitable for that show. The ending theme is another anime rock outfit, Mirai Teleport by Nenne. Quite a lively piece although personally I just feel it’s rather alright and yeah, generic.

Overall, this is quite a fun and funny series so obviously I enjoyed it all the way despite having lots off goofy and silly moments. I mean, who could forget that YouTube PooCube video exploit. It was riot when Maou teased our cocks for actually going to strip for the views! Curse you, terms and conditions! So if you like you animes with some silly fun, this one is for you. After all, it cannot be totally a bad thing if a Demon Lord and hero get together and hang out, right? Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend. You don’t need to be very high level or have great status, immense wealth or materialistic values to be great friends, do you? Now that is what you truly call peace.

Shingeki No Kyojin (The Final Season – The Final Part) part 2

OMG!!! THIS IS IT!!! THIS IS REALLY IT!!! THE END IS HERE! THE FINAL HAS COME!!! 10 years ever since the first season aired way back in 2013, and now it has all come down to this! The second part of Shingeki No Kyojin (The Final Season – The Final Part) is absolutely the final of the final. The mother of all finals after trolling us with all the final finals! I don’t know what I just said but I’m too hyped to think about anything else and don’t mind diving into this 1.5 hours finale to see everything through! All good things must come to an end… Shinzou wo sasageyo!!!

Chapter 3: The Battle Of Heaven And Earth
The assault begins and if the gang finds killing Zeke was pretty easy, it’s because this is a fake. Great. So the plan has failed this early? How are they going to search this huge bag of bones for the real Zeke? It’s freaking inefficient and they don’t have time! Armin’s idea is for everyone to get out of here because he is going to blow up all the bones to find Eren and Zeke. So fast want to kamikaze? Well, looks like he got kidnapped! This isn’t what I had in mind of a tentacle rape! Then more Titan clones appear as our heroes are kept busy fighting them. Pieck recognizes them as past Titan users. Pieck tries to get the job done by lacing all the explosives around Eren’s neck. However she is pierced by the Warhammer Titan. Onyakopon has crashed his plane but he survives. And there’s a standoff between some Eldians and Marleyans. Do we have time for this at the end of the world? We hear Armin deducing this resistance is all the work of Ymir and that she wants to wipe out humanity. Our heroes face an impossible task with the endless wave of Titans. Is this the end? They meet their demise? Not if a huge winged Titan comes to their rescue. This is Falco in Titan mode. Gabi and Annie are riding him as they pick up the rest. Annie explains when Falco transformed, they weren’t sure if he could fly. But he did so they’re here. And because this Titan was too big, Azumabito’s ship sank. So what else better a reason for them to return to help out. Now Levi decides they need to split the group. One to save Armin and the other to kill Eren. Obviously Mikasa disagrees but everyone here is now trying to convince her that they would’ve been dead meat had not Falco saved their skin. All would’ve died with nothing to show for. Sorry Mikasa, this is not a time to think about that lover boy of yours. Saving him was a luxury they never had.

Apparently Pieck is still alive. Due to Cart Titan’s endurance, she can always escape and form a new Titan. Yeah, should’ve done it earlier rather than keeping us on the edge of our seats thinking she has become casualty #1! When Mikasa spots a strange okapi Titan, she believes this is where Armin is. They have to get it before it brings Armin to Eren. Then we hear Levi’s narration about his regrets. But he has never regretted choosing Erwin or these kids. As the race to stop okapi gets intense, we see Armin lying there motionless and his spirit is trying to scold himself to get his useless ass back up. Betrayed himself again, huh? Meanwhile the Rumbling continues and the end of the world is nigh. People being trampled or burnt to death. Pray to your God now! Armin then realizes he is still alive because how can he think so intensely like that? Then he finds himself at the Coordinate. He also sees a dejected Zeke there. Uhm, trying to make a sand castle?

Chapter 4: A Long Dream
Oh wow. Zeke going to tell us about the history of life? Yeah, there was void and something called life always changing its shape and procreate, blah, blah, blah. That is why life fears death. He adds how Ymir has been suffering for a long time and wanted to escape it all. Eventually she created this world where death doesn’t exist. It seems she wielded all the God-like powers but continued to obey Fritz to a T. Zeke never understood why but it seems Eren did and that’s why Ymir joined his cause. Armin wants to get back to reality but Zeke sees no point in that. What’s the point of living when all will die eventually. Ironically, he finds comfort knowing death is near even though Armin argues that his friends are fighting. There’s liberty in death? Yeah, death is so freeing so there’s nothing wrong about losing. Armin then talks about his days with Eren and Mikasa. Yes, the weather was pretty nice and all. Despite how ordinary those moments, he felt they were very precious. And does this baseball mean anything precious to you?

Suddenly some Titans help our heroes to fight back. This allows Mikasa to cut free Armin from the okapi and even more surprising, Zeke shows himself and calling out to Levi that he is here. You looking for me, pal? After Armin’s talk with Zeke, a few of their dead Eldian Titan users popped up. Zeke reconciles with Ksaver that he still thinks the euthanasia plan is the right thing. But he felt it would be worth it to play catch with him again. He also thanks Grisha for being his father. Armin also makes his peace with Bertolt. Now Zeke feels so relieved and should have thought about this. Game over for him as Levi decapitates the bastard. This causes the Rumbling to stop. All Titans stopping dead in their tracks. One final push as Jean reaches the detonator to activate the bombs. Everyone reunites with their family. Annie with her father and Pieck with hers. Gabi and Falco with their family.

But it is all short-lived because that spinal creature is still alive and trying to resurrect by coming into contact with Eren. Yup, he still lives. You don’t think a mere explosive can kill him, do you? When a strange smoke surrounds the place, uh oh, bad news. Because all the normal Eldians now turn into Titans! The spinal creature trying to get some reinforcements as Reiner, Annie and Pieck in Titan form trying to prevent all that. Meanwhile Armin and Eren have a big Titan slugfest. Mikasa is so sick of everything, she just wants to go home. Uhm, bad time to have an emotional breakdown now! But what’s this? Suddenly Mikasa finds herself living peacefully with Eren in the countryside? Was it all a dream? It seems this is an alternate timeline where Eren took Mikasa and run away right before the operation on Paradise Island began. This was to avoid some huge massacre as Eren believes Armin is still looking for them. Mikasa hugs him, seemingly agreeing to all that. But Eren tells her to throw away the scarf once he dies. Obviously she cannot. Rather, she will not. And now our heroes go all in their final effort to confront Eren. Mikasa managing to get into the Titan’s mouth and see Eren there. She decapitates him. Uhm, does kissing a decapitated head constitute as her first kiss?

Chapter 5: Toward The Tree On The Hill
We see Eren talking to Armin. Long story short, Eren pushed everyone away and played the villain so that they could kill him later. Yeah, I thought I figured that out. Apparently he saw the future of the outcome and he will make Armin into the saviour of humanity. Then he talks about Ymir who was in love with Fritz despite he burnt her hometown, killed her parents and cut off her tongue. This is why the Titan powers continued to exist. However she has been suffering for a long time and wanted to be free. In a way, she saw Mikasa as that ticket to freedom. Not sure why but maybe Mikasa could get the job done? Armin then asks him about his feelings for Mikasa. No idea. This earns him a punch as Armin chastises him that Mikasa only cared for him her entire life. Maybe it’s best she forget about him and move on to someone else. Well, surprised! He starts crying and doesn’t want Mikasa to leave him! He wants her to remember him even after he is dead! Well, that worked a little too well. Eventually, he wants her to be happy. Even more so, he doesn’t want to die and to stay with everyone. Armin still believes there is hope.

However Eren points out at this point he has already killed 80% of the world. This means there will be retribution from the 20% of survivors. So their fight was for nothing? Looks like it. No wonder Armin so disappointed and sad. Whose great idea was it that if there were no humans, can’t have wars?! Such a great meme… Eren admits he is a slave to freedom. Armin is sad that despite all that has happened, he is sure that one day they will be able to make peace. Because it’s like the lesson he is leaving behind is killed or be killed. Eren realizes all the trouble he has caused for his pals is because he is just an idiot. An idiot who has gotten some big powers. Armin then says that he is not to be blamed entirely. Because he was the one who showed him pictures and stories of what is outside the wall. And Eren helped bring him there. So they’re both accomplices. This means they will be together forever. In hell for killing humanity. Both guys emotionally hug as Eren claims he will erase his memories and only remember all this once this is over.

Now that everything is over, Armin wakes up and is distraught to see Mikasa holding Eren’s head. Apparently all his friends too had this memory and now remember them. With Eren’s death, it means the Titan powers vanish forever. All Eldians who turned into Titans revert back to humans and those Titan wielders are now freed from the curse (they don’t have to die within 7 years). Levi sees a vision of his dead Survey Corps members. This is the conclusion of what they’ve devoted their hearts to. With everyone happily reuniting with their families, Mikasa is going to give Eren a proper burial at that favourite tree of his. But now a standoff continues between Eldians and Marleyans. The latter are not sure if the former are still a threat and want proof they are no longer Titans. Armin steps up to claim they no longer have the Titans’ power and that he is the one who killed Eren. Mikasa also makes her peace with Ymir. Her long nightmare is now over.

Historia narrates in her letter that 3 years have passed since that day where great number of lives were lost. The world continues to live on and many still cannot get over that trauma and nightmare. Eldia who fears retribution from the outside world has established a military under the Jaegerists and united the island. Although the world is freed from Titans, human conflict is still far from over. She notes this is not the result of Eren’s choice but everyone’s. She can only foresee more fighting and to stop that, they need to continue fighting. So like fighting fire with fire? Armin, Reiner, Pieck, Annie, Jean and Connie are on a ship to Paradise Island. They wonder if they would be welcomed as they are traitors of the island who killed their revered saviour AKA Eren. It seems they are ambassadors sent by the rest of the world’s union to negotiate peace. Well, their ship hasn’t been sunk yet so there’s hope. Because they’re going to tell everybody all of their story. Yeah, better get it right those facts in the history books!

We see Mikasa by Eren’s grave. She still shed tears and missing him dearly. Though, she thanks him for the scarf. The epilogue and snippets show the tree standing tall through the seasons and ages (even with Mikasa’s passing, she still wears the scarf). And all the civilizations that mankind has progressed through. Yes, a dystopian future where once again a huge war is taking place. The tree still stands tall. Even when a nuke wipes everything out. Don’t know how long a time has passed because nature has reclaimed back everything and enough for us to label such scene as ancient ruins. Then a wanderer and his dog stumble upon this now towering tree. He prepares to enter the mysterious opening. Oh well, history repeats itself? Ymir v2 but with Eren this time? Another story for another time!

Titan A(bsolute). E(nd).
It’s… It’s… IT’S REALLY OVER!!! Oh man. Not sure what I’m feeling now. A sense of overwhelming emotions of the journey I’ve made and come so far with the beloved series that I enjoyed so much. Well, I would say that it was a fitting end to all the madness and nightmare although I pretty much anticipated it all including Eren playing the villain and that the world will continue to live. Yes, I restrained myself from trying to Google any spoilers for months before this finale! Though, I recently read there were some articles about the difference between the manga’s ending and this adapted version but apparently to cut a long story short, there weren’t any and the anime just added a few extra scenes to make them more logical. I didn’t read the manga so I can’t compare. Though, interestingly I also read about the divided opinions from those who read the manga didn’t like how the manga ended but those who only watched the anime actually loved it. I don’t know, I don’t want to partake in such silly meaningless argument. All I know is that I am satisfied with the (ahem, masterpiece) ending and the series overall so that’s that. I just need to find the strength to move on and find the next best anime in my life! Or maybe I could rewatch the whole series again…

Well, if there was one thing that surprised me is that there were no deaths in this finale other than Eren and Zeke. Yup, here I was thinking there were going to be a few more casualties and even Armin himself going to sacrifice his own life just to take down Eren. But it seems all have survived at least on the side of the ‘heroes’. Even that Levi dude too. I guess for his case, this is only right in that sense that as to have proof that Erwin’s alumni lives on. Well, don’t have to make big boys cry like little girls. Heh. And also about Ymir (the freckled face one), I was always stumped about her disappearance but as she popped up as one of those Titan clones, so she’s already dead? Yeah, finally Google on that and turns out she really did died because after she went back to Marley, she got herself eaten to transfer her power to Galliard. Did I miss this somewhere or did I not see this connection while watching the series?! Strange but not strange such lapses in my memory. And as for the founding Ymir (the other ‘death’ other than Eren), oh well, I had a hunch it was love because well, love makes you do strange things. But not as strange as humans, with or without Titans, continue to fight each other. Oh Eren, you don’t have to use Titans to wipe out humanity. They’ll do it themselves albeit it took some time! So was it worth the struggle? For our heroes, yes it was. The devotion paid off.

Overall, it has been a great and exhilarating ride following this series. It has been an honour to be part of this wonderful experience. Yeah, or my life would’ve been so much emptier without it! Whatever greatness and flaws that needed to be said about the series has been said and doing so will only make me sound like a broken tape recorder. I’m sure you’re not here to hear me to continue to heap praises of this show for the umpteenth time, right? Yeah, it’s about time that this is the #1 series that tops all animes I have watched in my life! And it is my earnest hope that they remain this series as the way it is. Because many years down the road, I can’t fathom to think somebody would want to remake this greatness again! Please, NOOO!!! I don’t know why I think of that but you can never know about the anime industry what’s going to happen. Let our sleeping Eren rest in peace! He died for our sins, you know! Thank you and farewell. Titan, Bye-tan… Ta-ta-tan… Heh… Sorry for lame send-off pun… Shinzou wo sasagimashita, arigatou!

Okashi Na Tensei

What a strange title. And so I thought this might be a strange but interesting isekai anime. But yeah, I misinterpreted the title because Okashi Na Tensei isn’t about some strange reincarnation but a reincarnation of a dude who is going to create his own sweets kingdom in this isekai. Heh. What a play on words. And so this season we have yet another isekai anime and this time the pastry/sweets/candy/confectionary theme gets its turn for isekai glory. Sort of. When an up and coming young chef dies in this world, how can he fulfil his dream of creating his own sweets kingdom? That’s right. Reincarnating in isekai is always the answer. What a piece of cake. Cakewalk. Now that’s just sweet.

Episode 1
In some world pastry tournament, some guy thinks he can win this and make his dream come true. Only, the huge candy sculpture he made crashes on him! OMFG! WHAT THE HECK DID HE PUT INTO THAT SCULPTURE THAT COULD KILL???!!! As he lies dying and regretting if only he could make his own sweets kingdom, I guess blaming God did the trick because God now grants his wish! OMFG! Are you kidding me?! And so he is reincarnated in this fantasy world as Pastry “Pas” Mille Morteln. He is the son of Casserole, a fief of his land. He toiled it for 20 years and now it is successfully growing wheat and barley. Now Pas is 9 years old and they have a bumper crop this season thanks to Pas’ wisdom in planting the crops. Obviously he retained memories of his past life and can’t reveal it to others. Casserole’s retainer, Sheet Beatwin reports that bandits have escaped from Retes County and are most likely to run into this village in 2 months. There’s about 50 of them. While Casserole can use his authority to seek help from the count, this however would give the count a bad reputation. As such, in the future they won’t get more reinforcements. So the only obvious solution is to let them ravage the land? WTF?! Sheet has a plan but it is a huge gamble. It involves Pas and this means having him undergo some sanctification ceremony in the capital. It might be a bit too young for him but Casserole has judged Pas good with the sword and pen so I guess he is accomplished. Next day, everybody sees the father and son off. First time Pas is at the capital and he is excited to see all kinds of foods and ingredients. Can’t wait to make different types of sweets. Especially those sweet juicy apples. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARE CALLED BONKAS?! Are you bonkers?! They see this panda priest who starts the ceremony. Uhm, looks like some torture? Because Pas being tied up and blindfolded in a room with nothing. Some explanation how hardship will bring out one’s magic. Whatever. After 2 days, it ends. Pas doesn’t even feel a thing since his mind was preoccupied with making sweets. As the priest reads the scripture, Pas feels some sort of magic coming into him. It appears he has acquired some power unheard of this world. Casserole pays the priest as thanks but later as we see, he is some sneaky traitor because this amount of money isn’t going to make him keep his mouth shut. Pas and Casserole return home as they enjoy the best apples they bought. Oh sorry, it’s BONKAS!

Episode 2
Looks like the bandits have ravaged a village. Nothing left. With word of this reaching Casserole, he knows they’ll arrive here soon as expected. Everyone works hard to fortify their village. Pas’ childhood friends, Marcarullo “Marc” Doroba and Luminito “Lumi” Aidilichpa offer to help as his ‘lieutenants’. Pas has an idea and has them gather rocks. But as dusk falls, the kids hear the sound of horse gallops inching closer in the distance. The bandits are here. They rush back to tell everyone as Casserole revs up everyone’s spirits to fight the bandits and protect their village. They then discuss if the bandits will attack at night. Obviously the villagers have home ground advantage but Casserole believes the bandits are low on supplies and will attack out of desperation. He and Sheet will head out as decoy to ambush the enemy and Pas will be in charge while they are gone. Casserole and Sheet manage to ambush the bandits. In disarray, the duo then lead the bandits to chase them. Once the bandits are in place, the kids start throwing rocks (some with fire?!) at the bandits to throw them off their course. This might not be enough to defeat them but it is all part of Pas’ plan to cause chaos and buy enough time for Casserole and Sheet to manoeuvre freely. The bandit boss makes a daring move by leaping over the moat (damn, is he a long jumper?!) and climbing up the wall (is he a wall climbing pro?!). With some of his men also breaking through, all hell breaks loose. Some villagers get slashed as they fight back. Bandit boss plays dirty by targeting the kids. Pas protects them and gets his arm cut. Pas is then taken hostage. What now? Pas notices a bandit squirming in pain from the fire rock. He uses his magic to replicate that pain on all the other bandits. After Pas is freed, the rest knock out the bandits. Wow. That was easy. So why didn’t Pas use this earlier? Must they be in a certain range?

Episode 3
All the bandits are rounded up and put in the shed. Casserole plans to talk to their count for proper compensation and reward. But first, he rewards his villagers for their effort. This includes giving Marc and Lumi a sword and a bag of barley. Later Marc and Lumi want to go see the bandits. They think it would do them some good to learn since they will one day help govern this village. So as they sneak in, the bandit boss claims Marc is holding his sword. Since he will die, he wants to pass it down before his execution. Learning it will also allow him to use magic. So come closer and he’ll whisper in your ear. Naïve Marc does so despite Lumi’s warning. Bandit boss’ ropes are already loose so he kicks Marc and takes the sword to free himself. Then he makes a slash on Lumi’s guts (but not fatal), takes Marc as hostage and flees on a horse. He won’t bother to even help free his men. When word goes out, Pas immediately chases after them. Casserole also learns of this but is told by Sheet to remain to maintain the villagers’ morale. He will go after Pas. Bandit boss walks into a trap set near the field. Pas then fights him but his sword broke. Before he gets cut, some magic happens. As Sheet is tracking down Pas and finds no sign of him, his worst fear comes true when he sees the broken sword. How will he tell his lord? But when he returns, he is shocked to see Pas at home. How did he miss him even on the way back? This is when Pas reveals his magic is to replicate things including other people’s spell. Hence he replicated Casserole’s teleport magic. Though, the bandit boss got away. Of course Pas gets lectured by father about the dangers of using magic in battle. Thank goodness his magic worked well otherwise who would’ve known what effects it would have on him. He forbids him to let anyone know about this. Pas and Marc go visit Lumi who is doing well. Marc feels ashamed and apologizes although it is no big deal for Lumi. Pas makes apple pies to reconcile. Oh I’m sorry, it’s bonka pies! He even has a sour version of it. This is a lesson that despite from the same fruit, real skills are needed to harmonize the flavours. Hence all this is a lesson for Marc to help deepen his character. Glacage (Lumi’s dad) might sound he is not happy about his daughter wounded. But he lets it slide as long as Marc takes responsibility by marrying her! Lumi doesn’t mind. That’s another experience to deepen the flavour for him!

Episode 4
With all the rebuilding, looks like they’re running out of money. Pas wonders if asking his grandparents would help but as Casserole points out, his marriage to Agnes was against their parents’ wishes. So they eloped and cut ties with them. As Pas brainstorms with Marc and Lumi on how to make money, this leads to them asking Pas to show off his magic by replicating their kiddie drawings on the ground on to their hand. Exact duplicate. This leads to Lumi wondering if he could replicate something real as a picture and this gives Pas a great idea. He talks to father about a great way to make money. His sister, Josephine is now at a marriageable age. By noble standards, she has to be paraded to make herself known. The most efficient way to do that is a ball but that is expensive. This is when Pas uses his magic to replicate a picture of mom onto a piece of wood. They can use this detailed photo to get some money and pitch to parents who are seeking arranged marriages. While this might expose Pas’ magic, they will only make it known to others that it is only applicable to pictures. After all, can’t hide it forever, no? Casserole and Pas soon make their way to Retes County to see Brioche Salgrade Mille Retes. As her predecessors died in war, she became the heir at a young age. So as they start with all the formalities, Pas surprises her when he initiates the negotiations, especially about the need for proper compensation from the attack. Brioche feigns ignorance even when accused the bandits escaped from her territory. And when she asks for proof they defeated the bandits, they show one of the bandits’ sword. It has her family crest on it. This proves they have failed to contain them. Brioche has no choice but to compensate them. But with Pas negotiating for higher, Brioche gives in. This is a small price to pay so as not to lose the king’s trust. Brioche admits defeat but also asks Pas since he seemed unsatisfied with the tea and snacks served. He claims it was too sweet and should’ve balanced the flavours and sweetness, etc. Casserole shuts up his son since they should be taking their leave now. Don’t get too high on their horses. Pas leaves Brioche with a parting gift. Using his magic, he replicates a picture of her on a handkerchief. Lovely.

Episode 5
Casserole and Pas attend a coming of age ceremony hosted by Elisebio Hazbunois Mille Kadlecek who then introduces his grandson, Squale. Quite a panicky fellow. Pas is cooler than him. Pas then uses his magic to make a picture of Petra Mille Hubarek on a handkerchief as a gift. Daughter of Donachel Mille Hubarek, because he is always feuding with his neighbour, his daughters have a hard time leaving the land and so they were tasked to introduce her on his behalf. Instantly Squale takes the bait as he has fallen for Petra’s beauty and would love to attend her coming of age ceremony soon, much to Elisebio’s dismay. Don’t worry, Casserole can arrange for everything to proceed smoothly. Pas assures Elisebio that Donachel may have ulterior motives. Growing tired of the feuds, he might want to end the fight by diminishing his opponent’s will to fight and thus he might be seeking a match for that purpose. Squale then personally wants to talk to Pas. Sorry, it’s not about making sweets but rather if he can make this picture of Petra a little sexier. Gosh… Soon the good news arrive as Squale and Petra are engaged but will be announced privately when she comes of age. This means Casserole will be getting quite a handsome amount for this matchmaking. But now the problem is keeping that engagement a secret. Despite the church being neutral, they can still talk if bribed enough. Casserole can teleport her to safety but they still need guards to protect her. Pas then has an idea for a place where she can certainly be safe. Remember the sanctification ceremony? Yes, put her in there until the announcement. So they’re like locking her in? After all, since she is going for the coming of age ceremony, she too will have to take this ritual. This way, they don’t have to spend on hiring mercenaries and can pocket the money. But Pas soon gets another lecture from father as he ordered crates of bonkas and sugar. Don’t spend money unnecessarily! Casserole and Pas go meet Donachel to help escort Petra and her twin sister, Licorice. Knowing bandits are watching them, the plan is to enter the church under pretence of undergoing sanctification. Once inside, they’ll teleport her into the church at the capital. As they arrive, bandits attack as predicted. I guess they must not being paid enough because after a few short skirmishes, they flee. Yeah, some losing to a kid. What an embarrassment! The girls are scared but thanks to Pas’ bravery, it looks like Licorice has taken a liking for him.

Episode 6
A fallen noble named Armire hires a group of mercenaries led by Strudel. He tasks them with an easy money of kidnapping Petra alive. As they accept this task, they know something is not right. Strudel deduces doing so is to either disgrace the Kadlecek house for letting the bride get kidnapped or perhaps Armire wants to save Petra himself and to look like the hero and marry her. Yeah. It’s creepy. As Petra is taken away to start her duties, Pas is left to accompany Licorice. So as they wait in a room, suddenly a huge hole in the floor pops from beneath. They fall though. Casserole tries to follow down the deep hole but it got him nowhere. Pas and Licorice are kidnapped in the kidnapper’s base. He talks to the sole guard watching them to find out more. Putting on his best act, he manages to find out that a noble is behind this kidnapping. From his dilapidated surroundings, it could be the home of a fallen noble. One whom the Kadlecek or Hubarek house were involved in their fall. And Pas remembers Armire’s name coming up as he is the only name on the list of potential troublemakers they have that fits all the criteria! Just wow. With this info, he uses his magic to teleport his ribbon filled with these info back to father. Now they know what to do. Strudel comes back very mad as he is going to kill Licorice. Pas teleports to protect her but gets beaten up. Strudel is made because Armire won’t pay as they got the wrong girl. Now he won’t leave any witnesses. Before he could kill her, Pas takes up his sword to fight him. How did he recover so fast?

Episode 7
Casserole is here with an army of noble retainers. Father and son corner Strudel. Knowing he cannot win, he uses his magic to make a hole for his escape. With the mercenaries arrested, so is Armire who tried to escape and failed. Story has it Armire house sold info to the enemy. They were investigated and found guilty and stripped of their title. Pas and Casserole return to hunt Strudel. Pas notes something strange about Strudel because he didn’t sense great magic from him. Plus, how did he escape if their forces surrounded the area? Then they realize he is still hiding in the hole! His trick is to wait for everything to settle down before really escaping. Pas has a one on one duel with him. Strudel is careful not to underestimate him but his sword breaks and gets defeated. Yes, Pas replicating the cracks on the wall to his sword! OMFG convenient! With Squale and Petra having a very happy engagement party, Pas talks to Elisebio about the recent kidnapping. Because it seemed all too perfect except for the fact they got the wrong target. Could it be that the wrong info was fed to them? That means there is a third party at work who might benefit greatly gain from all this. Elisebio thinks he suspects him but Pas soon rubbishes this fantasy theory. Pas then suggests he offer some monetary aid for their land. And if he refuses, who knows his tongue might slip. Oh well, I guess that settles it as Elisebio indirectly admits he was the one behind this whole thing so as to destroy the enemy in one fell swoop although it was not his intention to bring harm to his grandson’s fiancée or her sister. Donachel then comes running to Pas to thank him for saving Licorice. Asking if he has anyone he likes or has settled with anyone, Pas claims none. But it is all a trap and bait because now Donachel wants him to be engaged to Licorice! Because if he says no, is he saying his daughter is not perfect and has flaws?! My, of all the negotiations, Pas for the first time can’t worm his way out of this one! With Casserole forced to give his blessings, everybody makes it public their engagement! Yeah, from bonka pies to now a wedding cake! Double happiness! We can call Squale and Petra your brother and sister now, eh?! Pas’ day is salvaged as Licorice bakes him some delicious cookies.

Episode 8
Uhm, could Casserole have worded it better to Agnes? Because he apologizes he has a new woman in his life! She tries to be reasonable and patient but the more he explains, the more he sounds ambiguous. Obviously she blows her top at him for cheating until of course it is revealed that Pas is engaged to Licorice. Now she is happy to have another girl in the family. News of this engagement reaches Brioche. The union has caused with the Kadlecek house has increased Hubarek’s influence. So by having a union with the Morteln house, this could mean they see potential in this house. After all, they were given a wasteland to govern but over the years, it has grown into bountiful crop fields. She won’t be surprised if Pas is the brains behind this and Casserole may have noticed his potential, putting her in a disadvantage now. As part of the engagement agreement, the Kadlecek house has sent tree saplings to Pas. He hopes to grow it into nectars which will make many sweet stuffs. That is why he has set his sights on this undeveloped land for this purpose. Sheet tells Casserole the great news that the influx of new villagers (those who survived the bandits’ attack), their village will grow further. However the bad news is that Pas and his friends have headed to that land. Time to bring back that naughty boy. Pas uses his magic he copied from Strudel to make holes in mountains! He is so happy with this power. He creates a huge hole that will serve as a reservoir and plant trees around it. His daydreaming ecstasy is brought to an abrupt halt as daddy is here. Oh dear. Time for another lecture. As Brioche continues to be concerned of Pas, she rues she has no heir and would’ve made the same decision as Casserole. Even more so, the Kadlecek and Hubarek house have ganged up to go over to his side. When her retainer, Coaton Engels suggests marrying him, she didn’t like this bad joke at first but then has an idea to make him under her wing. Soon a letter inviting Pas to Brioche’s tea party to ask his opinion on her teas. But this only makes Pas suspicious she asked specifically for him. She must be up to something. But that have to wait as Licorice visits. Actually, she intends to stay with him for a while.

Episode 9
Donachel’s reason to send Licorice to stay with Pas is to have Brioche get off his back. He knows Brioche knows of Pas’ potential and will try to control him. Even more so with the timing of this tea party. So by having Licorice accompany Pas, she won’t be able to manoeuvre easily over him. Pas shows Licorice his kitchen as he bakes a few sweets for her, namely the hard candy. Agnes, Josephine, Lumi and Marc are spying on them. The girls are not impressed Pas isn’t taking any aggressive initiative. Pas of course calls them out and knows they’re spying. Well, gotta go! Pas and Licorice attend the tea party. They are greeted by Coaton who is also tasked to keep an eye on them. Coaton introduces them to the crowd and this is a chance for Pas to show his village’s specialty. He has everyone try his hard candy. He is willing to give more for free as long as they don’t impose sugar tax. With everyone agreeing, Brioche makes her appearance and would love to hear more about this idea. She will talk to Pas privately and this makes Licorice nervous since she will be waiting alone outside. In her room, Brioche wants to know his goal but he lets her taste his hard candy. Good of course. Pas explains the ingredients they are made from and hopes to produce them all in his land. Then he expects to mass produce them in 3 years. This shocks Brioche because the land is barren. But knowing it is Pas, he can perhaps pull it off. She is interested to see his endgame and will aid him in any way she can. After all, she wants to profit and control this future of his. Licorice gets depressed as she feels she doesn’t fit in and wants to go home. As Brioche and Pas leave and return to the party, Brioche flatters Pas’ fiancée. Since he is pretty shy to talk about it, she hugs him and won’t let him go until he admits his true feelings. Just then, Licorice walks in and sees this. Oh my…

Episode 10
As expected, Licorice runs away. Pas gives chase and after he catches up with her, he tries to explain himself. Licorice is sad because she heard many women in the hall talking about Pas. She started imagining awful things and at this rate, she fears he will not love her if someone else expresses her love for him. She goes on to compare herself to Petra who is more outgoing and social. Pas assures he likes her the way she is now. He hopes she will put her full trust in him. So he has her wait as he teleports home and soon brings back a candy apple for her to try. You mean it’s not candy bonka?! Anyway, he made this specially for her and says there are many names to this that includes apple of love. So it’s still not a bonka, huh? He wants to make her happy and smile (because it’s only right for his sweets kingdom) and as the mood is right for them to kiss, their retainers make themselves known. Oops, almost. When they return home, Agnes can’t help smother Pas and wants to know the whole story. This could be much fearsome than Brioche. Speaking of which, Pas gets the last laugh as he wraps the hard candy using a picture of Brioche hugging him. He distributes the candy all over and now everybody thinks Brioche is a shotacon! Lots of proposals from young boys streaming in! You bet Brioche is mad like hell! She’ll get that sneaky kid yet! Donachel receives word that his feuding neighbour, the house of Lutoroute is going for war. He is forced to seek reinforcements. Pas talks to Sheet about the use of goat milk and the importance of chickens not for meat but eggs. A whole lot of wonderful pastries can be made from eggs, right? Pas is also experimenting in making his own sugar so his land can produce it themselves. Pas and his friends then try to make a juicer to extract juice from fruits. Uhm, why the heck did he make them so high that Lumi sitting on Marc’s shoulders can’t even reach it? In fact, they even broke the lever! Back to the drawing board. It is then Licorice suggests a juicer in her place. One where it makes wine whereby you just turn the lever around. Pas will go talk to Sheet about this but soon he gets the bad news from Casserole that war has begun.

Episode 11
Lutoroute and his men are planning their war. But when he hears Squale is currently staying at Donachel’s manor, he hatches a devilish plan. Meanwhile Pas and Licorice are sad that men have to go to wars for unknown reasons. I guess in such times, kids like them can only do what they do best: Bake sweets! As Pas promises to bake her cheesecake, he is expecting the arrival of some goats. But to his horror, it seems Baron Lunzvage has swiped them. Actually, he coerced the men into selling the goats to him. So, Pas is going to turn into a bad guy and not forgive him who gets in his way of his dream?! Luckily the adults calm him down to talk some sense into him. As the land is at war, food is very much needed. Even more so, Lunzvage did not steal them. The only one ‘harmed’ is Pas himself. If he insists on pursuing this, Lunzvage may use this excuse to start a war to dismiss him. So now you know why men go to war!!! For now, they have to go help Donachel as he has requested for reinforcements. Pas agrees. Because this is to get back his goats! I guess he isn’t really letting that one go. When Donachel receives word that Lutoroute’s forces are way smaller than as reported, he decides to send Squale to the front lines for his first battle to earn some credit. Little does he know that this is all part of Lutoroute’s plan to break up the Kadlecek and Hubarek house. If Squale wins, obviously Kadlecek will be grateful towards Hubarek. Now imagine if their son dies. See where this is going? When that happens and no support left, Lutoroute will launch all his attack on Hubarek house. Casserole and Pas arrive as they see Donachel who updates them about the situation and the enemy positions. But they feel something strange about it. Why would an enemy who is invading beef up their defence solidly? They put themselves in the enemy’s shoes and suggest points they would attack. This is where Donachel realizes his mistake. Because this place is where Squale is headed and is right for the enemy’s ambush. Immediately Casserole and Pas rush there. Squale and his men realize too late about the trap when the enemies surround them. No way out. Their soldiers are being taken out. Before the inevitable happens, here comes Casserole and Glacage to cut down the enemies. OMFG! Only the 2 of them and they can defeat the enemy???!!! This is not even magic! It is dumb plot convenience! Squale is happy to see Pas who is tasked to aid him.

Episode 12
With Squale saved and returned to base, Lutoroute is not happy with this. Because of his plans foiled, he retreats and the war is called off. Despite everybody praising Squale for his bravery and all, Squale himself doesn’t feel good. A lot of his men have died so it’s natural he is depressed. They don’t blame him but oh well, it’s hard to shake off that feeling. Since Petra can’t help him, Pas is tasked to do something about it. Oh right. Bake some sweets. During the party to celebrate their victory, Squale continues to put a forlorn figure. Until of course Pas comes to give him tarte tatin. He explains the story how a pair of sisters made this dish out of failures. Ah yes, that’s that taboo word. However if not for that failure, this dish would not have been made. So the lesson is for Squale to build upon this failure to become better. Petra is proud of him because he was worried about his men than celebrating and because he kept his promise to come back alive, she couldn’t be happier. With that, Squale’s blues are blown away as he promises to become stronger. Back home, not sure what kind of devilish negotiations Casserole and Pas came up but they’re going to get back double from what Lunzvage took from them. So not only they got lots of goats but a few fine horses as well. Everyone returns to their normal peaceful life as Pas as promised, makes a cheesecake from goat’s milk for Licorice.

Bittersweet Pie In The Sky: The Cake Is A Lie!
Sorry, not exactly cherry/icing on the cake. But yeah. All is fine and everybody is happy living out their lives as long as no stupid wars take place! Just remember, whenever you are stressed always have desserts because that is what it is when spelt backwards. Sorry for the cheesy line but I guess it fits a cheesy show like this! Heh! Next time to prevent any wars, may I suggest Pas just bakes those delicious treats and send them over to the enemy?

Honestly, I am not sure if I should be feeling disappointed with the storyline of the series. Oh heck, maybe I should. Because as usual, I formed by own expectations of what this story is going to be. Yes, this is going to be somewhat a wholesome and BORING anime about a reincarnated guy happily making sweets and pastries every single day. Oh yeah. Even if it was going to be like that, I figure I could stomach it since I have sweet tooth and I would certainly very much welcome the types of tasty treats that he will bring us even if they are all just pictures and 2D visuals. Yum! Nothing but making sweets and candies from start to finish. Perhaps telling us a few basic and secret recipes in making some common or rare or unique confectionaries in between. Oh wow. May be boring stuff and a person like me who can’t cook, at least visually I could feast my eyes on it and salivate at all the good looking food. YUM! I can’t wait to see what this kid bakes!

And then… Guess what… Instead of all that boring sweet wholesomeness, what we get from this series, a big majority of it is just medieval style politics and wars! OMFG! Are you f*cking kidding me???!!! Did the series just deceive and lie to us?! Sure, we have some pastries featured but that is by far and few in between. So after a dozen episodes, we only have a handful that are featured. Apple pie (oh sorry, bonka pie), hard candy, debatably the candy apple (sure it’s not candy bonka?) and tarte tatin. Count ‘em! Oh, can I count that cheesecake as cameo too? This is what we get from a series that is supposed to put its focus on the sweets theme?! Even Princess Connect! Re:Dive has more food features than this one! And that is not even supposed to be a food themed series. Just saying. Sad to say, the sweet treats here feel very secondary and not even a prominent feature. Because if I were to remember and think back on this anime, sweets are not the first thing that will pop up in my mind!

Sorry if I feel a bit sore and disappointed but yeah, looks like at this rate Pas will not be able to create his dream sweets kingdom. He is still at the starting point if I should say. Hence if I am really going to nit-pick on the title, I guess in this very context, it was really a strange anime. Yeah. Hontou ni okashi desu yo! Thus we didn’t get the sweets but rather the strangeness. Is this supposed to be the shock factor to us viewers? The double meaning in the words?! Can’t say I like it very much. Without my sugary sweets, now I’m just pissed off! GGGGRRRRRRRRR!!! GIVE ME MAH F*CKING SWEETS!!!!

Even in this isekai context, the whole story seems to be average and paltry. We just see Pas somewhat enjoying his isekai life and using his genius (I would rather call it his retained memories from his former life) in creating some so called pastry miracles. But that is so much about it. Because instead of spending most of his time in the kitchen or in the field, what we mostly see Pas doing is to attend noble events and even fight off bandits to protect his own village! Worse, he even went to war as the season reaches its end! Sure, sure. If he wants to make a peaceful sweets kingdom where everybody can smile and enjoy all the sweet sugary stuffs, he has to put in the sweat to fight all that comes his way, blah, blah, blah. Oh come on. Give him a break. He is just a kid. Even more so an isekai one! Couldn’t he use his magic to just end all the war or at least create the best tasting sweet for the enemies?! I’m sure nobody wants to fight and just sit down and enjoy his pastries once they’ve tasted it! WHY HAS HE NOT THINK ABOUT THAT???!!! Don’t bother thinking why men go to war. What’s the solution to it?! Oh right. That candy slab that killed him may have killed a lot of brain cells when he reincarnated over.

The characters are pretty bland and boring. Like Pas who perhaps check off the list on what a reincarnated isekai main character should be. Trying to say it all here would make me sound like a broken character. Oh heck, who am I kidding? I’m just too lazy to say it since Pas didn’t really impress me. Even more so his magic that can replicate things, it just screams freaking plot convenience AKA BS. Imagine, replicating cracks on a wall onto a sword. CRACKS ON A WALL! My goodness. If this was a different genre, the government might want to kidnap him to force him to do experiments on human cloning! Heh. So yeah, nice and good hearted kid trying to create his own sweets kingdom. Cool. Fine. But the way I see it, he is being dragged into adult stuffs and his dream is really looking more like a dream than reality. To spice things up, he gets engaged but I guess that is double the happiness because now he can share his lovely treats with someone he loves than the usual family. It is also necessary to help improve Licorice’s character from a coward to one who at least opens up and have more confidence in herself a little in the end. Thank goodness she got engaged to the right man boy. How sweet.

Other characters just really unmemorable. Like Casserole is a good leader and father and I suppose most of his role or I should say, his running joke is to scold and lecture Pas when he goes out of line. Sure, he did say to keep his magic a secret. This is why Pas doesn’t openly use it which may have saved the world and stop all stupid wars. But I guess that’s not the case. Then there is Sheet who is Casserole’s good right hand man but the only thing I want to nit-pick is why the official subtitles call him as Feuille. If that is his nickname, I can understand but they clearly call him Sheets. Trying to confuse the hell out of us? Trying to distract us from the strangeness of the series? Maybe many of the characters here have names that sound close or related to food and it would be freaking strange for him as a major supporting character not to have one. I don’t know, that’s just some dumb conspiracy theory of mine but yeah, whatever.

Then there is Agnes and Josephine who are so underused, like as though they shouldn’t even exist in the first place. All I remember is that they play cheeky pranks on Pas an small occasions like dressing him up as a girl but other than that, nothing much. Pas is like the apple of their eye? Oh sorry, bonka of their eye? Then there is Marc and Lumi as Pas’ best friends but I guess it’s best to hook them up to give them more character and significance. And then we forget all about it. Don’t worry, these 2 will always be together, right? Finally there is Brioche who is slightly more interesting but I can’t fathom why she wants to be a bully so badly. Is she bored in life? She thinks she’s smart but plot convenience says otherwise. Now eat humble pie! And the rest of the baddies are just a paltry. They act tough but get easily defeated. Once that happens, you never heard from them again. Like that bandit boss in the early episodes. What happened to him? Yeah, maybe he fell into a ditch and died.

Art and animation are just moderate. Because the characters here lean towards the cute side, on the first looks, this may look like some sort of show for children. After all, when you have Pas as a kid and the main character, it is not hard to think otherwise. Series with a young child as the lead character such as Tensei Kizoku No Isekai, Isekai Yakkyoku and Hachi-nan Tte Sore Wa Nai Deshou seem to have this sort of style of visuals. Yeah, don’t such kids look somewhat the same? Hence this one is no different. Even the overall backgrounds, colouring and hues are mostly bright and livid so yeah, one may mistake this to be a show for younger audiences. This show is done by SynergySP who did Zettai Karen Children, Kirarin Revolution, Mermaid Melody and the Metal Fight Beyblade spinoffs. Mostly shows that are targeted for young kids so you can see why their visuals are mostly so.

Voice acting also feels average. Recognized a few veterans lending their talents here such as Youko Hikasa as Brioche, Takehito Koyasu as Donachel and Kouji Yusa as Lutoroute. The rest are Ayumu Murase as Pas (Luck in Black Clover), Hiroshi Tsuchida as Casserole (Grisha in Shingeki No Kyojin), Yuu Wakabayashi as Sheets, Kaede Hondo as Licorice (Echidna in Yuusha Yamemasu), Kaya Okuno as Petra (Kaya in Wake Up Girls), Natsumi Fujiwara as Marc (Damian in Spy x Family), Maaya Uchida as Lumi (Lily in DanMachi) and Wataru Katou as Squale (Touka in Yuusha Ga Shinda). The opening theme, Brand New Day by Sana is a dramatic rock piece and I thought it would fit better for a battle shonen anime genre. The ending theme, Fuumi Zekka by Yuni feels like some sort of slow hip hop added in some sound effects. Can’t say I like it very much.

Overall, I find this series to be disappointing as well as underwhelming. Should have been some sort of isekai cliché spamming all the sweets wholesome goodness but instead we get distracted by politics and war of the backwater noble kind. That didn’t really sweeten the deal! I don’t know if I should be feeling happy about that since it was not what I expected as it was slightly a bit off. Oh heck, who am I kidding? I’m not! I want to label this one worse than the Chuuka Ichiban remake but changed my mind because the food theme here is about pastries, candies and confectionaries, those sweet sugary stuffs that I love but never got to experience. Can’t stay mad all the time. Can’t have my cake and eat it. That’s the way the cookie crumbles for viewers alike. And to think they really renamed the apple here as bonka. Couldn’t have picked a better name, huh? Bonkers! I wonder what kind of name they’ll have for other fruits. Whatever they are, I bet it’ll sound bananas and nutty as a fruitcake!

Kanojo Ga Koushaku-tei Ni Itta Riyuu

Oh dear. Not another one! Well, at first it might seem Kanojo Ga Koushaku-tei Ni Itta Riyuu is going to be yet another one of those villainess trying to avoid her doom plot. After all, we already had enough of Bakarina, followed by Aho-leen and then a slightly different take on this genre via Tsunlise. Are we not done with this kind of plot yet?! But wait. This one is slightly different. Our main character here is not a villainess. I repeat, she is NOT A VILLAINESS! Phew! However, it still doesn’t hide the fact that she is now a fictional character trapped in a fictional story (hey, at least not a video game) and that her role as a minor character is one who will soon be killed and thus ushering the arrival of the story’s main character. Yup. A plot that is still about trying ways to prevent her impending death. But yeah, thank goodness she isn’t the villainess. Heh.

Episode 1
Long story short, Rinko Hanasaki dies after she gets mysteriously pushed off the rooftop. But wait! She gets reincarnated as Raeliana McMillan. With this blissful and happy noble life, why isn’t she happy? You see, Raeliana is the name of a character of a fictitious novel and gasp, she will get killed by her fiancé, Francis Brooks! Yeah, it is going to suck dying twice so you bet she is going to find a way to stop this. Although Francis gets exposed by the time the novel’s heroine appears, she’ll already be dead. Too late. Because both families are of high status, breaking the engagement on her own will be tough. So she tries to be a b*tch and irk Francis in hopes he’ll call off the engagement. Well, he is pretty fine with everything! Until one day he just shows his true colours that he can’t escape this political marriage so might as well get used to it. During the party hosted by this nation’s duke, Noah Voltaire Wynknight, Raeliana notes about the nation’s declining royalty system replaced with nobles via capitalism. Old nobles try to prevent new ones from forming via this law called Nouveau Riche Prevention Law that also prevents the transfer of noble titles. A royal seal needed to enact this law was stolen. As the nobles scramble to find a new way, that was when Noah showed up. From the kingdom’s military for generations, he is the last bastion of conservatism although he was removed from the line of succession once due to some scandal. But now he is back and is carrying the hopes of the old nobles. Raeliana decides to go make a deal with him. Meanwhile Jake Langston confronts Francis about his fiancée. He is reminded to not screw this up or he is dead. So try to get in your fiancée’s good books. Raeliana confronts Noah and wants to make a deal with him about the royal seal. This gets his attention and Raeliana knows his character well. Despite his nice looks, he is a demon inside. This is interrupted by Francis looking for her. Raeliana uses this chance to go to Noah’s side, claiming they are fond of each other. Noah gets the hint and plays along. This leaves Francis frustrated and annoyed but he won’t give up on this matter. Noah then calls out to his assistant, Whitton to investigate on Raeliana as well as to watch over Francis in case he tries anything funny.

Episode 2
Raeliana still has a bad hangover in the morning. But she has to get ready fast since Noah is here to visit her. Her life is on the line. Then she has to explain the meaning of this so she tells them she wants to break up with Francis and get hitched with Noah. She is expecting resistance since this will affect her father’s business but surprisingly they give their blessing. She’s such a good girl so she deserves this much. Well, that went well. Raeliana then visits Noah’s place. He hopes to talk some business with her but she brings up the seal’s whereabouts. Noah is actually having it! Based on the story, Noah leading the old nobles is just for show and is a pawn for the king. Only very few know this secret and this includes the heroine. However Noah loses interest and wants her to leave. When she tries to reveal more (its exact whereabouts in some grave), he tells her to get out. Raeliana fears everything will end if she leaves now. This is when she hits an idea. Something about placing the Gale family under him. Because their eldest son, Valdur is troublesome and a ticking time bomb, his best bet is to support the second son, Harrelson. Noah is interested and wants to negotiate. So as she wants him to sign this contract to pretend to be her fiancé for 6 months and after that they’ll never see each other again, he insists on her source. The same source that told her the seal’s whereabouts also told her about Francis wanting to kill her? Obviously she can’t tell and claims her source is dead and if he doesn’t agree, then forget about this contract. Surprisingly he signs it but in exchange she must play the part of his fiancée. Oh well, did she just sign her soul away to the devil? Yup, getting a feeling this is a fate worse than death! So as part of the deal, she must move into his home for bridal training. She is also assigned Adam Taylor, one of his elite guards to look out for her. The actual intention is to keep watch on her and if she tries anything funny, she’ll be dead. Some back story about Taylor in the story but I’ll skip those parts. Raeliana hangs out with her little sister, Rosemary. Taylor shows his kindness by freeing her balloon stuck on the tree. She thanks him with a sweet as Raeliana now knows he likes such stuffs and would have her maid, Elma to make more of it before she leaves. Soon, Raeliana departs for Noah’s mansion.

Episode 3
Raeliana meets Gideon Jura, the butler head as he shows her around. Oh damn, he even tells her the history of the mansion and the likes! What a tiring day! Noah talks to her that he will take care of the compensation that the Brooks family is asking. So all she needs to do is attend the bridal training. Of course he doesn’t expect her to be perfect. Similarly, she isn’t expecting him to be perfect too. Just keeping up with the appearance until this is settled. She wants to know if there are others other than them who know about this. 2 in fact. One of them is Taylor. Raeliana’s training begins the next day and of course they are all quite exhausting. Luckily being born into a noble family, she already has some training there so it’s bearable. Noah then has a ball to attend tonight and he plans to announce his engagement there. This shocks Raeliana as she is not told about this. To doll her up, Noah leaves her in the care of this tranny, Nick Maddox. Don’t judge him by his looks. Because he is a skilled makeup artist. Raeliana does look a bit dishevelled since she has been attending the bridal course. But with Nick’s magic, Raeliana is back to being beautiful again. Now she trusts him to put on his magic touches as he also trains her with different types of smiles. And behold! A very beautiful Raeliana. Noah acting indifferent is it because he is being shy that she is so beautiful? Now she can identify the smile that is just unique to Noah himself.

Episode 4
At the ball, everyone can’t take their eyes off this beauty. When guys want to dance with her, Noah refuses them. How gentlemanly? After they dance, Raeliana notices the entrance of Vivian Shamal. According to the story, she tried to win Noah’s heart but was turned down. Heartbroken, she accepted some timely proposal from the king. But when the novel’s heroine, Beatrice Tranche entered into a relationship with Noah, that’s when all gloves come off. Basically she is the story’s villainess. Raeliana fears Noah wants her to get acquainted with Vivian but it is actually with Freese Eriteal, the wife of a marquis. She is part of a group of old nobles’ wives that discuss among themselves that would affect the whole kingdom. He wants Raeliana to get invited to join that group. Raeliana agrees to do this only to make him owe her one. Raeliana fakes spilling drinks over her. But the situation gets sticky when Vivian comes into the picture. As they talk, Raeliana can tell Vivian is trying to show her supremacy over her but she isn’t about to let her have her way. Raeliana answers her in the most courteous of manners although her answers definitely irks Vivian a lot. This hostility might go on forever had not Nick come to be catty with this vixen, giving Raeliana the much needed chance to take Freese away from here. Inside a room as they clean up, Freese talks about her circumstances of marrying the marquis. Her town was struck by disasters and it is literally a ghost town now. She only came to the capital after marrying the marquis and is not used to things yet, the reason she is hanging around Vivian. With Raeliana being a smooth operator, Freese then invites her to join her group. As the ladies get ready to return to the ball, a smokescreen is tossed into the room. Raeliana is kidnapped.

Episode 5
Francis and Jake are behind this kidnapping. Flashback shows many women tried to court Francis but he would swindle them out of their money. One of them was Sophie, Jake’s sister. However she tried to kill herself to save Francis from that habit. In a bid to stop her, he accidentally killed her. So in order to ‘solve’ this, Jake told Francis to marry Raeliana for the money and then kill her. Raeliana wakes up with Jake by her side. She tries to scream for help but it’s no use. There’s nobody in this forest. Because Jake seriously could kill her, she’ll play along and be quiet. She learns that Jake is doing this for Sophie’s revenge. She believes Sophie wouldn’t want this but Jake rubbishes all that and doesn’t care. It’s money that makes the world go round, baby! When the carriage hits a rock and its wheel broke, Raeliana takes this chance to escape after making Francis feeling guilty by revealing she knew he was trying to kill her. In the woods, she stumbles into Taylor. Jake tries to ambush him but Taylor is better. Jake warns the possibility of killing him means she has to live with that guilt. After all, his family is drowning in debt and as a noble, he won’t be executed for this. Raeliana wants Taylor to capture him alive but Jake throws some potion at Taylor. This attracts a monster and this gives time for Jake to run. Taylor can handle this monster himself as he pushes Raeliana off the cliff. Gee, death again by falling? Luckily Noah catches her. Worried about Taylor? Don’t be. He just killed the monster! Jake has been arrested by Noah’s guards and as they find Francis, Raeliana spots him and then borrows Noah’s gun to get some payback. Yeah, a few shots to scare this dude out of his daylights. It sure made Raeliana’s day. As Raeliana thanks Noah for coming to her aid, Noah wonders why he got angry for her. Her death would’ve benefited him as she knows his secrets. He orders Taylor to get rid of Francis and Jake.

Episode 6
Raeliana wakes up in Noah’s bed. He is half naked. Her back hurts. Oh my. Did something happen last night? He claims she was begging for it. As she tries to escape, Noah orders Taylor to get her back. But surprisingly, he helps Raeliana to escape. Noah then has all his guards search around. The duo are still on the grounds actually. Raeliana uses the maid’s bathe to wash herself up and then dons a maid outfit. I APPROVE! Count Keith Westenberg is here to visit Noah today but because of the turn of events, Gideon has to unfortunately tell him that it is off. No matter, he will wait. Taylor leaves Raeliana in Noah’s study. It will be the last place anyone will look, right? As she goes through some of the books, she notes she could understand all this world’s languages. An ability from the reincarnation? This catches the eye of Keith because he is impressed she could read a very difficult language. Then Noah spots Raeliana and realizes why nobody was able to find her. She continues to keep her distance but he explains himself that nothing happened. Her back hurts because of riding the horse and that begging thing was her sleep talking. Since his room was the nearest, he put her to bed when they returned. Raeliana thought of holding the advantage of not forgiving him but this guy keeps nibbling her hand until she does! So all forgiven, right? Once this is over, Keith is surprised to see the side this couple he has never known. Raeliana parents visit after learning about their daughter’s kidnap. Noah assures them she is safe now and promises to protect her for the rest of his life. As Francis is put in St Bell Prison, it is the kingdom’s toughest prison. Nobody checks out from there. Hence this has Raeliana ponder if she should go through with this engagement since her threat to her life is gone. After all, it was her friend and the main heroine Beatrice who should fall for and marry Noah. So when Raeliana talks about this, Noah can tell she wants to opt out of the contract. He hopes she can still stay with him. Until she really has not further use of him. She asks if he has ever fallen in love before. Nope. He can’t because the moment you do, as a duke of the royal family, he will undertake some tremendous risk. She still hopes he will end up loving someone someday. I think we know the answer…

Episode 7
Raeliana receives an invitation letter from Freese regarding the upcoming monster hunt. When winter approaches, monsters from the mountains will come down to hunt for food. Nobles with fighting prowess will fight them to protect the land and then offer their kill to their lady. Of course Noah has never done such offering. Raeliana then notices letters she wrote to Beatrice but all were returned. Then she realizes that the change in turn of events may have caused it to happen. Originally when Raeliana died, Beatrice returned from overseas. Now that she survived, she won’t be returning. You didn’t expect your survival would be a major change in the story, did you? As suggested, Raeliana should offer her handkerchief to Noah as part of some noble thingy. Of course Noah has a reputation of never accepting them. Raeliana is deep in thoughts about how the story ended with Noah falling in love with Beatrice. So much so she didn’t realize she was next to Noah sleeping and when he wakes up, he thinks she was stealing glances of him sleeping. And she is made to apologize or does she want to get more harassment? The pillow is a great punching bag to take out her frustrations. Monster hunt day is here. Raeliana gives her handkerchief to Taylor instead and even bakes him cookies. Noah wants one too and although she won’t give it to him, he continues to bug her until she gives in. She thought he won’t bow his head to kiss her hand but he did. Here’s your handkerchief. As the nobles leave for the hunt, their ladies stay behind and await their return. Of course this means Raeliana has to be with the company of Vivian and her b*tches. As expected, they try to humiliate her but Raeliana knows better and with her smooth charisma, repels those insults back, making Vivian quite irritated. They even resorted to the childish trick of accidentally splashing wine over her but Raeliana will not give in to this immaturity. As the weather gets worse, some monsters may become more dangerous. Noah’s group has not returned yet but one of his guards, Ansley returns looking defeated.

Episode 8
Everyone thought a creoder (Cerberus?) is going to attack the place but it turns out Noah killed it and brought it back. Noah claims this isn’t the dragon Raeliana wanted but promises he will get one for her. This leaves her confused but with Vivian intensely watching, Raeliana puts up a lovey-dovey act with Noah before they retreat their room. Obviously, dissing that b*tch and make her mad. Raeliana gets clarified about the dragon thingy. The handkerchief she gave Taylor had a dragon embroidery on it. As for Ansley’s case, he sent her back early to inform her. So as not to give off weird perceptions, Raeliana shuts Noah up and has him never to speak of that misunderstand that is when they were in bed together that night. Raeliana rues her actions (of putting her hands over his mouth) because it feels like she has become closer to him. Keith talks to Noah about offering a monster to a lady, something he has never done before. Then he asks if Noah is serious about Raeliana. Nope. In that case, Keith wants to pursue her. Noah puts his foot down and reminds him of his place. Meanwhile Vivian rues that she always gets what she wants. Every man she met showered her with adoration. Until she met Noah. Always a first time for everything. Now she wants to make him regret for turning her down and can’t bear the thought he isn’t hers. So, she got this shady pendant for something? Vivian will not attend the temple, something all those who participated in the hunt would do thereafter. She was supposed to light the sacred flame but it’s now on Raeliana. Perhaps that could be the reason. Wade Davis is trying to explain to Heika Demint to just attend the temple since their funds are dwindling. Obviously this kid doesn’t want to go as he blames Wade’s stupidity because had he been smarter, that would’ve shaved 5 years worth of his studies that would have been used for the funds instead. Wade won’t give up and tries to convince him by just appearing, this is enough to make people keep donating and have the temple run for another year. His answer: GTFO. As Raeliana departs for the temple, she reads a letter from the Fyatt International School of Theology regarding her request about a student named Beatrice. No such person. Raeliana is shocked as she wonders if Beatrice came back or not. Firstly, she did so because Raeliana died. Now that the narrative has changed, we’re into uncharted territory.

Episode 9
Eugenia will be Raeliana’s guide as she stays at the temple. All her escorts cannot follow her from here on. Eugenia then has her eat this toxic gruel as part of the purification! OMG. Is she trying to kill her?! Imagine, having to eat this poison until the day of the ceremony! Is this how Raeliana dies?! As she takes a breather outside, she notices a bird drowning and saves it. Heika then tells her about how it is such fate of the bird to die since it is weakened when it entered to dome. He is puzzled since she doesn’t look sad and could it be she doesn’t know who he is? Raeliana lets the bird outside the dome and it still falls flat. Heika continues to reiterate about fate but Raeliana tells him off as long as you have the will, you can live. Oh look, the bird now takes flight. Heika scolds Wade for being unable to find Raeliana. Yeah, this lousy piece of drawing! He’ll find her himself. As Raeliana pleads no more of that toxic food, Eugenia says to go help translate transcripts in the library. Off she goes. By the time Heika returns from his futile search that probably could last a trip around the world, he realizes someone has translated his texts. Amazed with someone with such talent, he forces Wade to use his magic to trace this person. It leads to Raeliana. To prove she was the one who translated it, they speak in that language. REVERSE LANGUAGE?! OMG! Wade then introduces Heika to her. Look how disappointed and shock she is. Heika invites her to be his disciple. She humbly declines. Wade can’t understand why she turned him down and bugs Wade all the time! Wade is confused that Heika didn’t get mad and storm off to do it on his own. He is shocked that Heika accepts his suggestion to be friendlier with her. Heika realizes she still doesn’t know who she is and to open the gates to the holy land now. As preparations for the ceremony, Raeliana is given this beautiful pendant.

Episode 10
In his bid to impress Raeliana, Heika opens the gate and even has holy knights on standby. Grand. Are you not impressed? Looks like she isn’t. Remembering Wade’s words to be friendly, because has been living here for 150 years alone, this leads to the twisted thinking that he wants to become Raeliana’s grandpa! She’ll humbly decline! As Wade tries to reason with Heika, Raeliana tries to sneak away. However the pendant starts to activate. In fact, it is going to explode! It would have had not Heika stopped time and took it off. This has also turned Heika into his handsome hunk version. Later Heika and Noah talk about this. Apparently this is a rare stone that when exposed to sunlight will explode. Then it turns into an argument over Raeliana. Heika wants him to break up with her so she can stay here. Noah refuses and in fact as gratitude for saving her, he will help out with the finances by donating. Music to Wade’s ears! So it’s the battle between my fiancée and my granddaughter! As Raeliana lies in the pool, she starts thinking if it is her fate to die. Her character is after all written for that role. Noah comes to see her and he sounds very desperate in trying to get her to reveal who wants her dead. Because as revealed, Francis and Jake are already dead! Raeliana can’t tell him so he becomes pushy. She throws him into the pool to have him cool off. Once he calms down, he says that the thought of losing her made him lost his mind. This shocks her because do you think what I think he meant by that? Raeliana lights the fire at the ceremony. Heika even attending it since he usually doesn’t. He once more tries to get her to call him grandpa and this time she relents. Meanwhile we see Vivian’s brother, Justin being chastised by their father for being fixated on a certain woman. He is then told to see how Vivian is doing because it could’ve been her who got killed at the ceremony. He also needs Justin to convince her to visit the king frequently in hopes she’ll be queen one day. Justin knows father is desperate to get royal bloodline into the family. As Justin goes to see Vivian, he hears a commotion coming from her. Well, who is this guest we’re having? Why, it’s Beatrice!

Episode 11
After Noah buys Raeliana a new jewel and spend the day with her, as they return to the mansion, he receives urgent news that he must take care of. As Raeliana retires to her room, a maid talks to her about the rumours about a certain mirror. Don’t ever look straight into it because a maid did so and heard a voice talking to her. It asked what she wanted to know. Of course this is too curious for Raeliana to pass up because she wants to know where the heck Beatrice is. So that night as she confronts that mirror, she gets scared to hear something faint. She gets the spook of her life when Noah taps her shoulder. So uhm, he returned at this hour to get something he forgot and it wasn’t because he was worried about her? Still spooked, Raeliana doesn’t want him to leave as he accompanies her back to her room and even stays by her side till she falls asleep. And he can’t leave since she is holding onto his arm. At least she looks calm sleeping. Next morning, Noah makes his way to his destination. It is the place of the current king, Siatrich Newreal Chamos. Along with his aid, Naomi O’Brian and Keith gathering, they start their talk. With the current session ending, rejected bills cannot be proposed again for a few years. This means with the aversion of the Nouveau Riche Prevention Law, there is no longer a need to hide the royal seal. Then there was this plan to assassinate Chamos via feeding stimulants to his horse and throwing him off. They believe Count Bennett is behind this as he will be most happy if his majesty is dead. Chamos also thinks Noah can now call off his engagement too. But Noah is deep in his thoughts about this. Meanwhile Raeliana sees the newspaper headlines about the ending of a session. She couldn’t believe she has forgotten about this plot because the day before the session ends, Beatrice will be at the Wynknight’s family grave.

Episode 12
Raeliana tells us the story that Robert Wynknight was supposed to be the duke but died in an accident. Before his mother departed, she left that title to Noah. As we all already know, the seal is buried in Robert’s grave. This is where Noah and Beatrice will first meet and begin their journey of love with each other. Chamos knows about Noah’s deal with Raeliana. But now she can no longer threaten him, it is best to call off the engagement. However Noah says he won’t and claims he still has some use for her. This makes Chamos interested in meeting Raeliana in person as Noah notes nothing has changed since because Chamos has seen right through him. Raeliana rushes to the grave and thought is happy to see Beatrice. Too bad it’s not. It’s Justin. Oops, mistake him for somewhere else. So they drink and talk as Justin says he is here to visit his friend, Robert’s grave. Unfortunately it is missing. He talked to the keeper and was told it was moved because of the recent grave robbing. While this event never happened in the novel, Raeliana believes that this is an excuse to change the seal’s location. So is it really her fault that the story has changed? Justin tries to find out why Raeliana is here. She doesn’t give away too much but he soon deduces and finds it strange that she wants to introduce her fiancé to another woman. Strange. He doesn’t really get it but notes she should live her life in her own way. Raeliana returns home and since she has caught a bit of the cold, all the servants scramble to treat her! Yeah, like almost the end of the world. Noah returns but she can’t reveal her matchmaking reason, the reason she went out to the grave. With her fever rising, I guess this is a chance for Noah to get a bit more romantic as he carries her back to her bed. She ponders why he hasn’t break up with her yet since there is no reason to continue this contract. He tells her to sleep but she mentions about thinking of him lately and it’s not related about him being useful. Oh well, she’s asleep now. Noah steals a kiss. Next morning, she is much better but Noah caught her cold. Raeliana reads the papers of the session being over. She never thought she’d live this far to see this day but cautions this doesn’t mean she cannot be killed as there are others out for her life. But of course the most pressing question, where the heck is Beatrice?! Don’t worry, she’s around somewhere…

Indecent Proposal: Be The Victor Of Your Story, Not The Victim
Uhm, wait… Is that how it ends? Well, not so much of an ending because the story is still ongoing. But as far as this adapted anime version, it leaves a lot more to be desired. Honestly, the final episode leaves us with a lot more questions than answers. Obviously. But I felt it was quite weak to end it this way. Just a small hint of Raeliana and Noah romance but nothing solidly conclusive. Even the plot thickens at this point that would whet your curiosity but that’s about it. Like as though they might make another season out of it just in case. But no news of it at the point of this writing.

I have to admit that the story isn’t that bad and has its interesting moments. Especially I was curious to see where everything is heading as Raeliana is now going through uncharted territory that is not in the official story. Yeah, perhaps this is all a fan fiction written by a fan as an alternative to the actual published novel! Because the writer is a fan of the Raeliana character?! OMFG! What if it is this case! The fact that Raeliana isn’t a villainess and thus trying to stop flags that would lead to her doom is partly a reason why I did not find the series to be boring. Yeah, somehow if she was casted as the villainess, my mind would’ve been biased in trying to compare with other of those similar aforementioned series. But now she is not albeit she is supposed to be a minor character but in this series, she has now become a major player. Isn’t this why Beatrice is nowhere to be found? And on a trivial note, this series was actually based on a manhwa web novel. Yes, people. It’s not a Japanese manga but a Korean manhwa. Now isn’t that refreshing too?

Just like any other human who died in the real world and receive the isekai treatment, Raeliana retains memories of her former life and even more so, knowing how the story flows is some sort valuable ‘insider info’ that helped her navigate through with her life intact. Well, I only have myself to blame for thinking that Raeliana might turn into some sort of badass rebel to take on destiny like a bull’s horns with both her hands. But I suppose it is a good thing that Raeliana maintains a big part of her femininity and lady-like personality. Yeah, what was I thinking? Something like Bakarina or Aho-leen?! Thank goodness. Also, giving me such false hopes is the opening credits animation because seeing Raeliana holding and firing a gun, I thought she was going to turn into some badass action heroine. Heck, did I even see her using a gun here?! I got trolled. Though, she still has her grey matter that she uses most to turn the tide to her advantage, although I would really say that it feels more like plot convenience and lady luck contributing to her survival. Like when she got kidnapped by Francis and Jake, I just that she was just being convenient and lucky, that’s all.

And so the other ‘charm’ of this series would be to see Raeliana and Noah fall in love with each other. We veterans know better, right? They both put up the greatest Oscar worthy acting and play tough to get but in the end, we all know where their feelings lie, right? Sure, it was amusing to see the noble banter between them. Some were a bit witty and worth a few chuckles. But at the end of the day, all that interaction will definitely have them fall in love with each other for real, right? Or does the writer intend to surprise us with a plot twist?! Because as you can see their interactions might look fake and all for pretend, slowly they are taking this role too seriously because why are they being this intimate behind closed doors? Aren’t they supposed to be doing this only in public? Sure, call it that they want to make it believable but I’ll still put the money on that they have fallen for each other. Just that their excessive pride gets in the way because whoever first truly confesses, loses. Geez, is this like Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai?!

Of course Noah being the main character and the guy whom Raeliana forcefully entered this fake pact just to get away from being murdered, he too feels like he has his own ulterior agenda. Or if I should accurately say, some skeletons in his closet. A guy who doesn’t take interest in girls, the first alarm bells that will send ringing through many is that he is gay! After all, he is quite a dashing and good looking person, right? And just like Raeliana, he too has his own devilish charming side and that’s why I said it was amusing to see their banter. Sometimes he wins, sometimes she wins. But mostly he holds the upper hand. Charming. Just so you know he isn’t 100% a dick even though he mostly looks like it because I guess it’s more fun to tease a lady that way, huh? I bet that’s his way of showing his kindness. Isn’t it why Raeliana naturally falls for him rather than because it is the story plot? Oh right, technically it is because it is part of the plot. Silly me. Just want to know how long he can put up with that poker face before he breaks down and gives in to Raeliana’s charms.

I don’t know if this might turn into somewhat of a reverse harem later on but it seems likely as there are a few men who have their eyes set on Raeliana. Firstly, the very proud and my pace Heika. Might seem like he wants to have her as a granddaughter but I feel that is only for formality. After all, nobody blatantly denies him as much as Raeliana in a short amount of time, right? No wonder he is so interested in her. Not because she can mysteriously read various languages, mind you. Then there is Taylor who is assigned to be her bodyguard. While he doesn’t talk much but when it comes down if he had to choose in following whose orders, he seems to be swaying more towards Raeliana’s side. So could this tell us something about his heart that he does not normally open up to others? Then there is also Keith but there is not much we know about him. He does show an interest in Raeliana but he can’t make a move because of Noah. So can I consider him at the bottom of the pecking order? And don’t count out Justin too. Raeliana did not that he is the next most handsome man she’s seen after Noah. This says a lot, right? Imagine, trying to set up Noah x Beatrice, what if the new plot at the grave was actually Justin x Raeliana?!

Then there is the series’ main villainess who is no other than Vivian. Unfortunately, this season doesn’t flesh her out enough so she just looks like a stuck up b*tch who wants to take Raeliana down because she stands in her way to Noah’s heart. I believe she too has her circumstances but what we’ve been fed here isn’t enough to form anything conclusive. Only my conspiracy theory that she will die because she’s a villainess! And of course the biggest question mark is the character Beatrice. In the later episodes, we do see short cameos of her but at this point with the overall story changed, it is unknown if she is still the main character. Who knows? What if everything that has happened so far this season is still a prelude and the early chapters of the novel! That is why Beatrice has not turned up yet until towards the end! And I’ll be damned if the ultimate plot twist is one whereby Beatrice actually kills Raeliana for whatever reasons! What if Beatrice is the real villainess?! Don’t let that sweet innocent lady-like smile fool you! Thank goodness I did not write this story!

Other characters don’t really feel that significant and mostly forgettable. If not, just for laughs. Like Wade who has this impossible and daunting task to always remind Heika of his role but often turned down and ridiculed. Sorry, are you intellect enough to go against the great high priest? With the temple funds on the line, can’t blame him that he always takes the easy way to try to persuade Heika to just show his face and people will start pouring the money in. Yeah, proves he is too dumb to find his own ways to make money for the temple. Then there is Francis and Jake. I just felt their back story and reasoning to marry and kill Raeliana was just flimsy as it was dumb. After all, the attempt to kidnap and eventually murder Raeliana was thwarted in the first half and then it became uncharted territory from then on and we have not heard from them ever since. Oh right. They’re dead. The irony that they kicked the bucket first before Raeliana.

I have mixed feelings about the art and animation. Overall, the visuals look like it is mostly like water colour painting sketches. At least for the backgrounds and sceneries. Of course the characters are looking gorgeous in their 2D style and I don’t know if all that hotness distracted us from the jarring sketchy background. And I also don’t know if they want to show us ‘quality’ because in some scenes, we can see air particles floating all over. Wow. Such realism. But that kind of water colour sketchy background? I don’t know.

But the next one is the biggest offender that I have beef with. You know when you don’t want to put too much detail on background characters, many would save time and energy by not drawing their faces and at most, just their eyes are missing. Well, this one is way worse than this. In fact, such background characters from the shoulder upwards, the whole face is just one huge greyish shadow! And not just for 1 or 2 scenes, but all scenes! As long as you’re some unimportant background character, this is how you look like! So standard. So ugly. What abomination! OMFG! I don’t know if this is ultimate laziness but when you see it happening to the huge crowd especially at the ball, it gets really annoying and jarring. It felt like everyone got splashed with some oil or heck, they might just be shadow people or mannequins! It is the ultimate laziness that I have ever seen in recent times. Yeah, maybe they don’t want us to be distracted by other faces and have us solely focus on the main characters or those that matter. Or they want to save money or have no budget. But this is too much! Typhoon Graphics who did this series (Sengoku Night Blood, One Room, Room Mate) hopefully they would do their next project with better quality.

Voice acting feels okay as once again Yuichiro Umehara helms a very familiar and trademark voice acting role as Noah. Yes, once again if you have a monotonous sounding character that lacks emotions, this is your guy to go to for such character roles. Surprisingly, I didn’t expect to hear a bunch of seiyuus I recognized such as Akira Ishida as Heika, Ami Koshimizu as Ansley, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Wade, Junichi Suwabe as Chamos, Tomokazu Sugita as Justin and Saori Hayami as Beatrice (uhm, wasn’t she a supposed blonde main character in Bakarina’s anime too?). The other casts are Yume Miyamoto as Raeliana (Shiho in Tomodachi Game), Shuuichirou Umeda as Taylor (Izumi in Kawaii Dake Ja Nai Shikimori-san), Yumika Yano as Vivian, Shunichi Toki as Keith (Fukuma in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu), Daisuke Kishio as Francis (Suginami in Da Capo series), Hiroyuki Yoshino as Jake (Mic in Boku No Hero Academia) and Mirei Kumagai as Freese (Xiuying in Shenmue The Animation).

The opening theme, Survive by MindaRyn is a rock outfit. However, personally I feel that it isn’t suitable for this series’ genre because it would’ve been way more fitting had this song being played in the battle shonen animes like Naruto, Bleach or even Black Clover. Yeah, the rock song is too dramatic and edgy for this kind of show as I am already envisioning characters in a typical epic powerful battle while this song is being played! Yeah. That. As for the ending theme, Always And Forever by Serra feels like some slow rock ballad. It feels even weirder for me as the singer tries to hit the high notes and some parts she is singing at the top of her voice as the background orchestra music makes the song even more dramatic. Thus I prefer much the special ending song for episode 6, Fireworks by MindaRyn. It is a slow and beautiful ballad sung entirely in English. This one evokes more emotions from me than those aforementioned.

Overall, a pretty decent and interesting story in its own right. While it may sound close to Bakarina, Aho-leen and Tsunlise, it stands out on its own (albeit not much) by not taking the villainess route. Yeah, that word has somehow become a thorn to me for this genre. It could have been better had not for the atrocious animation quality which I believe became the straw that broke the camel’s back for many viewers. Otherwise a rather reasonable anime to watch if you also want a bit of pseudo romance between good looking main characters. So do we all now know the reason why Raeliana’s ended up at the duke’s mansion? Well duh! Obviously to get away from her murderer by being in a fake engagement with him! Isn’t that what it is all about? Because now the burning question that I am dying to know is why Rinko ended up being pushed off from the ledge!

Mashle: Magic And Muscles

We must be impressed with magic because they defy science and to the impossible to impress us, right? It is no wonder we place magic in such high regards so much so if we were to face off a greatest magician against the greatest martial artist, the former will definitely win! Oh yeah. Magic. So magic that it’s magic. But wait. What happens when somebody without magic can be stronger than all that? Wait. What?! Folks, I bring you Mashle: Magic And Muscles. In a world where magic is the norm and those without or having weak magic are greatly discriminated, our titular character has none of that but his incredible strength. He is going to turn the magic world upside down with his raw force of power! No magic can literally stop him! Punching his way through all you magic weaklings! Mash smash!

Episode 1
As narrated, this world operates on magic and it is the norm. Except of course if you are Mash Burnedead. Yeah, look at him pump those weights in the middle of the forest! Even the animals are flabbergasted! He lives alone in the remote forest with his grandpa, Regro. Too bad Mash with his immense strength keeps breaking the door. Luckily grandpa knows how to destress, right? Regro warns him never to go to town when he is out. But one day he can’t contain his hunger and heads there just to get his cream puffs. Obviously his cover as an unmarked is blown. A drunk policeman harasses before his superior, Brad Coleman comes by to see what’s going on. Regro then quickly takes Mash and run. Brad sees this as a chance for promotion and tails them. Back home, Regro lectures Mash and makes him do his usual training as punishment. But soon Brad and his men from the magic police department start knocking on his door, harassing him to hand over the unmarked kid for leniency. Regro will not sell him out despite Brad claims those with no magic have no right to live. Flashback shows Regro has very weak magic and from young till his adult life has always been a failure. One day he tried to kill himself but saw this unmarked baby. Obviously abandoned because he has no magic. Because the toddler took a liking for him, Regro felt wanted and vowed to raise him as his own despite not blood related. Regro wants Mash to escape but obviously Mash barges in to give the police their beat down. Why? Because Regro is his only family. Brad tries to use his superior magic but Mash easily slaps them all away! Then he throws the wand at him like a projectile! Time for Brad to give up. Mash warns him not to threaten his family again but Brad has an idea. Enrol in the magic school and become the chosen one. Every year, an exceptional student is chosen by God and is known as Divine Visionary. If Mash succeeds in that, it means God has chosen him and society has no choice but to accept him. Brad will back him up since he wants fame and fortune from this. Mash has no choice but to accept because he might be tough but what about Regro? Is he willing to risk being hunted down for the rest of his life? Better to die trying to turn the tables. For the sake of peace, Mash immediately accepts that proposal and is now enrolled at Easton Magic Academy. Time to go crush all that prejudice.

Episode 2
Entrance exam time and Claude Lucci will invigilate. You know how tough it is when only on average 3% of participants pass. Lucci is shocked to see Mash doing muscle training instead anything magic related. He thinks he is a slacker and will fail. Even more so, Lucci wants to fail him as he makes snarky comments about his speech! First the written test, students must use their magic to unjumble the words. Mash? Use force and threats to have it arranged properly! For other magic tests, because of Mash’s strength, it makes it look like he is doing magic like running on water or lifting a huge boulder (with a finger!). Lucci is not impressed this slacker is still in it so the final test is a maze in which students must navigate it with traps within a timeframe. Mash meets Lemon Irvine who wants to team up to be efficient. But it seems she gets into all the traps and slows him down. Then it is revealed she is hired to slow him down and make him flunk. Mash abandons her as Lemon is soon confronted by a sphinx. She fails to answer his riddle and is about to get killed. She believes this is karma for betrayal. But then Mash returns to save her. So how did they make it out in time? Why, Mash punching holes through the walls! Obviously this isn’t magic so everyone calls for his expulsion. But then Lemon reveals Lucci put her up to this task in exchange to pass her since her family is poor. The rest about Mash wanting to marry her is all made up! When Lucci continues to badmouth them, Mash breaks his wand! The headmaster, Wahlberg Baigan has seen Lucci’s disgraceful actions and will see him later. He will now take over the rest of the exam. Time for the final interview as Mash is whisked away and asked several questions. Amusing answers Mash has but it’s the truth. Finally Wahlberg invokes his magic to show that there is something stronger than him. In this voodoo magic, he claims his loved one will be killed by this needle. Mash uses his strength to stop it. In terms of endurance, Mash should win, right? Of course all this is just a test to see if Mash has what it takes to have Noblesse Oblige, to protect the weak with the great power he has. Because he has that capacity, he passes. Mash also reminds him that he will not hesitate to get violent if he ever resorts to that. And so Mash is accepted but it’s going to be tough. A simple task to use magic to unlock a lock, he just breaks it! Mash is roommates with Finn Ames and the latter knows he is in for a weird time. Yeah, Mash has names for all his muscles?! Freaky. Mash then asks about the requisites to be a Divine Visionary. You are evaluated on just about everything and given coins. But if you fail your grades each semester, you get expelled. Well, it’s going to be a harsh road ahead.

Episode 3
The class is having lessons to fly a broom. Oh dear, how is Mash going to even do it? A bully challenges him to a broom race. He agrees. As it starts, Mash is so fast that nobody sees it and the teacher thinks it’s a world record! But Finn saw the whole thing. Mash threw his broom and then jumped onto it, making it look like he is flying it. When the bully accuses him of cheating, he is forced to shut up by Lloyd Cavill. He wants to be friends with Mash. Obviously Cavill is the bigger bully as he beats up that guy for failing to impress. Mash learns from Finn that nobody opposes Cavill since his father is a high ranking officer in the Bureau of Magic. Anyone doing so will be immediately expelled since the family has ties with the vice principal, Farman Gregos. Cavill claims he can fast track Mash to be a Divine Visionary but he has to do errands for him. In short, be his gopher. Okay, Mash does all that he is told. Soon Mash becomes a target as his textbooks get torn. No matter. He shares with Finn and calls him a good friend. The culprit behind that is Finn as he is under orders by Cavill to do so. Now he wants him to burn Mash’s clothes. That’s when Finn objects and won’t do it. He is beaten up as Mash sees the whole thing and learns the truth. Mash beats the sh*t out of Cavill. He is the one who needs to apologize! Farman sees all this and claims assault so he will seek counsel to expel Mash. Mash’s answer? Beat him up! Not only that, he goes to bury Farman! Because if he claims he can expel him anything, the same logic that he can bury him anything also stands! OMFG!!! Obviously Mash is summoned by Wahlberg who has received a letter from the Bureau of Magic for his immediate expulsion. However Wahlberg quashes that request. Because of people like Mash who dares take action, this will stop the rot and corruption that has seeped into those high levels. This is why he wants Mash to become the Divine Visionary. All he needs to do is earn high marks in classes and activities as well as acquire as many coins possible. He will handle Cavill and Farman’s case. With that, Mash receives no punishment. Soon, Mash is confronted by popular senior, Tom Knowles who wants to challenge Duelo with him. Uhm, is that f*cking discount Quidditch?! Mash still can’t fly a broom…

Episode 4
Mash just sitting there and everyone thinks this game is rigged! Tom tries to motivate him but the opponent does a sneaky move and breaks his bones. Now he is out. Tom then gives Mash some advice and since the opponent talks bad about him, that’s it for Mash. OMG how the f*ck can Mash fly?! Well, he is moving his legs so fast that he is walking on air!!! OMFG!!! Then he throws the ball into the goal. Heck, so powerful that the ball returns to his hands! Rinse and repeat! Damn, he scores off the charts!!! Record win!!! He gets a silver coin for that. Later Tom is bugging him to practice Duelo, Lemon trying to study with him and Finn just ignoring him. Suddenly Lance Crown pops up and wants to do something fun. He kidnaps his friends into this bottle and to meet in the woods if he wants to save them. They will bet their silver coins too. It seems Lance has a grudge on Mash and thinks he is a slacker who doesn’t put in effort as his wins are all easy. Lance unlike other mages, he has a double strip on his face. As many mages have only one, having multiple lines means you are basically being chosen by magic. Lance tries to defeat Mash with his gravity but of course it won’t work. During the battle, a locket containing Lance’s sister, Anna drops out. Yes, self-proclaimed siscon. Lance then threatens to drop this bottle off the cliff. Flashback shows he loves his sister a lot but one day she was diagnosed with some incurable disease that will strip her off her magic. When that happens, she will be handed to the government. Lance cannot accept this and vowed to destroy this rotten system. That’s why he is willing to become the demon for her. He drops the bottle but damn, Mash jumps down to save and back up all in a flash! But yeah, the bottle is empty. Mash searches him for the real bottle and frees his friends. Lance realizes he has lost so he calls it off and gives him his silver coin. Mash thinks he isn’t such a bad guy. With his friends all so relieved over him for the rescue, he realizes he should’ve freed them back at the academy. Noisy…

Episode 5
As narrated, Easton is divided into dorms. I guess they don’t want to make it so obvious that they copied the houses from Harry Potter so we have Adler, Orca and Lang. Students are housed in one of these dorms based on their personality. For Mash and co, they’re in Adler. With Finn panicking about their forgotten potion assignment, here comes Lance to brag that is done with his. Not until Mash bribes him with a pic of his sister, Lance offers to help them. First, he teaches them how to silence this screaming radish. If Mash makes it turn madder, he just slaps to quiet it down! Then it is cooking time and despite following the exact same moves, how the f*ck can Mash turn it into a cream puff?! Lance tells Mash that he is here to prevent others from taking his coins away since he is equal, if not better than him in combat. Soon, a class assignment between Adler and Lang. We see Dot Barret thinking he is the main character. Until he sees Lemon lapping up to Mash, he starts getting jealous about some gender inequality thingy. Nobody’s listening. The assignment has to dorms exterminate some monster scorpions in the forest. They can receive bronze or silver coins depending on the difficulty. Silva Iron tries to show Mash his place by using a bit of excessive force. Mash is only mad because his cream puff is squashed. Silva has a history of being a delinquent. Students and teachers who get in his way often come out injured and it is still a puzzle why he hasn’t been expelled yet. Mash gets lost in the forest and stumbles into Dot. But soon, Dot saves a girl from being harassed. He tries to calm himself since the girl is trying to get close to him. Obviously she is using magic to make him fall for her charms. Heck, this simpleton might not even need magic. Now to do the same to Mash. No effect at all! Then she claims Silva has been threatening her. Dot offers to beat him up but here he comes, saving the trouble to look for him. Dot starts pounding him with his fire explosions. But not a scratch on Silva as he returns the favour many times fold and brags about his superior skills. We know who is superior because once you messed with Mash’s cream puffs…

Episode 6
Silva is willing to leave that girl alone if Dot can withstand 10 hits from him. Of course he will bet a silver coin too. Dot endures all the iron magic hits and of course he is messed up at the end of it. That is when the girl reveals her true colours too. Feeling like a fool? Of course Mash has also had enough of it and will participate in this challenge. As you would come to expect, he punches through all of Silva’s magic and even through that jerk himself. After 2 hits, Silva knows he cannot take another hit or he is a goner. Mash then throws down the challenge, can he withstand another 8 more! When a scorpion shows up and Mash easily deflects it away, Silva knows he is screwed. Who the f*ck is this guy?! The girl tries to feign she was forced into this but Mash isn’t buying it and does her a supplex. That’s right, he treats everyone equal so don’t you worry about it! Mash reunites with his pals as Lance explains that the coin hunting from Lang has begun. Those from Lang have their own twisted ideals and view birth right as the most important factor. They want to stop others from being the Divine Visionary or even get into the Bureau of Magic. The strongest group in Lang is called Magia Lupus. Apparently Mash doesn’t even know he was sorted into which dorm! Of course now he remembers something of that sort. I swear, they copied this from Harry Potter because we see a bone unicorn analysing the student touching its horn to be assigned to which dorm. When it was Mash’s turn, the unicorn can only see creampuffs! Confused, he just made Mash into Adler. Lance believes Adler will be Lang’s target so be sure to keep your distance. Meanwhile Silva apologizes for his failure and pleads for another chance. However Magia Lupus’ leader, Abel Walker dismisses him since he even failed to be a sacrificial pawn. Talking about collecting coins to create a world free of impurities, he then turns Silva into a puppet. Mash is lost and breaks down the door of Magia Lupus’ room. Yeah, can’t figure out to push or pull!

Episode 7
Abel asks Mash’s reason to become Divine Visionary. To live in peace. Abel rubbishes all that as he explains his about returning the world into its right order, blah, blah, blah. Mash understands that as he wants to live in peace too. Abel allows him to leave in exchange for his coin and of course Mash refuses. Abel sends a puppet (Silva) to attack him but Mash manages to dodge. Another puppet attacks and steals his coin. But Mash is more interested in taking Silva to the infirmary. Did Mash give up on his coin? Apparently Abel realizes the coin in his hand is his puppet’s button. When the puppet stole it from him, Mash used his strength to replace it and then suck his coin back?! Too fast to see! Silva wakes up in the infirmary, confused he is saved by the enemy but glad he is no longer a puppet. WTF Dot and Lance having a showdown in Mash’s room. But Lemon tells the big news to the guys. Looks like Lang is starting to steal coins from other dorms and thus they are leading way ahead in the standings. As Orca is more into research and won’t fight back, it is up to Adler to put a stop to this. As Mash and Lance clean the owl hut, Magia Lupus goons come to attack them for their coin. Anser Shinri fights Lance while Mash goes head to head with Olore Andrew. While it looks like Answer is giving Lance a hard time, it only looks so because Lance is trying hard not to hurt the owls. So when he manages to get the owls out of the way, he easily owns Anser. The difference in strength is because Magia Lupus fights for supremacy which is selfish whereas Lance fights to protect his sister. Meanwhile there’s no fight for Olore as he gets beaten up even in his monster shark mode. Imagine, Mash can swim faster than a shark underwater! A fellow Magia Lupus, Abyss Razor is here to retrieve his comrades. Mash quickly attacks him although he manages to escape. He notes Mash having no magic but and is the same like him.

Episode 8
Looks like something happened to Tom. He is recuperating in the infirmary but have enough strength to speak. It seems he was in this nightmare being trapped in some dark box for hours. When that is over, he realizes he can’t use his magic anymore. He isn’t the only one. There are other students too who have experienced the same thing. Lance believes Magia Lupus is behind this. That night as the gang go hunting, they see Lemon acting strangely. She has turned into a doll?! They tail her but end up in a dead end. While Lance reveals a secret door, how do they open it? Simple for Mash. Pry it open with force! Oh damn, see how the door fly through several layers into the sky. Heading under, they arrive at an arena. A Lang member is tasked to stop them from proceeding further. Dot offers to fight him because he is jealous of how handsome he is! As expected, Dot tricks him into thinking he has won before he turns the tables for absolute victory. Then the guys get swallowed by the ground. All emerge in different location as Lance believes Magia Lupus wants to separate them. Here are the Adler vs Magia Lupus match ups. Lance vs Wirth Madl; Dot and Finn vs Love Cute and Milo Genius; Mash vs Abyss. Abyss hints he knows Mash doesn’t have magic like him. Mash is a bad liar trying to hide this fact. Both have no reason to lose so get ready for the big fight.

Episode 9
Wirth can clone himself in various mud forms. Lance fights back and Wirth sees potential in him and offers him to join Magia Lupus instead of hanging out with those failures. When Lance manages to see through his tricks and get the upper hand, Wirth resorts to using a power up potion. Why do they always have to do this? Summons a great demon but oh well, Lance uses his more powerful gravity magic to destroy it. Flashback shows Wirth has been drilled into his head that his existence is all about worth. So uhm, was this how he was named? He tried hard to earn his father’s recognition but apparently he was still not worth it. Wirth is in shock that he is defeated and this means he is worthless. However Lance notes that they grew up in similar environments and someone’s worth is quite subjective depending on the environment. Lance acknowledges that Wirth has at least put in a lot of effort. Wirth realizes that he probably didn’t want to become a worthy person in the first place. Now we move on to Mash’s fight with Abyss. The latter using his acceleration magic to swiftly cut up Mash. Of course he is surprised as Mash uses his brute muscle power to break through and all. Even breaking his mask. So Abyss got this red eye. Know what it means? Lucky us, he explains it is the eye of the devil as it nullifies all magic of those who look at it. Hence like those without lines, those with the devil eye will also be scorned. His parents locked him up for fear of being found out and even tried to kill him once. Hence he regretted he was born since he was of no use. However Abel needed him and that’s why even as a tool, he thought he could serve a purpose but his defeat to Mash means his existence means nothing. Now he is back to being unwanted. Mash thinks they could be friends. For this kindness, Abyss warns Mash is unable to defeat Abel at this rate. He has not seen his true powers yet. However Mash is still going to wallop Abel’s ass. He further adds that despite what the world says and scorning him, Mash will still think of him as the same. So screw what the world thinks because we’re still friends? Looks like it.

Episode 10
Milo lets Love handle Dot and Finn. First she asks if they think she is cute and love her. Dot obviously like cute girls but he has to turn her down as his heart is already set on another girl. With that, Love is going to kill them. Yeah, her father told her to kill any guys who don’t like her! So either you love her or you die! As Dot bears the brunt of her magic, he remembers his past whereby he gets bullied and never fought back. His sister asked him why and he said he didn’t want any trouble. She noted it will be real problematic if he got a real friend. Someone who will get sad or angry on his behalf. When he has such friend, never betray him. Mash, right? Dot breaks out of the spell and is now even more powerful. Love sees a cross on his head and believes they are those who power up when their emotions reach a certain threshold. Dot now shows who is in charge and throws all his explosions at her. Luckily all missed as it was just a warning. Milo returns to finish a job as Dot gets injured while trying to cover Finn. However Milo is soon swiftly taken out by Rayne Ames, a Divine Visionary and the top student of Adler. Did I also mention he is Finn’s brother? Milo tries to repent but Rayne beats him up and doesn’t believe his words. That is the only way to teach such people. After forcing some details out of him, Rayne then stumbles into Mash. He throws a few swords at him to test his magic level. Yeah, his spider familiar who measures it is so freaking stumped! Rayne remembers Wahlberg putting him up to take care of Mash because of his selflessness. Rayne advises Mash that he needs to have powerful magic to face Abel and without it, he will be tough. Mash still trying to lie he has magic? Rayne has also heard about his Divine Visionary dream. By beating Abel who holds most of the coins will bring him closer to that. Rayne is doing this to help himself as he needs all the help he can get. Especially allies who are strong on their own. Mash then breaks down the door to face Abel. He was trying to knock…

Episode 11
First, Abel telling his ideology that those with magic, the weak and those who even aid them must be weeded out. Mash doesn’t think so. This difference in their beliefs, Mash will not be his friend. As Abel sends his dolls to fight him, Mash is able to destroy all of them with his brute force! Mash even has the cheek to ask if he beats him, does this mean Abel is inferior to him. Abel tries to control Mash but once again brute force wins. Now getting a little dirtier, he uses Finn who is now a doll to fight him. Of course if he defeats Finn, it means killing him. Mash stands there and gets whack but guess what? Finn’s weapon breaks! More Mash flexing as he uses his coin to cut off the strings tried to Finn as the coin boomerangs back into his hand! Abel then tries to turn Mash into a puppet. He does so but at the cost of Mash giving him a knee kick in his face. But wait. Mash reverts back to normal?! Abel deduces spinal reflex (like pulling back when one touches something really hot) that protected Mash from such threats. Now Abel uses his ultimate magic. Some hideous puppet that can turn anything it touches into puppets. But we know the drill, Mash’s brute force destroys the strings and even this monster. And here is a supplex move on Abel. Flashback shows Abel’s mom was a very kind soul. She went down to the slums to help the poor. However she was stabbed by one, claiming such nobles had it all. She believed in the good of humanity and this was what she got? That is why Abel believes the weak don’t need their pity and hence created his own legion who were also dissatisfied with all the inequalities. This defeat won’t change his mind, though. Mash understands his case but notes that bad guys are not confined to social standings even if many of them are at the bottom caste. As promised, Abel releases all the students in his control. This includes Lemon. The idiots celebrate their victory but note where the heck is Lance. Speaking of which, Rayne attacks him but this is to reveal the imposter behind: Cell War, a member of a dark magic organization led by Innocent Zero. He tasked Abel in looking for something but since he has failed, he will kill him. He lets Rayne play with Jon Pierre while he goes to finish his mission.

Episode 12
Cell War is going to kill Abel. He thanks him for giving some info on Wahlberg although it wasn’t enough. Now that he is of no use, he will die. But this is interrupted as Mash returns to celebrate eating cream puffs. Oops, a fly causes him to sneeze and blow the cream puffs everywhere. Cell War feels something strange about Mash but returns to killing Abel. However it is Abyss who protects him. The reason Abyss didn’t die is because Mash threw a stone at Cell War and causes him to go a little off on his trajectory. Cell War faces off with Mash as the former sends sharp rocks flying at him but Mash is just pummelling his way through. Abel calls Abyss’ action as foolish but Mash believes he was happy to do that because he was of use to him. Flashback shows Abyss was afraid to show Abel his devil eye but Abel wasn’t and instead will put it to good use. Abel also remembers his mom’s words about being kinder to others. Just when it looks like Mash may be faltering, Abel returns to protect him with his dolls. Although instantly crushed, this allows Mash to get up close to Cell War and punch him in the face. Cell War then takes out a dreadful mirror. All mages fear it because it reflects your spell. The more powerful your spell, the more fearsome the reflection. So how? We already know. He kicks through it! And just like that this fearsome artefact is destroyed! It is only then everybody realizes Mash has been doing everything with brute strength and has no magic! Cell War escapes and is confident they will meet again. Good grief. Mash is glad he has gone home. Abel thanks Mash and will repay him someday. When Mash’s friends confront him about having no magic, obviously he panics and denies. Though, they will do all they can to help protect his identity. Mash thanks them. So he admits he has no magic? But one of the students heard it and will report! Oh no! What now? Mash just eats his cream puff! Cell War reports to his father AKA Innocent Zero about finding what they have lost. He is told to retrieve it and his wish will finally come true.

Super Smash Blows
If you felt the season just smashed by so quickly, then fret not. Because the good news is that there will be a second season! Hooray! More cream puffs! Oops, I mean more magic to smash through! More Mash smash! After all, things were just getting started and it would be a shame for this series to end like that with only a single cour.

It is a good thing that another season will be coming up because honestly, this season felt like it didn’t really get anywhere. It was all just introductory stuffs and a small stepping stone for Mash to achieve his ultimate goal and become Divine Visionary. Because if you look at this season, it’s all about Mash enrolling at Easton before getting entangled with the antagonist of the season which isn’t really the real antagonist but just a lost group of people AKA Magia Lupus. That’s just basically it and very much what this first season is about.

As I thought this might be the new reverse Fairy Tail in the sense that this series I speculate may go on to have multiple seasons thereafter (yeah, I’m really getting ahead of myself), to my surprise I found out that the manga just recently ended back in July 2023! So it has got to be a long running manga, right? Nope. Nope, it started in 2020 and only had 17 chapters. Oh wow. So I guess we can have the ending already in the next season. Oh well, better than going on forever and ever without any end in sight. Sighs. Oh well, this is what I get for trying to get ahead of myself.

Obviously as you can already see, this series borrows heavily the elements from Harry Potter as you can see several influences of that series in here. I’m not really a Harry Potter fan (I haven’t watched any of those full length movies at all but only clips or trailers of it, so sue me) so I can’t really compare them much in details. I can only point out the clone Quidditch as well as the houses as its references, that is all. Feel free to scour the internet for lots of talking and debating points. But yeah, I just thought this series was like a weird idea mashed up together (pun not intended) when the author though what if Saitama (of One Punch Man fame) but with magic. Uh huh. And so that is how Mashle was born! Yeah. Weird.

The fun part in watching this series is seeing Mash smash through all the magic users with his extreme brute force. It is so unbelievable and exaggerated. But oh well, at this point you can’t argue with logic here. Mash’s superhuman strength from his extreme training and exercises would definitely put Saitama’s regime to shame! How can he do and achieve that! It’s impossible! Oh well, it isn’t for Mash. And to see all those arrogant mages and wizards eating humble pie and not even knowing what hit them, that has got to be the funniest and best moments of the series. Uh huh. Their flabbergasted faces, priceless. Seeing Mash owning them even without they knowing it is all brute force and not magic, it never fails to put a smile on my face. No matter how ridiculous such feats are. Yeah, magic is going to be obsolete if Mash gets his way and that’s why in thousands of years when people could no longer do magic, they’ll look back and call this as some lost ancient magic or something. Don’t take that seriously. That’s just me getting ahead of myself with my conspiracy theories.

This also makes me wonder if Mash is actually that strong to brush off any sort of magic that is casted upon him or is there any sort of magic that could overpower him. Oh I don’t know, maybe one that actually zaps away his strength. But then again, dumb muscle logic will show us Mash has so much muscles that he will still have that incredible amount of strength inside. So whether it is decay magic or soul stealing magic, all that will never work as long as Mash’s muscles are written to be way stronger than all that. Uh huh. Maybe it is not brute force or magic that is superior but down to good ol’ steel will and iron clad determination! Mash certainly got that hands down.

The underlying issues the series is trying to tell is of course the inequality and discrimination but it feels a bit hard to relate since it is magic vs non-magic. Real life no magic! Sure, we can try to see it from the perspectives of the haves and have nots, the wealthy and the poor, etc. All we know is that people in power often get corrupted so they will want to maintain that power as long as possible, causing a lot of pain and misery to the rest of the common people. So that’s why Mash who is an underdog who isn’t part of the system, smashing his way through that belief, it also feels great and can’t help root for him in that sense. And then will those have magic be discriminated when those without take over? I doubt so with Mash but you’ll never know.

The characters are quirky in their own ways and it is hard not to hate them even the seemingly most despicable one. At least as of now. So take our main character Mash, he is so super strong as f*ck that he defies the laws of science and physics. But to balance all that strength, this is why Mash isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and it’s like the Drax (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) of the series. He is quite good natured despite being a whole lot dense, making him look a bit like a retard and probably why having many look down upon him. They’ll learn the hard way is not one to be messed with. You think he would get mad when the baddies hurt his friends but he still manages to keep his cool and doesn’t get mad. Often, he fights back because the baddie is in the way as he needs to take his pal to the infirmary or something. Yeah, is Mash really that of a nice guy? Or is he just putting on his poker face? Nah, I’ll give Mash the benefit of the doubt. Literally at this point, nothing can get in Mash’s way. Not magic and certainly not even brute force. Anyone who is physically stronger than Mash, please step up and challenge him. Didn’t think so. As long as Mash continues being Mash, we’ll all root for him, no? And don’t forget, his favourite cream puffs. Yum! Don’t ever leave home without it.

The rest of Mash’s groupie is also rather quirky themselves. Somehow I don’t really find them to be as fun as Mash despite each having their own weird personalities. Of course, Mash having the most screen time and since he is the hero he bulldozes his way through with his might, he resonates more than the rest. To be fair, they have their screen time and chance to shine and show what they’re capable of (Magia Lupus battles were cue for that) but for now I’ll just remember Lance as a siscon who uses gravity magic, Dot as the loud obnoxious simp who uses bomb magic, Finn the coward who uses… Uhm, what magic he uses again, and not forgetting Lemon the cutie pie of the group who wants to marry Mash. Yeah, can’t wait for some inter-school competition to have the quintet fight in a team battle.

Those in Lang are painted as bad guys and heck, they even have the baddies look because most of them look so crazy. Of course as we can see, they’re not actually bad people because it won’t make sense for a school to have a bad organization or group inside. Imagine if Slytherin were actually made for evil people. So these Lang people are more like bullies and got a bit too desperate in their bid to change the world. Sure, the world changes not by your words but by your actions. However seeing that Abel has met a stronger match, I guess it’s all up to Mash now to bring the changes? Speaking of Abel, his small flashback provides some insight so that we don’t simply cast him as a bad guy. So now do we sympathize with his circumstances? Unfortunately the rest of his Magia Lupus don’t get such fleshing out so at this point they just look like Abel’s goons trying to make up the numbers and for this season’s group battle. And of course the real antagonist, Innocent Zero, we’ll have to wait next season to see the kind of threats they’ll bring to the world.

For the art and animation, at first I thought the series was created by the ones who wrote One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, seeing Mash has a very uncanny resemblance to the protagonist of both series. Turns out it is not. So it could all just be a coincidence. Because I thought the art style and some of the character designs have the same vibes as Mob Psycho 100 but that could be just me. A bit cartoonish if I should say. After all, when you have many characters looking weird especially those in Lang, you can’t help wonder if they’re even human to begin with. Is it me or does Lance look like Fairy Tail’s Jellal, Dot like Black Clover’s Asta and Cavill like Loid of Spy x Family? Other than that, the series is quite vivid in its colouring and hues although there are some scenes that are just dark and gloomy. This anime is done by A-1 Pictures who have done a lot of hit animes like Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, Nanatsu No Taizai and Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai.

Voice acting is okay as I only recognized Yuuichiro Umehara as Abel, Cho as Regro, Natsuki Hanae as Cell War and Shinichiro Miki as Innocent Zero. At first Rayne sounded familiar and I couldn’t put my hand on it. Oh wow. It’s been a long time I have watched a series that Yuuki Kaji had a role in me so that eluded me! The rest of the casts are Chiaki Kobayashi as Mash (Yuichi in Tomodachi Game), Reina Ueda as Lemon (Kanao in Kimetsu No Yaiba), Reiji Kawashima as Finn (Blade in Eiyuu Kyoushitsu), Kaito Ishikawa as Lance (Iida in Boku No Hero Academia), Takuya Eguchi as Dot (Hikigaya in Yahari Ore No Seishun Love Comedy Wa Machigatteiru Ken), Aoi Koga as Love (titular character in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Hiroki Nanami as Abyss (Ayame in Gibiate), Wataru Komada as Tom (Marcus in Kenja No Mago), Mugihito as Wahlberg (Wombat in Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love) and Katsuyuki Konishi as Brad (Oga in Beelzebub).

The opening theme Knock Out by Taiiku Okazaki is a typical rock music. Pretty generic but it gets you into the smashing flow of the series so I guess it’s not bad. But the more amusing and catchy one is the ending theme, Creampuff Funk by Philosophy No Dance. Oh yeah. The title already tells you what this song is going to be, right? This is quite a lively and funky jazzy piece. I think it has some 70’s disco dance beat too. Not bad. So forgive me if I can’t help myself to sometimes get up and do a little feet shuffling. Yeah, if this was an exercise song, I guess it will also work. But then again, the song will make you crave for more creampuffs and there’s your losing battle with your weight. Oh creampuffs, we all love you!!!

Overall, this is quite a highly entertaining and funny series and I can’t wait for the next season to come. There’s a lot of dumb fun and rip-offs (references as some may call it) to a certain famous wizard boy from Hogwarts but if you can’t stand all that inelegance and want something sophisticated, GTFO is what I’ll recommend to you. That’s not a show, by the way. So whoever says that brute force or violence is not the way, clearly has not seen this. But obviously it is only a privilege for Mash. Think twice before calling him a muscle head or brawns over brains. Because he’ll take it as a compliment! Magic is tragic when might is right! Oh yeah. Now, how many creampuffs can I finish as I await the next season…

Mahou Tsukai No Yome S2

5 years later, here’s the sequel, Mahou Tsukai No Yome S2. Felt like a long time but since I wasn’t particularly a fan of this supernatural drama series, it came of a surprise to me. One of those series which I thought would never get a sequel although but after watching that side story OVA that came out back in 2022, that pretty much confirmed this sequel. So you know me, still have to check this out to follow up on what has happened. Though honestly, can’t remember much except the general premise of a human girl becoming the bride of a strange masked mage in some contract. Always hoping for the better… Yeah, I should know better myself…

Episode 1
Adolf talks to Chise and Elias about the former attending a college for mages and supernatural. Because of Chise’s curse as Sleigh Beggy, this is too good for the institution to pass her up. Also, they may find a way to lift her curse. While Elias is against this, she wants to know what Chise wants. In short, she wants to go in hopes she can learn and help others in the future. Elias accepts her decision but will also go with her. Adolf takes them there where they meet Liza Quillyn the president of English College. While Chise will be a student, Elias will be an instructor. After that he shows them the brief layout of this underground college before taking them to Alexandra Heath for Chise to get her check-up. In the meantime, the guys continue their tour. Renfred is shocked to see Elias here and maintains he still hates him. Though, Elias doesn’t think much of it since he doesn’t feel the need to kill him. Chise tells Alexandra about the memories of others she has seen ever since swapping her eye. A thousand years worth of it. Chise thought someone is watching her but brushes it off when she could find no one. Then she goes to the dorm section whereby she meets 4 cats who are the dorm matrons. Among the cats, she chooses Rose Lyn to guide her since she wants the freedom in her heart. Outside her room, she is in a dilemma to be rude to her roommate. Thinking she will understand, she opens the door without knocking but too bad the door hits her. Lucy Webster isn’t a sociable person so she tells Chise what is needed. And don’t wake her up as she plans to sleep until her next class. Chise gets dressed and makes her way to class. Then she stumbles into a girl collapsing before her.

Episode 2
Chise advises Philomela Sargant to take her medicine from whatever illness she is suffering. Is there one for anxiety? Well, Chise gives her some tea or herbs to calm her down. Philomela would like to repay her but since Chise hasn’t thought about that, she just hopes she could give her some feedback someday. Chise then joins Alice attending class. Chise notes Philomela is in this same class. Their teacher, Narcisse Maugham starts explaining about the fundamentals for magic. Then he points out to Chise since she is a visiting student, she doesn’t have to practice sorcery but is required to have outstanding grades in general courses. Chise soon makes friends with Veronica Rickenbacker. Chise and Alice then attend a magic class by Elias (taking on a human form). He talks and warns them about the supernatural when it comes to wielding magic. Then he has Chise and Alice demonstrate their magic. While Alice creates extreme fire, Chise is gentle and perfect. Then the rest begin practising to get a feel of it. When one of the students gets impatient because this lizard familiar doesn’t want to cooperate, the lizard then becomes hostile and tries to kill him. If not for Elias’ quick intervention, it could’ve been a tragedy. In this instance, Elias has revealed his true form as he has those who believe they have magic aptitude to continue. For those who don’t, quit now. Later, classmate Rian Scrimgeour sees Chise because he wants her to teach him magic.

Episode 3
Since Chise is looking for Elias, Rian saw him being brought away and will lead her there. Rian also notices about Alice and wants to observe her magic. She doesn’t intend to be a mage but her fairy shows up and cheekily mocks them especially Rian’s magic as rusty. Chise wonders why he wants to learn magic so badly and it is to protect someone. They arrive seeing Renfred lecturing Elias about some stuff. Narcisse then talks to Gregory that Chise is a normal girl and will not be a detriment whatsoever. Gregory reminds to keep watch on her because they need to maintain the balance. Elias and Chise join the rest of the classmates at the cafeteria. Well, I’m gonna skip the names, there’s a hell lot of them. While the gang happily enjoy their meal, Chise notices Lucy eating by herself. Also, there’s another group who is also by themselves, namely Veronica, Philomela as well as April and May Atwood. Of course not everybody in the gang enjoy each other’s company. Like Sofia Healey who thinks this friendship is useless since they’re all going to be enemies in the end. And there’s Zoe Ivey who is scared as he senses Chise and Elias as non-human. Adolf contacts Lindel that Elias has become a teacher at College. He wants to know if there were instances to harm others and wants to know the circumstances. We see Chise and Elias harvesting pumpkins and turnips for Halloween as Elias explain some of its origins. As Chise washes the fruits, Joseph comes to visit her. He still wants his eye back that is in her possession but feels too sleepy to do anything about it. Going back to bed. Soon, Stella visits her and as they walk along, suddenly a mist shrouds them. Chise and Ruth find themselves in a strange place.

Episode 4
Chise and Ruth are at a seaside cabin that Rahab stays. She claims she sensed the pendant she had given to Elias (which is now with Chise). Rahab wonders who she is so Chise says she is Elias’ teacher to teach him about humans and well, his bride. Inside her cabin, she claims this place is disconnected from other dimensions but yet connected to everything. She starts explaining how Lindel and Elias came to stay here for quite a while when they were small. One day after his wandering, Elias came here looking dishevelled. Apparently he got confused by the numerous types of humans and didn’t know who to imitate. Thus he wanted to imitate Rahab and believed doing so he will do well. So she allowed him to stay and she taught him what she knew although there were some that she couldn’t. Then one day he just left and that was the last she saw of him. Rahab notes she couldn’t teach him to smile but had taught him the concept of family. Especially a bride. So if Elias’ idea of a bride seems different, Rahab has herself to blame for not properly explaining. Chise believes Elias is smiling right now and is living decently. Though at times he might get a little giddy. Chise thanks Rahab for all that because he imitated her and she got to meet Elias. When it’s time to leave, Rahab hopes Chise won’t tell Elias they have met. She wants to continue observing him. But mages aren’t supposed to lie. Conceal the truth without lies. Rahab can’t give any more advice but hints there will be a lot of things that she can and cannot see. Chise and Ruth return to their own world and reunite with Stella. Like as though all that never happened. Elias and Chise has this centaur guy take them to a phone booth hidden in the middle of the forest. It is supposed to be some shortcut passage to the College and not many use it because you can get lost easily due to its twisted time coordinates and there are monsters known as hell hounds guarding it. They stumble upon a group as centaur guy appease them with some meat to let them pass. Chise then reads one of their thoughts, warning them not to stray from this region or they’ll hunt them down forever. They are given to eat some horrible crystal to pass. Arriving at the College, Chise asks Elias when they first met, why did he want her to become his bride.

Episode 5
Lucy might sound rude but Chise thinks it is her way of looking out for her. You think? Chise has breakfast with Rian and Isaac Fowler and learns about the 7 Shields, the 7 families that founded College. Rian’s family is part of that pillar although he has ostracized himself from it. Chise tries to ask about this Webster Tragedy as heard from Jasmine St George. However she is told there are some things she is better not known. Later when Chise and Lucy bump into Zoe, Chise asks if he is avoiding her. He ignores and walks away. Lucy thought he is being rude and takes off his earmuffs thinking he can’t listen. That is when Zoe goes crazy as he claims she doesn’t know Chise’s true form as a monster. Suddenly Zoe’s hair turn into snakes! He runs away as the girls including Isaac and Rian give chase until they find him hiding in some garden maze. Chise approaches him and surprisingly his snakes don’t attack her. After Lucy returns his earmuffs and apologizes, Zoe tells about his origins. His mom is a Gorgon from the Black Sea while his dad is a human sorcerer. Yes, Zoe is born from an egg. Because he feared the outside world, dad send him to College to get used to the outside. The earmuffs are to help him from transforming back and forth as human and snake as he is quite sensitive to light and smell. Everyone also learns about Chise’s dragon curse. When Ruth catches Philomela eavesdropping, they note her family as one of the 7 Shields and one who specializes in intelligence. Rian suggests forming a contract to not let all they’ve learnt get out. If they tell others or write it down, there’ll be some divine punishment. And so all those here agree as they make a pact and swore this to secrecy. Lucy still cannot trust Philomela and blames her for her family’s death. Later Rian confronts Jasmine about putting weird ideas in Chise’s head. Unlike him, Rian has no plans to stick with his family. Jasmine’s twin, Violet consoles her over Rian’s arrogance and suggests if things get rough, they can just find a master and run away.

Episode 6
Elias needs some time to think when Chise asks why he chose her as his bride. Elias then asks Renfred to get some references. It seems Renfred views Alice as his daughter although at the same not much of a use when it comes to magic talent. He will continue to protect her until she can find her own path. Since Alice heard all of that, that night she goes to stay at Chise’s place because she wants to ask for some advice. Not being useful to her master has hit her hard. Because how could she forget that incident when he protected her. The day Joseph came knocking on their door, she tried to protect Renfred but he protected her instead and got his left arm cut off. Joseph then borrowed that arm to make something since he wanted to take the corruption of the cat kingdom. He will return it once he is done. Now she is fretting over what Renfred said although she doesn’t hate it. Despite living with him, she has always viewed him as her master rather than a father. What about Chise? She too is confused about the master-student as well as married relationship thingy. That night, Chise talks to Elias for his answer. He says taking her in as both a disciple as bride is because since they’re both the same person, he would have one less thing to deal with. She expected such answer. But Elias adds that an apprentice eventually leaves the master. Married couples stick together, right? Chise then explains about how everyone interpret words and roles differently. Hence their relationship as married couple as well as master-student may not mean the same as others would think. It’s not Chise is unhappy with such a role. In fact she is happy because it is good to know he won’t let her go. Okay then, let’s continue this role. Next day, Alice confronts Renfred about this dad thingy. While she doesn’t oppose his thinking, but it makes him feel inferior to her. Renfred claims he has forced this lifestyle onto her without her knowing and took her in because he thought she might be useful to him. Otherwise, she would’ve led a much normal life. She disagrees because back then he chose her. Now it’s her turn to choose him. Wait. Is this Pokemon?! Anyway, she wants to protect him for his worth. He calls her a child for thinking such and she gets mad that he doesn’t get it.

Episode 7
Chise’s class is doing some boulder climbing activity as Elias watches her. Adolf talks to him about watching the different expressions of Chise that she won’t normally show him. This has Adolf reminisces some of his old memories, good and bad. Philomela soon receives a letter to come home. She takes leave to return home to see her grandma, Lizbeth who summoned her. It seems the family had no intention of sending her to College and only did so because of Veronica’s charity. As such, she cannot be an embarrassment and must excel in it. Lizbeth also beats her up a little to remind her of her place and that she is still ineptitude. Renfred talks to Adolf about the thought of wanting Alice to at least stay as a child until the time comes. But now she is 18 and it will be weird for him to be ordering her around. His wish is for Alice to not end like him or his father. Adolf notes they were trying to rush to become adults then. Maybe what kids and adults want to do aren’t that different at all, hinting Alice is trying to make herself useful for him. Renfred knows it too and that is why it is a problem. Because if he keeps pushing her away, she will just keep resisting. Chise’s class soon take part in an outdoor camping activity in the forest.

Episode 8
Initially Elias wanted to come to this camping to watch over her but Chise claims doing so will make her rely on him as she wants to train to become independent. Elias compromises by splitting himself. Well, half his face will be with her. In this pet form, he can’t do much and will be basically useless as she wished. So nothing really eventful on this camping trip. Chise seeing a few supernatural spirits including this water horse, each-uisge. Don’t ride with it because it’ll eat you when you’re drowning. That night, Chise wakes up and feeling something ominous. Lucy is gone. She goes to look for her and finds her collapsed outside. She is on the verge of death since her magic has been dried up. Chise puts her close so she can absorb some of hers. However, they are soon confronted by this monster. It’s not a centaur but a nucklavee. It just wants to kill humans and its weakness is fresh water. Chise runs but manages to stumble into Rian, Zoe and Isaac. Zoe’s snakes manages to petrify it for a while. Chise has this idea to call forth each-uisge. With Elias summoning it, Chise hopes it can lead the nucklavee to the lake. Sure, but it wants her to ride it. Rian goes with her. After each-uisge dumps the duo into the lake, it then pushes the nucklavee into it. Rian manages to get out but the nucklavee tries to take Chise down with it. As Chise isn’t resurfacing, each-uisge thinks of eating Chise but Rian uses his metal weapon to keep it at bay. Chise’s arm turns into something monstrous and slashes the nucklavee until it reduces to nothing. She doesn’t understand what happened but knows without this, she would’ve died. With Chise out of the water, each-uisge can’t eat her now and leave. However Chise lets it eat some of her hair.

Episode 9
Lucy is still unconscious but recuperating back at College. Chise stays with her as Elias talks to her about the meaning of worry. Then some strange visions and conversation between Chise and Joseph. Seth then visits Lucy after learning what happened. It is revealed he is Lucy’s brother. When Lucy looks like she is in pain, Chise tries to relief her forehead with a wet cloth. But then she starts to see snippets of something horrifying in her memories. Lots of dead people everywhere. Lucy is then awakened and not too happy to see Seth before collapsing again. Soon the entire teaching staffs are called for an emergency meeting. It seems a forbidden book in the safe has been switched with a fake and this fake has turned into dust. Though the actual original one is in England’s library. Learning that the book is The Testament of Carnamagos, Elias lets everyone knows he has read it before. As it is said to alter the character of one who reads it, Elias returned it. Part of its contents include how to become immortal, destroy them and even resurrect the dead. Liza announces they will continue their investigation and when the time comes, she’ll need everyone’s cooperation. One more thing, it seems a spider silk was found in the dust of the book’s remains. As this is highly speculated it could be from Webster, this news must not reach Lucy’s ears. Later as Elias asks about this Webster thingy, Simeon Paladilhe offers to explain. The Webster family are famous for having spiders that produce special silk that can duplicate magic books. 8 years ago, the entire family was massacred. Lucy was the only survivor and the killer was not found. All their spiders were also stolen. The eldest son who was supposed to inherit the business had no control of magic and was kicked out of the family. Despite everyone knows about this story, it is best not to speak freely about it. As Simeon returns, he gets attacked. Lucy wakes up to see Seth still with her albeit sleeping. Meanwhile enemies kill off a security guard as they’re going to finish this up quickly.

Episode 10
Simeon is tended by Alexandra who notes that had not Elias passed by, he would’ve been dead. Even more so, Elias shared some of his magic to restore his health. Simeon’s memories are fuzzy and he can’t remember what happened. The wolf enemies start to attack Lucy when she leaves the perimeter. Seth protects her and gets wounded. Even Ruth too. Elias senses Chise in danger so heads down there to fight off the enemies. Lucy recognizes them as the ones who killed her family. They admit they are here to finish the job. Years later?! Cornered, Chise is forced to take Lucy into the shortcut passage. The enemies chase them and get pounced by the hell hounds as they get eaten alive. But when Chise hears the female scream about their child, Chise promises to provide a proper offering next time. She can’t provide a human but a sheep or cow. The hell hounds let the enemy go although her mate is already dead. As Seth gets treated, Chise learns more about their past. Seth was kicked out of the family as he couldn’t use magic. They were more than happy to sever ties and do not want to be related to him. Lucy thought it was her fault since she succeeded him and holed up in her room. Until that day her family was massacred by the enemy but it seems she also saw a scared child cowering in the corner. When Seth returned, he saw the aftermath like as though Lucy killed them. Then rumours surfaced that Seth hired the enemy to take out the family. Seth never deny it since he had no backing and it was too risky for a man like him who can’t fight. All that matters now is that he can put Lucy through College and that’s good enough. Elias has Marielle look into Simeon’s case. She dives into his mind and sees some horrifying being. She believes something is continuing to zap his magic and she has seen this before as there are a couple of several similar cases. She believes someone is using Testament of Carnamagos to steal people’s magic power. Lucy is not impressed Chise helped the enemy who killed her family. However she also thanks her because now she can find out who attacked them and why. Soon, Lucy collapses.

Episode 11
It is said that no matter how much magic they supply to Lucy, it is useless as it will be drained away. Elias tries to track where the source is drained to but some force is blocking it. Elias wants to get to the bottom of this but doesn’t want Chise to get involved since it will be dangerous to her. However she argues that if he claims he is doing it for a friend (Simeon), then she too is the same for Lucy. But Alexandra supports Elias for Lucy to stay out since she is still a child and he is worried for her. To take her mind off, Lucy attends an extra class that teaches her about runes. Zoe goes to visit Lucy. Uhm, she wants to pet his snake hair? Animal therapy? Yeah, brings back memories of those spiders she used to have. After Chise goes to make good her promise to the hell hounds and provide them sheep, the centaur guy talks to her about how lucky she was those hounds settled for that. He talks about the unfairness in the world and worries for her since she is making bad bets and doesn’t think ahead, expecting things to work out in the end. He doesn’t know if she is being greedy or trying to be important because although it is fine wanting to save everyone, if she gets hurt, there are others who will hurt as much as her. When she goes to visit Lucy, Zoe is trying to stop her from going to her job and has her continue resting. Seems she doesn’t want to use Seth’s money for fear he will use it as an excuse to boss her around. They learn her job is to clean the waste tower. Failed experiments or botched magic are kept there. Students don’t normally go there but it is said that one may find very rare ores or herbs that pays well. Chise and Zoe offer to do it in her place. Does she have a choice? With Ruth keeping an eye on her, in bed so she’ll stay. Chise and Zoe along with Rian and Isaac go to the waste tower as Fabio Zaccheroni warns them about certain ores that might mesmerize them beyond. Chise is also surprised to see Philomela here. She claims she sometimes come to help here and whispers caution to Chise to watch out for Fabio. Meanwhile Lizbeth has received a letter of Philomela’s withdrawal from the College.

Episode 12
Alice continues to confront Renfred about being treated as his protected daughter. He still gives her the slips. Lucy too is having an argument with Seth and runs away. What’s wrong with these young ladies?! As Chise and the rest continue their job, Zoe gets separated and stumbles into a pair of other students. It seems they want to bully him but he shows them his Gorgon side to petrify them to escape. Fabio reveals his true nature as he confronts Chise. He is not an instructor but a mage bound to this place. He knows Chise is that girl sold at the auction and wants to get his hands on this Sleigh Beggy. However he sees a terrifying Joseph inside her and backs off. When the students are done and return to the entrance, the real instructor is shocked to learn what happened. She learns Fabio led them him and will file a complaint. He dares her and doesn’t care. Seth finds Lucy as he hugs her, admitting he is a loser who once thought he was happily freed when the family abandoned him. He thought because Lucy was loved, she was okay. But he was wrong. He apologizes. Lucy in turn also admits she forced herself to hate him since there was so much to learn and hardly thought about him. After he left, no one saw her for who she was and hated everyone. Though, they still didn’t deserve to be killed. That’s why she’ll study and master sorcery and become powerful. Chise and the rest meet up with Elias and Liza. Just in time because Lizbeth has sent her familiar here with the message for Philomela’s withdrawal. This shocks everyone although Liza is not going to hand Philomela easily and will let her stay if she wishes to continue her studies. Lizbeth continues to badmouth Philomela as talentless and a failure who can’t perform her duties. Isaac takes her to run and the rest follow suit. Liza then makes a sudden announcement the College will be temporarily sealed due to a string of attacks on its students. The cats transform into cait siths and rip apart the familiar. Lizbeth isn’t amused with all this but is please this has at least bought her some time.

The Irregular Magic At College
Well, if the ending felt somewhat strange (in fact it didn’t really end at all) and this season somewhat felt a little bit short, make that a cour too short, then be advised that there is actually going to be a second part of this sequel (which is actually airing now)! Looks like they decided to do a split cour for this season. Here I was thinking it was going to be double cours and got baffled when they reduced it to just a single cour. Did they cancel production or something? Oh right. Another part in the works. Shouldn’t be a surprise considering the development and direction of this sequel is heading, there should be more to unravel rather than just ending it after a dozen episodes.

Honestly, if I have to summarize my personal feelings and thoughts about this season in a few words, it would be boring and confusing! You fans want to hear me out first before you start throwing bricks at me or summon the Demon Lord to devour my soul? Both my sentiments can be attributed to the fact that I am not very well versed or interested in the realms of the supernatural. That’s right. You can say that my knowledge in this area is very lacking and thus this is where my boredom and confusion of the series as a whole stems from. In a way, you could say that I have wasted my time watching this because I don’t really understand the supernatural aspects of it all. Even right till the very end. Yes, there were some brief explanations but I suppose if one is interested, they can continue to do more research about that supernatural subject over the internet. I didn’t. Because I don’t want to be further spooked and have sleepless nights over something that I believe I still won’t understand after reading up! While this series is of the supernatural fantasy genre, those supernatural terms and creatures weren’t pulled out of thin air as they were taken or at least referenced by lore and myths of other cultures. Yes, I did Google up those terms but did not delve further into it. Therefore while watching and being spammed with those supernatural terms, all I could muster was just a blank reaction. Oh, uhm, yeah, whatever you say.

Aside the supernatural stuffs, there is also some sort of drama that is going on and of course which I do not really understand fully. The sequel starts off slow for me because obviously Chise has gotten herself enrolled at the College so there has got to be some introductory stuffs like the students and friends that she will make there. Understandable. But still boring. Yeah, what was I expecting? Chise to be spirited away? Even in the later half when some supernatural incidents take place to shake up the boring drama and for some much needed ‘action’, it felt slightly better but those interesting bits only lasted as long as that. Whether it is that nucklavee incident or that pair of wolves trying to complete their mission to eliminate the Webster family. Just a short burst of interesting excitement, that is all. And of course there are other plots like the 7 Shields thingy which I think could get pretty messy with different clans getting dragged into a bloody battle royale mix to fight for the right to get the Holy Grail to get their wish granted. OH SH*T! WRONG ANIME!!! Fate/Stay Yome it is not!

As for the characters, the big focus here is on Chise as she continues to sort out her thoughts and feelings after everything that has happened. While she tries to be noble and be concerned for others, but as others can see her, her actions are rather rash and she does it all without thinking about the future consequences. Only because of lady luck (AKA the script), the situation is resolved in a way that does bring something very unfavourable to her. So perhaps that is why Chise is often having that worried looks on her face? She might know about this problem but at her level, what else can she do about it? I guess it shows that despite her curse and powers she got, she is still human as she is struggling with her self-worth. Elias feels a bit more side-lined here. Often playing more of a supporting role. After all, he is still trying to understand humans and I’m not saying Chise is a bad teacher, some things that time to learn. Well, to the benefit of Elias, he has all the time in the world to learn.

The new characters don’t seem to make much impact here as I personally don’t find them memorable. At least for this season. The new friends Chise made at the College don’t really stand out. For instance, I thought Rian would have a more proactive role after that stunning request to Chise to teach him magic. What happened to that? He then is relegated to a minor character. Maybe it’s not his turn yet. Yes, he too has his own past and family circumstances but it is not fleshed out in this part of the season. Then there’s the strange Philomela who is always having that worried looks on her face. Feels like she could explode and cast a deadly curse upon the world! Again, she has some weird family circumstances but nothing conclusive although it is intriguing. For now, it is Lucy who is being focused because of her family’s massacre. But that too doesn’t feel complete so we’ll have to wait for the next part to see how it all plays out. These young ladies including Alice, they sure have some personal issues at hand, don’t they? And I’m starting to think Zoe has a thing for Lucy because she took off his earmuffs and revealed those snake hair. Strange. Do snakes and spiders go well together?

With Chise attending College, this means that many of the characters from the first season do not appear like Oberon and Titania. I’m sure there are many other characters too but obviously I would have forgotten about them at this point and won’t even remember them had I not referred to my previous blog. Yeah, even so, who that character again? Those who do appear also felt a bit paltry like Silky and Ruth. Silky continues to stay at home and watch over it while Ruth is just being like Chise’s guardian dog. Again, not very much of an impact but I guess it is better than those characters who didn’t even turn up this season at all.

For this season, Studio Kafka took over from Wit Studio. This is a relatively new company and this series is actually their first works. While the character designs largely still remain the same, however I think they look a bit weird. Uhm, can I say that their face looks a bit, uhm, fatter?! I don’t know, looking at the girls’ face like Chise, Lucy and Philomela, it just gives off that one kind look. In fact, the characters have this one kind look as the details on their face look a bit simpler. And of course being in the College filled with strange mages and supernatural beings, some characters look really strange like some sort of weird chimera like Alexandra and Simeon. Although it is a good thing they aren’t nightmare fuel. Aside the character designs, at least what I like about the art and animation quality are the background and sceneries. They still look quite gorgeous and of high quality especially the visual effects like the water and particles in the air. Sometimes I prefer to look at those rather than the characters. Though, sometimes spoiled by the weird CGI but thankfully those are very far and few in between.

There’s a host of new seiyuus joining this season in addition to those retained from the first season. Because first and foremost… OH MAH GAWD MAMIKO NOTO MAKING HER CAMEO AS THAT FEMALE WOLF ENEMY???!!! OMG IT’S HER!!! Thank goodness they didn’t kill her off… At least there’s a possibility she might return next time. Heh. The rest of the casts are Minami Tsuda as Lucy (Yui in YuruYuri), Maki Kawase as Philomela (Yuna in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear), Seiichirou Yamashita as Rian (Cid in Kage No Jitsuryokusha Ni Naritakute), Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe (Nico in Nanbaka), Koutarou Nishiyama as Isaac (Sagyo in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu), Reina Ueda as Veronica (Lemon in Mashle), Kousuke Toriumi as Narcisse (Nozel in Black Clover), Daiki Yamashita as Violet (Midoriya in Boku No Hero Academia), Minami Tanaka as Jasmine (Mary in Kakegurui), Mami Koyama as Liza (Big Mom in One Piece), Miki Natsutani as April, Mari Uchiyama as May, Aya Endo as Alexandra (Tchaikovsky in ClassicaLoid – note she is also the voice of Silky so could her character be Silky in disguise?), Sayuri Sadaoka as Lizbeth (Makiko in Muteki Kanban Musume), Mitsu Iwata as Simeon, Makoto Furukawa as Fabio (Shirogane in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Mayumi Tsukishima as Sofia, and Mitsuo Iwata as Simeon (Pyoro in Vandread).

The opening theme, Dear by Junna sounds weird. I’m not sure if this is some sort of Bollywood song because it sure has what I think are Indian or Arabian musical vibes. At least for the first half of the song. And then it becomes some generic and dramatic rock piece. Can’t say I like it very much. The same can be said for the ending theme, Mubansou by Edda. Though, it fares slightly better but this slow rock isn’t my cup of tea either.

Overall, I still stand by my assessment of this season being boring and confusing unlike many other reviewers out there who have lots of positive things to say about it. I’m not really into this genre or subject as it didn’t even spur a sliver of my interest after watching this. Good news I’m not a freaky occult nerd? Yeah. Maybe. But still a ‘refreshing’ series-cum-sequel too watch since I have been watching too many of those isekai and high school romcom types recently! Heh. Maybe I should stick with those. Those who are enchanted by this supernatural and magical tale are free to continue to heap praises on this fantasy series. It’s a free (anime) world after all. But don’t worry, I’m still giving this series a chance when the next part of this season comes around. Though, not putting too much hope on it! So I’m not sure if I am bugged with some sort of supernatural curse that has me not retaining memories of many of the animes I have watched over the years!

Isekai Shoukan Wa Nidome Desu

As the isekai genre is permeating the industry in every season, they need to find ways to differentiate it from others. Because dying and reincarnating or get summoned has been done to death. And now the recent trend of being able to go back and forth between both worlds seem to be getting old too. How now? Anymore ideas? Why, you get summoned again for the second time! Oh yeah. That should do it. And as obvious as the title is, Isekai Shoukan Wa Nidome Desu has our main character been summoned back to this other world for the second time after saving it in his first. Time to do everything again for the second time.

Episode 1
Yuki is wondering how it’s going in the other world. Did he just jinx it because he gets summoned there! However this time his classmates too get summoned. As they are shocked in this foreign land, Yuki is not so because he has been here before. They are attacked by demonic knights. Yuhi Hanabashira protects him but that won’t be necessarily as he easily flicks it away with his finger! The royal knights are soon here to counterattack while the students run for cover. Yuki is stumped because he was here 5 years ago when the war ended. But he notes that the knights have curses. The students are before the king of Distinia as he explains another war has befallen on the land and hence their summoning. He assures them they did this before 5 years ago with another hero and won. The knights start training them but since Yuki slacks off, Elka is going to punish him. WTF he spanks her! But she recognizes that spank. It’s Setsu Suzaki! He is back! She turns into a submissive masochist and then takes him to see the rest of his pals, Glein and Thea who are glad he is back. First Setsu explains after his final battle with Touma, he disappeared. More precisely, reincarnated in another world with his memories intact. That is why he looks different. There is a possibility Touma is behind this war since he too has not been found ever since. The king decides to screw the peace accord with demons that the hero made 5 years ago. He regrets doing that and is calling for an all-out war with them. Because of that, Setsu wants to stop this war by himself. This time he will go alone. But first he needs to get his sword, Kuromaru. His pals help him sneak into the storeroom to get it. Before he leaves (to go see an old acquaintance), Yuhi is worried and wants to come with him, promising she will be useful. No can do. He reveals this is his second time summoned to this world and to keep her safe, stay here with the rest. She promises to protect this place while he is gone since her magic abilities are improving.

Episode 2
Ruri’s grandpa once told her about the craftsman pride. Of course the exception is when it comes to money! Of course grandpa died and poor Ruri is left to carry out his last wishes. As she is transporting this brooch late at night, she is attacked by a monster. Thank goodness for Setsu passing by to rid of it. She wants to hire him as a bodyguard till the next port. At first he declines since he has other stuffs to do but I guess he doesn’t want to make a loli cry. At Marsenne, Ruri is trying to find a ship to the demon continent but nobody is willing to go there since there is a war going on. That’ll be like suicide. When knights inspect Ruri and she refuses to show her brooch, they are about to get rough and bully her but of course her bodyguard comes to her rescue. He even dares to fight them. Fearing the crowd might spread bad rumours about them, the knights go away. The duo spend the night at the inn together. It saves costs. Nothing unholy happening as you would think. Ruri telling the story of her late grandpa and how he entrusted this brooch delivery because the last client sent it in for repairs. Grandpa also talks about the real pride other than money as Ruri accepted the task. Setsu recognizes this brooch as he casted protection magic on it before. That night, the knights barge in to arrest them for being suspects as demon spies. Setsu takes Ruri and run through the streets, making a fool out of those chasing goons. When they reach a dead end at the port, Setsu then summons the god of the seas, Leviathan as they hitch a ride across the ocean! Yeah, those knights can’t believe it and thinks they must be dreaming! Ruri too is in shock and wonders if her bodyguard is more than meets the eye. They finally arrive at the demon continent.

Episode 3
Leviathan or Levia for short can transform into a human chick form too. She helps destroy this giant squid as Setsu makes fried squid rings. Delicious! Ruri gets the shock of her life that the parcel she is supposed to deliver is to Dezastol Serreno who is the current Demon Lord. Levia doesn’t want to accompany them any further as she has done her job. Actually she is sulking that Setsu disappeared for 5 years and when he returned, he treated her like a boat! So he makes it up by giving her more squid rings? In fact, the entire village is grateful because that squid has been a hindrance to their business. They have a big party celebration. Eat up, there’s more squid rings to spare. Everybody is sure happy eating that delicious squid. Ruri further learns from Levia that Setsu is THAT Setsu, the hero who brought peace 5 years ago. Because of Levia’s promise to him, the oceans are now much safer. Vlad who is Dezastol’s top guards, thinks the party is an attack from humans. He barges in but sees everyone in revelry. Care to have some squid? Learning Setsu is back, he hopes he can help save Dezastol. She is betrothed to a man named Terran Sneeter. Apparently the world’s richest man and as a merchant he controls a lot of stuff. The marriage is a sham and it is only to subdue Dezastol with some spell. Setsu is shocked to learn that humans attacked this place many times although Vlad and his guards manage to repel them. Because Dezastol wants peace, she sent emissaries but none has returned. Then this Terran dude showed up and claimed he can give her that in exchange for her hand in marriage. Setsu is mad that Dezastol allowed herself to be a slave for peace but is sharply reminded that she is only keeping her promise to Setsu. So it’s his fault, right? Knowing they can’t let this happen, Setsu and Levia race up the mountains and kill all the monsters that attack them along the way. Setsu believes that both sides think they attack each other first. Perhaps a mastermind behind it all to step in and negotiate for peace but with ulterior motives.

Episode 4
Flashback shows after Setsu and Dezastol fought, they promised peace and he gave her a brooch to commemorate that. 5 years on, her kingdom is prospering but it could be a sign of bad omen when her brooch cracked so she sent it for repairs as suggested by Vlad. When war started to arrive on their shores, Dezastol didn’t want to jump to conclusions and sent some of her emissaries to find out more but they never return. That is when Terran came to see her and in exchange for her hand in marriage, can end this war right now. Oh you mean become his slave? Call it whatever you will as long as her beauty is his. While her generals are against this, Dezastol has to think hard before accepting it because of her promise to Setsu. We see Terran and a hooded guy happy this plan is going well. Terran will get the demon chick while hoodie gets the demonic kingdom. However the latter claims this is the will of his master. On the day of the wedding, Terran shows off this bracelet that will make Dezastol submit to him. For peace, right? A tearful Dezastol accepts her fate when like always, the hero crashes in to save the day. Look at the relief in her face when she sees it is Setsu. Terran cowers for his life while hooded guy has his henchmen fight him. Levia takes them all down until hooded guy traps him in her shadow. Nothing that Setsu can’t break, right? Setsu is obviously superior but hooded guy isn’t giving his 100% because he needs to report to his master and escapes. Terran is arrested and they investigate the bracelet which is cursed. Setsu suspects it is the work of Touma. Dezastol is willing to help him but Setsu needs to depart for the land of Regulus to get the aid of the beastmen king. This means Levia needs to be his boat again… Ruri enters just in time to complete her brooch delivery. Setsu puts it on her for the second time as she once again thanks him for teaching her how to live. Wow, this looks like a wedding scene. Setsu departs and Dezastol hopes he’ll come straight back here once everything is over. It’s a promise.

Episode 5
Flashback shows Yuhi and Yuki as childhood friends. She wanted them to go to the same high school and thus taking this cram class but he found it troublesome and didn’t care. This made her upset so she went to cram school herself. However she is of the failing grade. Depressed, she met some bad company who wanted her to give up and hang out and have fun with them. Had not Yuki come to her rescue, she might have actually turned into a bad girl. I guess he should’ve made it clearer that he wanted to go to the same school with her and will work hard by helping her study. It was then Yuhi wanted to forever be with Yuki whom she loves. And now we see her training her magic and skills hard. She seeks Elka to further train her. Crunch test time when she brings her to the sewers to fight, uhm, a sewer crocodile? Although Yuhi stood her ground, the only downside is that she cannot kill it. She gets wounded and needed Elka to finish the job. Advice of the day, you must kill to protect. Next day, Yuhi still has her mind on this so she talks to Thea and Glein who give their opinions about the matter. Eventually, it is for her to decide and determine what she wants to do. Revenge match as Yuhi fights the sewer crocodile again. This time she wins but knocks it out without killing it. This is the determination she has decided to stick with. To fight without killing. To never take a life. So is she willing to let roaches live too?! Anyway, Elka accepts her determination because guess what? That’s what Setsu also said. Next day, Glein gathers the students as they will leave for dawn for the demon nation of Eviltheon. Oh wow. Couldn’t they named it better?

Episode 6
On their way to Regulus, Setsu and Levia stumble into Alizee. She is Setsu’s self-proclaimed student. With Alizee is her sister, Amelle. Not blood related. Setsu invites them to join him to head to Regulus but Alizee can’t as she has taken up an important quest so slay a dragon. You see, when Amelle came to this village, she lived with her brother. But he went missing when a dragon attacked. Alizee felt pity for her and decided to become her sister to stem her loneliness. Then when Alizee took on the quest to slay the dragon, the odd thing is that the people go missing without a trace when it happens. There was one incident where Alizee fought the dragon and chased it. However she lost it and when she returned to the village, everyone else disappeared. Amelle was the only one left. Hence that is why she is now taking her to the city to have someone look after her till she finishes this mission. Of course Setsu is going to help her so they discuss the various mysterious phenomena behind the dragon’s true identity. Zombies? Siren? Oh, space aliens?! Are you guys taking this seriously?! Then Setsu wonders why the dragon kept attacking the village and if the people disappear, they need to go somewhere. Hence there must be a very strong magic user to use this teleport magic. The best way is to ask the person herself. Uhm, Setsu suspecting Amelle as the culprit? What gave her away was because she could smell Levia’s scent as different race. However Levia is god level and doesn’t let that magic power leak out in human form. So how does she know Levia’s true form? Gig is up so Amelle transforms into a dragon to start attacking. But damn, a quick fight because Setsu soon takes her down. She bursts into many little balls of light. Setsu and Levia continue their journey while Alizee remain behind to handle what’s left. However she is soon confronted by Amelle. She isn’t dead. That attack can’t kill her. She reveals all the villagers have high magic properties and hence she has turned them into her dolls since magic soldiers are needed for the war. Amelle’s true name is Melluar and she controls all sorts of monsters. This name was given by Touma.

Episode 7
Shironeko is much loved by many as she helps fight monsters to protect the people. However she is doing all these jobs to help buy medicine for her sick sister, Mineko. She mostly gets her jobs from the innkeeper, Kuroinu and she claims that her next job she will pay her so handsomely, she won’t have to work again and she can even buy enough medicine to cure Mineko. That job is obviously to kill Setsu. Shironeko readies for this assassination job that night but Setsu is well prepared and avoids her kill. Since she is desperate to kill him and Setsu doesn’t like how she is getting reckless, he slaps her out! KO! He notices he has a curse put on her. When Shironeko wakes up, she learns that Setsu brought her back to her home. He understands her situation and can also tell that Mineko is not suffering from an illness but a very powerful curse. Yes, he can help destroy this curse but she needs to put up with a bit of pain as he transforms his sword into some sort of curse eater. But at this point, Kuroinu attacks. Shironeko shields Setsu from it. Since he needs to concentrate, Levia goes to deal with her. Obviously no match for a sea god. When Shironeko is saddened about Kuroinu’s true colours, Kuroinu starts to blame her as useless for being unable to execute a simple order. She reveals that she is a pawn of Touma whose goal is to become God and destroy every species in this world. Uhm, so that’s like destroying the world? Kuroinu escapes. Mineko is freed. Next day, Setsu and Levia continue their journey but Shironeko and Mineko want to join them and could prove useful in battle. They need some guide if they’re heading to the beastmen continent. Any reason to oppose? Welcome aboard.

Episode 8
5 years ago when Setsu trained Roa, the daughter of Regulus, king of the beastmen, she refused to call him her master unless he beat her. Well, he beat her. And now she is happy to welcome her master back after a long absence. Even Regulus happily welcomes his friend back. Sure, he might look different but he has the same scent. Wait. Do souls carry the same scent? Anyway, the beastmen are deliberating on the war between humans and demons. Both are their enemies. Regulus wants to come with Setsu to go defeat Touma but as suggested, he is to stay here and have Roa go instead. This is all opposed by Rouga, the commander of Regulus’ army and Roa’s supposed fiancé. Rouga and Roa argue about Setsu being trustworthy or not. Since both have valid points, Regulus will have this settled like any other beastmen way: A duel. And the winner will also earn the right to marry Roa! He just complicated things… That night, Roa warns Rouga about Setsu being a whole different level. He can’t defeat him. Rouga also knows that. But he is confident of this small chance. You see, some mage gave him this magic mark. Oh dear… Next day, the arena is filled as everyone is revved up for this fight. Obviously Rouga goes all out but that is not even enough to ruffle any of Setsu’s feathers. Not even when he is in beast mode. With Setsu the obvious winner and he won’t attack Rouga no more, Rouga takes this as an insult that he isn’t even worth that. His anger and jealous propels the mark to activate and make him go berserk. Yup, too late to recognize it as Touma’s curse. This farce ends as Touma makes his appearance by killing off Rouga. He is happy to see Setsu again but the feeling isn’t mutual. Touma is not happy, Setsu has always promised others and it is always about someone else. That is why he is going to kill the entire world so they both can live in this world together alone as gods! OMFG. Are you gay, Touma?! Well, Setsu doesn’t subscribe to this yandere’s plan so Touma dares him to come to the demon continent. As things have already begun, can he make it in time? Touma is confident he can win him over this time. See you there. Regulus immediately prepares a ship for Setsu’s party. Old sentiments can wait after this is over.

Episode 9
We go back 10 years ago when Setsu and Touma were summoned to Distinia for the first time. The people who summoned them were happy to have summoned a couple of heroes to help them fight in the war but Setsu wasn’t happy to be used as their pawn and told them off. However he has to be realistic and had to help them since they were already here. Setsu has been strong since the start unlike Touma who was low on self-confidence and weak. But thanks to Setsu’s encouraging words, this boosted Touma’s morale as they both made promises as friends. Setsu has become strong enough to go off on his own to fight the war. Their latest promise was to meet again. Touma stayed behind and continued to work hard until he was made the general of the king’s army. He led his men to several battlefronts and conquered the enemies. Then one mission at a temple, some voice spoke to him and claimed she could make true all his desires. Touma accepted that deal seeing he wanted to see Setsu again. One day, a messenger came to tell Touma that the war was over and a peace treaty was to be signed. The thing was, Touma saw Setsu riding in a carriage happily with Regulus and Dezastol. This made Touma sad. Hey, important people going to sign an important treaty, why are they riding in such an inferior carriage with no escort?! Anyway, when peace came, Touma finally managed to see Setsu. Touma claimed he has found a way home and they can go back together. However Setsu doesn’t want to go back. He wants to see more of this world. This was when Touma snapped as the evil power of the pendant overtook him. In his rage, Touma attacked Setsu and thought everyone else was in the way. If he killed everybody, perhaps Setsu will return back to who he was. As we all know, during the intense fight, Setsu vanished. Touma returned to the temple, lamenting none of his wish came true. Then the pendant showed him various people being tortured and experimented on mercilessly. Realizing there were others like him too, Touma went to destroy that facility and freed them. Now they join him and his cause to destroy the world who rejected them.

Episode 10
It’s time for the big battle. Elka and her side fighting the demon side. Wondering how those students will fare. Don’t worry, we only get to see the local soldiers get killed. As the battle rages on, golems are summoned. If that is not enough, Elka’s side is disheartened to find they have to fight Alizee. She is of course now a puppet of Melluar. Melluar then uses her blood to summon some (mediocre) monsters but they all get defeated. Then Alizee gets knocked out and Elka piercing through her magic organ. However Melluar still lives. Due to those previous experiments, she has extra organs in her body. Technically a monster. She would have been in worse conditions had not Touma saved her and that is why she fights for him. Then she summons her ultimate monster, a chimera and fuses with it using her life force and hatred. Everyone has a hard time fighting it but as luck would have it, Alizee sneaks up from behind to stab Melluar. With no more magic organs left, Melluar is petrified. Alizee has weakened considerably but with some healing spells, she will be okay. Battle is not over yet as another of Touma’s generals pop up. Elka’s side is too exhausted, injured and in no shape to fight him. They are forced to rely on Yuhi who will show the fruits of her training. Gee, why do I not have the confidence in her? But of course we won’t get to see this girl in battle because Setsu drops in.

Episode 11
Kagerou is that hooded guy with Terran. He relishes a chance to fight Setsu as he claims this world needs to be destroyed because it is weak as opposed to Setsu who will protect them. But now we take a detour as we see Shironeko and Mineko fight Kuroinu. Long story short, Shironeko and Mineko combine and fuse to give Kuroinu a taste of defeat. Meanwhile Virdos, one of Touma’s generals is easily picking off the demon army. This is where Roa comes in to fight this tranny whose body is made of steel and strong hard substance due to the experiments. Despite Roa taking in all the damage, she still doesn’t give up and continues to fight back until her punch goes through him. Obviously Roa has taken a lot of lethal damage but after seeing her relentless pride, Virdos heals her and admits defeat. As for why he worked under Touma, he claims nobody would accept a freak like him. Now we return to Setsu’s fight with Kagerou. Setsu wants to skip this and go straight to the big boss but Kagerou will wager his life and dons this shadow armour that absorbs all energy. If you don’t know the script already, Setsu’s sword can just cut through anything and with Kagerou armourless and on the verge of death, he still wants to carry on fighting. Setsu is forced to put him out of his misery. It’s time for the final boss fight.

Episode 12
Alright people, the big final boss fight of Setsu vs Touma is here. Sword fight, fist fight and even magic fight. When Touma can’t beat him, he transforms his sword into a gun! Be careful not to get hit, it puts a hole in the mountain! If Setsu is too fast to dodge his shots, Touma turns it into a gatling gun! With Setsu’s friends here to cheer him, this only makes Touma mad. Why do you always have to leave me alone?! So he is sacrificing his life for this ultimate god-like weapon? Oh yeah, unlimited ammo. Touma gets sneaky and targets his friends. There is only so much Setsu’s sword can take and the rest might hit them. Luckily they can protect themselves with their barrier. Setsu then deals a fatal blow on Touma. But this only awakens him further as his gun transforms again. You mean that wasn’t its final form?! Hope this is it. This one is able to knock down Setsu. Touma thinks he has won and finally beat him. Yeah, he was counting his chickens because Setsu gets up and admits Touma has gotten stronger but unless he regains the things precious to him, he will never beat him. Touma is shocked he can still use some dimensional magic. Of course. What Touma can do, Setsu can obviously do too. Setsu lets this magic engulf Touma who is now scared and doesn’t want to die. He gets eaten up. Soon he wakes up. Still alive. Setsu says his goal was to make him come to his senses and destroyed the curse that was on him. Touma realizes he can never beat him. In the aftermath, Touma is sentenced to use all his magic to transfer Setsu’s classmates back to their world. He is to also join them to start anew. Yes, that’s his punishment. Only thanks to Setsu pleading that, the rest agreed to this. After all, Touma will be harmless without his magic. And so Touma opens up a portal to return those students. Yeah, they can’t wait to go home. I suppose Setsu not joining them and those classmates feel like they don’t even give a damn. Touma decides to go on a journey to see what he can do in this world. Soon, Setsu also goes on his own journey but he won’t be alone because now he has Yuhi as company. So they visit various places and we see everyone living their peaceful lives. Like Ruri operating a very successful squid rings stall while Shironeko and Mineko have joined Roa’s ranks (she is now the commander) to train and best Setsu. Keep dreaming.

Not Watching This Crap For A Second Time!
YAWN!!! Oh man. Thank goodness it is over. I hope when they stated “END” in the final scene, it will be the last I’ll ever hear of this series and no sequel whatsoever! Let’s hope this boring peace reigns over this world so that we won’t get another second season because that would just suck. It would render all the boring adventures and fights we have seen here as useless. And let’s hope Touma doesn’t pick up some other curse on his journey that will warrant that unnecessary sequel! Imagine having to go through all that sh*t again for the third time! NOOOOO!!!! Please don’t repeat the whole thing again! I guess it’s still better than that Endless Eight atrocity… Yeah, you young ones know which anime I’m talking about?

I have to admit it, the whole story is just f*cking boring! It doesn’t seem so only because this is our first time witnessing the events at least in the context of this anime. Oh heck, I think the first time too was equally if not even more boring! Just a very mundane plot of Setsu being summoned to this other world (for the first time) to become a hero and stop a war. And then he gets summoned again and because now he knows the tropes of everything, it’s just mainly about him going on a road trip to gather his allies to fight against Touma. That is basically it. You can’t get even more boring than that! So yeah, while it might seemed a bit curious that Setsu gets summoned for the second time (because in many isekai genres, in fact all of them, you technically get summoned once and stay there for the rest of your life), technically if I want to argue, this isn’t actually his second time. Yes, he could be just taking a long break in between that 5 years he was missing, got lost somewhere in another world, by a stroke of luck he gets summoned back. Because if I were to interpret this second time summoning, I would had interpreted as him being summoned back in time to this world and doing things all over exactly the same again but this time retaining the knowledge he had of what happened the first time. This would sound more interesting in this context but alas, this ‘second time’ is actually a continuation of Setsu’s life and adventures in this world. BORING!

The characters are as boring as f*ck and all of them are not even memorable. Take Setsu for instance. He is already overpowered from the start. Returning back to this world for a second time, he retains all his knowledge and power and that makes him even more boring. The thing that is more curious about him is about his other life in another world when before he got summoned back here a second time. I am assuming he was reborn again as a baby and grew up to be a high school teen before all this happened again. Sure, time flows differently in different worlds. But I just wanted to point out that his high school life as Yuki could be just boring and peaceful as f*ck since nothing much really happens. No wonder he feels so lively and excited to be back here again. Makes me wonder if he had his overpowered skills in that world. Or is all that only when he came back to Distinia? Either way, I’m not impressed.

The other characters are even worse. So we see Setsu going on a road trip and meet a few other characters who know him along the way. They feel so shallow and forgettable that it’s all just boring. I’m not even going to bother to even ‘analyse’ them. From Levia (aqua mobile) to Elka (masochist) to Dezastol (demon bride) to Roa (beast bride), YAWN!!! Worse, those unfortunate students who got summoned along with him were useless as f*ck and it would be as good as they didn’t get summoned here at all in the first place. But I guess this is to cover up if Yuhi was the only other person who got summoned with Yuki. Not that I care but might as well bring along a bunch of classmates just in case. So yeah, Yuhi is there for the potential romance but I don’t see it happening so yeah, this wasted potential is also good in the sense that it won’t cheapen the show and characters that are already so boring! Good to know that Setsu not only has allies in this world but at least one from his previous world. With many characters are females, they make it look like it was going to be harem potential (as opposed to the manga covers and other pics I saw online). But it was just me thinking so and thank goodness it didn’t come to that because as I’ve said, it would cheapen the whole damn thing that is already, wait for it, BORING AS HELL!!! I bet Setsu and Yuhi not going back to that other world, I’m assuming nobody including their friends or family would give a f*ck over their absence nor cry over them. Yeah. Have fun exploring this great big world.

The curious one is Touma himself. For most of the part, he has been casted as the biggest baddie and the enigmatic antagonist of the series. He sounded like some badass villain and possible on par like Marvel’s Thanos (I know it’s not but LOL!). Then that flashback episode just turned everything upside down. In other words, Touma is just being some fan boy obsessed with Setsu and it couldn’t get any more cringe with this bromance thingy! OMG. So that is how the animosity between the guys started?! And I thought Touma was like some sort of evil god from ancient times (now taking a form of a kid) that haunts the land but it turns out he was Touma’s fellow summoned partner?! What a shocking twist! What a disappointment! So this whole war thing started again just because Touma can’t get yaoi with Setsu and hence wants to destroy it and remake it into a gay paradise just for themselves. WTF???!!! At this point I don’t know whether to laugh my ass off or be disappointed and cringe with this revelation. Okay, it’s both. HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!! Oh, Touma… Setsu will never be your lover boy! Good grief. Imagine all the cute chicks here of all races and if he chooses Touma, OMG I can sense a new kind of war happening…

But alas, I’m not sure if this ending of freeing Touma from the curse, should I be satisfied? They can’t kill him off because he was Setsu’s friend and they have to make Setsu have his 100% clean sheet of promises being kept. Back to being friends again is the best happy ending for this guy who have did so many atrocities in which everybody would just close an eye on. His pals are dead, everybody else to busy living to give a f*ck about the past. Oh Touma, you never had it so good. So yeah, was there some malevolent force behind Touma’s curse or was this kid just bad luck? Have fun exploring this great big world. Better than a bromance outcome!

Action wise, pretty boring too. It is all standard affair and nothing really exciting. After all, Setsu is already overpowered and there is nothing that can defeat him. Even if he is seen pushed back, that is just temporary and for the drama because if you follow the script, Setsu will always win in the end. So as not to make it obviously boring, hence Setsu gathering his allies for the final fight with Touma’s generals. Pretty sure it is to help them not be irrelevant because we get to see them match up with Touma’s goons. Ultimately it is all also pretty boring stuffs and just to tick the group battle checklist before moving onto the final boss fight. YAWN!

Art and animation too are pretty standard and generic. Characters designs look like your usual and typical 2D anime characters like Setsu your typical bland looking heroic main character while the rest of the girls looking typically 2D cute. Oh right, some scenes especially during the action parts feel like they have downgraded but at this point I don’t really care. This anime is done by Studio Elle who did Gibiate. Oh dear, why do they have to bring back those pesky memories of the Corona virus! Sorry, it’s unrelated and it’s just personal!

Voice acting is also pretty normal. Though, I am surprised to hear a few recognizable seiyuus lending their talents here like Shinichiro Miki as Regulus, Aoi Yuuki as Thea, Yui Ogura as Shironeko, Hiro Shimono as Rouga and the biggest surprise of them all that almost slipped my radar: Yukari Tamura as Kuroinu. My, my. The other casts as Shunichi Toki as Setsu (Fukuma in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu), Ai Fairouz as Levia (Power in Chainsaw Man), Satomi Akesaka as Roa (Chrome in Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn), Satomi Amano as Yuhi (Misa in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear), Kaori Maeda as Elka (Shizuku in Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idoul Doukoukai), Miku Itou as Alize (Miku in Go-toubun No Hanayome), Rina Honnizumi as Mineko (Hina in Plunderer), Saori Oonishi as Dezastol (Kaori in Arifureta), Yuri Kozakai as Ruri (Pekola in Jashin-chan Dropkick) and Takuma Nagatsuka as Touma (Kouda in Boku No Hero Academia). The opening theme, Continue Distortion by S.S.Nirvergea is a generic rock piece and yes, boring as f*ck despite an upbeat song. The same can be said for the ending theme, Be Ambitious by Maybe Me. Lively pop idol song not for me.

Overall, this series is boring and disappointing. It should come to no surprise to me as an avid offender in watching the same genre every season. The story feels so generic and the characters are just forgettable. Nothing is really special. When you visit something for a second time, it means it had some sort of value. But not this series. If permitted, the value of this series can go way beyond negative! I know it is not the worst anime of the season or the year but it adds to the growing list of really bad isekai series and another reason to hate this oversaturated genre. I really hope they won’t make another season because definitely third time is not the charm!!! PLEASE, NO!!! But unfortunately for my case, I’ll be watching more of such isekai nonsense garbage trash in seasons to come for the umpteenth time!

Kimetsu No Yaiba: Katanakaji No Sato-hen

The next arc is here. That’s right. All those waiting for Kimetsu No Yaiba: Katanakaji No Sato-hen would be pleased that after that the series still has a long way to go and won’t just suddenly end at the entertainment district arc. More higher ranking demons to slay, more characters especially the Hashira to flesh out before we can put that evil Michael Jackson to rest for good! Another story, another arc to get one step closer to that goal. Swords, just like humans, they don’t last forever and will diminish faster with constant usage, wear and tear. And so we’re going to replenish and get new swords in this arc. But what if the demons strike the very heart of the Demon Slayer Corps’ weaponry source?

Episode 1
Well, Gyutaro is dead. Look who gets summoned to this twisting castle labyrinth. Yeah. The upper half of the Twelve Kizuki. Seriously, they should change the name due to dwindling numbers. Now we get to see the rest of the weirdoes that make up the upper half. As we all know Akaza is ranked third, the rest are Gyokko (5th), Hantengu (4th), Doma (2nd) and Kokushibo (1st). And now the main man is here. Mad. With the death of an upper half, he claims Gyutaro could have won had he fought himself. Daki held him back, he believes. He is angry that the Ubuyashiki family still lives and the blue spider lilies have yet to be found. He is starting to question their existence although he doesn’t expect anything from them. When Gyokko claims he has some info, he gets immediately decapitated (although not dead) and is warned by Kibutsuji that he hates changes because it means decay. Staying as it is means perfection. He gives them another warning although he thinks he has been lenient of them because of their status. He tells Gyokko to confirm this unfounded info and once so, head over there with Hantengu. Doma tries to be friendly with the rest but Akaza is not having this sh*t. Akaza is put into place by Kokushibo who warns about disrupting hierarchy. Doma can understand Akaza’s anger because Doma became a demon later than him but yet was promoted faster. All Akaza says is that he is going to kill Kokushibo. So be it.

Then we see this weird dream. I am not sure if this is the future not, is this Tanjirou holding his baby (where’s that face scar?) as we see him talking to a samurai. Tanjirou trying to be grateful to him for saving his family and perhaps pass down his name. However the samurai refuses all that and calls himself useless for being unable to protect the things he wants. Tanjirou wakes up from this sad dream. Kanao is in shock but is also happy because he has finally woke up after 2 weeks in coma! Goto, the Kakushi crew who picked Tanjirou back here is also surprised to see him awake. He chastises Kanao for not telling others so he screams at the top of his voice to everyone that our boy is back up. Yeah, everyone comes flying in and crying with tears of joy. Tanjirou soon learns Zenitsu was already up and sent on a mission (against his will of course). Inosuke is badly injured. In that case, who the heck is up there on the ceiling! Oh damn, it’s the real deal! Yeah, Inosuke coming to brag he was awake a week earlier. He was up there on the ceiling since yesterday trying to wake Tanjirou up?! But can everybody be quiet as Tanjirou needs his rest! Tanjirou continues his rehabilitation and wonders if he will get a replacement sword. Uhm, don’t look now but there are ominous letters from Haganezuka that he won’t be getting another sword! Oh sh*t. This is bad. It is suggested he head over to the swordsmith village where all the swordsmiths live to talk to him directly. Tanjirou is blindfolded all his senses as a Kakushi takes him there. In fact, the village is kept hidden so that demons won’t attack it. Hence several Kakushi crews are exchanged while being led by the crows.

Upon arrival, Tanjirou sees the village chief, Tecchin Tecchikawahara. Sorry but Haganezuka is currently missing. Claiming this child is a troublemaker, they claim it is not Tanjirou’s fault in breaking the sword but Haganezuka who forged a faulty one. Oh damn, are they going to beat him up once they find him?! Tanjirou will stay here until he has a new sword. If Haganezuka fails to do it by the time he heals up, they will assign a new swordsmith for him. Tanjirou hits the hotspring as it has good healing properties. Suddenly Mitsuri rushes towards him, complaining that a fellow demon slayer ignored her when she tried to say hi! Tanjirou manages to calm her down over dinner. That did the trick. He soon learns that person she is referring to is Genya. He too is staying here but he doesn’t want to talk and tells Tanjirou to STFU! Tanjirou and Mitsuri talk about Genya during dinner. It seems he has never eaten the village’s cooking. Tanjirou asks her about the reason she joined Demon Slayer Corps. Basically it’s to find a husband! Oh my. Are there any guys stronger than her? Mitsuri praises Tanjirou for surviving a head on battle with an upper rank. That itself is worth like 10 years of training as nothing beats first-hand experience. She hints there is a secret here that would make his weapon stronger and hopes he will find it. Next day as Tanjirou goes to look for it in the woods, he sees a local swordsmith kid, Kotetsu arguing with Muichiro. It seems he won’t be handing some key to this Hashira. Tanjirou then notices another figure standing behind the kid. Wow, this samurai dude sure looks familiar… Definitely seen him before.

Episode 2
Tanjirou ponders whether to get involved or not. He will be when Muichiro slaps Kotetsu! Despite Muichiro is of a smaller size, he can still overwhelm Tanjirou. Then he notes Tanjirou’s box and it’s the latter’s turn to tell not to touch it or else. Muichiro then lectures Kotetsu about his childishness and all and hence trying to guilt trip him that swordsmiths cannot fight and must be protected by those who can. Time for Tanjirou to virtue signal that although what he said is true, both swordsmiths and swordsmen need each other. Too bad Muichiro will not further listen to him and slaps him out! When he comes to, he learns Kotetsu has already given him the key. That samurai that was with them? It is actually a mechanical doll and Muichiro took the key to start it. Yes, he is training with it and is on par and perhaps even better than the doll. As it is modelled after an actual swordsman, this doll needs 6 arms or else it cannot replicate all the moves. Tanjirou understands why Kotetsu is worried since this doll AKA Yoriichi Type Zero is hard to repair due to its strange technology. His father was the only one who knew how to repair it but he passed away. Muichiro’s Kasugai Crow comes to further praise this prodigy and further adds this doll is based on that swordsman is also of the first breathing style AKA sun breathing. That is when Tanjirou remembers this dude from his dream but the crow scoffs him off as delusional. Because that person existed like 300 years ago. Kotetsu believes that sometimes memories of ancestors gets passed on too and thus Tanjirou’s dream must be his ancestors’ memories. Because Kotetsu still feels down that he can do no good, time for Tanjirou to lecture him about the things he can do but he needs to work hard for the future. Because Tanjirou’s goal is to defeat Kibutsuji and he might not be able to defeat the upper half right now but someday all the lives connected will help bring those demons down. This gives Kotetsu the much needed motivation to carry on his work.

At this time, Muichiro is done with his training. Yeah, he defeated the doll. Plus, his sword broke so he is taking one of the swords from the doll. Oh well, now it has 1 less arm… As they go check to see if this doll is working, thank goodness it is. But what’s this? Kotetsu wants Tanjirou to train with it now so he can be stronger and beat that Muichiro jerk! Oh my. Hey, didn’t Tanjirou himself said something about all that hard work thingy? Don’t you dare go back on your words now! And so his hellish training begins. Tanjirou takes a beating and heck, Kotetsu is now like his personal trainer, analysing all his moves and weaknesses. No wonder Tanjirou can’t beat this doll. And because of that, NO FOOD! GASP!!! This has become Spartan training! On the verge of death, Tanjirou thought he crossed over Sanzu River. He fell in and saw something shiny. After grabbing, it’s like he can move better and see the doll’s movements. He manages to land a strike albeit too weak to finish it. With that, Kotetsu now gives him food! How many days has it been? With Tanjirou getting better, however he still hesitates because he doesn’t want to damage the doll! Wow, the kindness of a different level? Well, Kotetsu gives his permission because he’ll try to fix it later. In the end, a killer move that has Tanjirou not only break his borrowed sword but the doll as well. That’s not the shocking part. As the doll comes apart, they see a sword inside it!

Episode 3
Tanjirou and Kotetsu can’t contain their excitement. Trying to be modest? Oh well, no harm in taking a look at a sword from 300 years ago… Well… It’s all rusty! What a bummer! Obviously. Suddenly Haganezuka pops up and wants to hand over the sword to his care. Tanjirou and Kotetsu fight back as they won’t. They have questions for him but he keeps dodging them. Until Kanamori tickles him as it is his weakness. He explains Haganezuka has been hiding in the mountains to train himself to forge a better sword for Tanjirou. Yeah, sorry for his lack of social skills. So as they give the sword to him to be restored in 3 days, Haganezuka lends Tanjirou a temporary sword. Back home, Tanjirou is bragging all this to Genya who doesn’t give a f*ck and kicks him out of his room. A swordsmith is returning from the hotspring. He sees a strange vase before him. Like how curiosity kills the cat, he gets devoured by Gyokko inside. Oh well. Looks like the demons are here. Next morning, Tanjirou is awakened by Muichiro as he is trying to find Kanamori who will be his new swordsmith. Tanjirou offers to go find him together so Muichiro is puzzled why he cares about others so much. Well, helping others will have good stuffs coming around to you eventually. Suddenly Hantengu crawls in. Tanjirou is shocked he couldn’t sense him and can only tell he is an upper half on sight. Muichiro instantly tries to attack but Hantengu dodges and even pleads to stop this torment. Tanjirou will not be fooled as he too takes up his sword to fight. With Nezuko’s help, Muichiro is able to decapitate him. But as an upper half, Tanjirou knows well such demons won’t die. In fact, Hantengu now splits into 2 beings, Sekido and Karaku! Muichiro is blown away by Karaku and Sekido’s electrical staff paralyzes Tanjirou. Luckily Genya is here as he shoots and decapitates them. However this makes things worse as now they split up and replicate more. Now there’s 4 of them. Tanjirou realizes this demon purposely wants them to decapitate it so it can split into many members that are younger and more powerful, each with different unique set of skills. As Tanjirou is taken away by Urogi, he tells Nezuko to help Genya. Well, better hurry, he got stabbed! By Aizetsu! Muichiro is on running back as fast as he can. He sees Kotetsu struggling against a demon. He places no priority to save him as his importance to save those with skill and the village. He can’t be bothered with the low survival probability of the inexperienced one. But of course, Tanjirou’s words suddenly resonate. Muichiro saves Kotetsu and prepares to fight this demon.

Episode 4
Muichiro decapitates the demon but it regenerates. Noting the strange vase power source on its top, he slashes it and now it’s dead. A grateful Kotetsu thanks him but needs his help to go help Kanamori. Kotetsu went to help but was stalled by this monster. Because Haganezuka has been working nonstop in his restoration work, any disruption may ruin it all. With Kotetsu begging, Muichiro remembers Ubuyashiki’s reassuring words that he will find back his lost memories. Muichiro decides to go help Kotetsu but wonders if this is the right thing to do as the village is now defenceless. Tanjirou is about to be killed by Urogi and instinctively slashes him in half. However he notes he clones himself with the same name and its attacks are weaker. He deduces that the 4 main body parts (each representing an emotion written on their tongue) are the strongest. Any more splitting will divide and weaken the powers. Genya refuses to die and blows off the head of Aizetsu although he still regenerates. Nezuko is having it tough with Karaku. His kick goes through her but she returns the favour with the same but this time with her flaming blood. Then she uses his fan and blows him away. She turns her attention to Sekido but he stabs her staff into her throat to paralyze her. As Tanjirou continues to battle Urogi, he is worried about getting back to help Genya and Nezuko. He makes a risky move by making it look like he is running away. When Urogi swoops in to attack, he dodges and stabs his sword through him although Urogi’s talons also pierce him. But this is all part of the plan to ride Urogi since he flies fast and back to the building. Then cutting off Urogi’s foot, he uses it as a shield against Sekido’s staff since it is immune to lightning attacks and slices off his tongue. This will take a longer time for the demon to regenerate as Tanjirou goes to save Nezuko. Just in time before Sekido makes mincemeat out of Tanjirou. Karaku returns and uses his pressure on the siblings. So great that they crash through the floor and pass out. Meanwhile the demons have invaded the village. Thankfully Mitsuri was stationed at a nearby village and is rushing her way back. Oh, so she knows where the swordsmith village is?

Episode 5
Kanamori is saved by Muichiro before he gets devoured. Meeting for the first time, Muichiro asks if he has a sword for him prepared. Indeed he has. In fact, Tanjirou also asked him to help take care of his needs. As Kanamori leads him to his shed, they are stopped dead in their tracks. Hi, it’s Gyokko. Before there are more swordsmith casualties, here comes Mitsuri to slice those demons with her whip-like sword. She also saves Tecchin in time. I bet the old geezer is fully healed after being saved by such a cute babe. Oh Mitsuri, do you want an old grandpa for a boyfriend? Our siblings manage to get up in time and run but Karaku’s fan blast is even greater this time so the whole building just get blown apart. Oh dear, Nezuko trapped under the rubbles and she won’t let herself go, clinging hard onto Tanjirou’s sword while bleeding profusely. Gyokko is going to show his guests his artwork first. A grotesque potpourri of 5 almost dead swordsmiths mashed together. As he further aggravates their pain and suffering (all in the name of art!), Muichiro tries to slash him but he can quickly teleport via his vase. Muichiro did slash one of his vase although more pops up and this makes Gyokko mad about this monkey who doesn’t know how to appreciate fine art. He then materializes goldfish demons that shoot poisonous needles. Muichiro has to rush to protect the swordsmiths and got some stuck in his body. Yeah, I think you swordsmiths better run and hide before you get in the way. As Gyokko laughs at how he could protect worthless lives, those words somewhat ring a bell. Someone said those words to him too. His memoires returning? Still hazy, though. Gyokko then imprisons Muichiro in his water cell. Can’t cut through. Beautiful death via drowning. Nezuko’s blood causes Tanjirou’s sword to be on fire. It is changing colour from pitch black to red. He then sees memories of his ancestors although he still doesn’t understand what is going on. With his sword now fully on raging flames, he gets ready to cut his adversaries. His stance and will frighten the demons because he looks like the swordsman who almost beheaded Kibutsuji. And then in a flash, Tanjirou beheads Sekido, Karaku and Urogi. Triple decapitation! He realizes this same feeling that had him manage to kill Gyutaro. He knows what to do know and hopes to kill all 4 simultaneously. But then he sees Genya decapitated Aizetsu. So the job’s done, right? Uhm, something not looking right. Is it me or does Genya look like he has turned into a demon!

Episode 6
Tanjirou realizes that despite all 4 demons decapitated at the same time, they are still alive albeit taking a bit longer to regenerate. Then he ponders if their head is their weak spot. No, because he smells there is a 5th demon hiding out there. Yes, it is Hantengu as Tanjirou tries to sniff him out but what’s this? Genya being mad at Tanjirou and thinks it was fluke that he defeated an upper half? Tanjirou is willing to support Genya’s dream to be a Hashira. Hey, after seeing his innocence, you think he is lying. Too bad the other demons regenerate and begin their attack. Tanjirou has adapted to the battlefield and can fight even faster. He has Genya look for Hantengu as well as cover for him. When Genya finds him, he is small like a mouse! No wonder he couldn’t find him despite Tanjirou’s directions! Genya chases him and when he slashes, his sword breaks! Even his bullets didn’t do damage. At this point, Sekido is right behind him. Genya realizes it is too late to do anything and he will die. He fears he will die without getting to apologize to his brother. Life flashing before your eyes? Flashback time. Genya narrates his mom is petite size and was always working. Dad was abusive and beat up his family and it was amazing how mother protected them all despite her small stature. Of course he got killed by someone else with some grudge. One night as mom was late from returning home, Genya got worried so Sanemi will go look for her alone. Just when the other siblings thought mom is home, they were all killed off instantly in what Genya thought was a wolf. Sanemi tackled it while telling Genya to run away. But then he saw Sanemi killing mom and cursed him for this heinous act. Of course then he didn’t realize mom turned into a demon and attacked her children. It was Sanemi who saw this and protected them. Genya has always wondered how he had felt when he killed mom and the brother who cursed him for not knowing anything. How were they going to live out their promise now? When father died, it brought a huge relief to the family so Sanemi and Genya made a promise to protect the family from now on. Now Genya fears he is too useless to even become a Hahira. But never say never because Tanjirou saves the day. Don’t give up! He will protect him. Now it’s Tanjirou’s turn to be in harm’s way of Aizetsu. However Genya uses his body to protect him. Damn, his body is full of holes now! He tells Tanjirou to get Hantengu as he can’t do it and just this once, he’ll let him have it.

Episode 7
Tanjirou starts beheading Hantengu but his neck is just freaking hard! Then he realizes a demon behind him. No time to react but he has Nezuko to thank as she saves him from his doom. Tanjirou fears this could be the 6th demon but then smells something amiss. Uhm, I thought Genya was riddled with holes but now his body is back to normal?! Anyway, Genya saw the whole thing. While Tanjirou was beheading Hantengu, Sekido swiftly absorbed the others and they all fuse into this new demon, Zohakuten. He calls them all vile villains because they tried to attack a weak and small being. However Tanjirou is not buying it since they have killed hundreds of humans who did nothing to them. They are the true villains. Zohakuten asks if those humans they devoured were his family. No? Then it has nothing to do with him. Of course Tanjirou will not allow their fiendishness to carry on. Muichiro uses his final breath to slash out but he fails. His sword is too blunt anyway. So he is going to accept fate and die? Yeah, seeing hallucinations of Tanjirou telling him not to accept such sad fate. But he is puzzled because Tanjirou never said those words. Kanamori tries to protect Haganezuka from Gyokko but gets slashed. Haganezuka so concentrated in his work that he doesn’t even know what is happening and is so devoted while awed at whoever made this great sword. Even when Gyokko slashes him, he still doesn’t stop. This makes Gyokko mad because he has never been so concentrated like this and as an artist, it makes him feel inferior! Of course he can kill this human easily but his pride and jealousy wants him to break Haganezuka’s concentration! More Muichiro’s hallucinations of Tanjirou assuring him with comforting words. Muichiro realizes he over appraised himself and is not strong as he thought. He is surprised Kotetsu is trying to free him. Shouldn’t he have other priorities? Muichiro tries to warn him of a demon approaching. Kotetsu takes a fatal stab but still won’t give up. He breathes some air into Muichiro. Uhm, so oxygen can go through this water prison? This gives Muichiro the much needed strength to use his mist breathing form and break out. Now he fully remembers that mysterious person who is no other than his father. Because Tanjirou has the same red eyes as him.

Episode 8
After saving Kotetsu and killing the small fries, we peek into Muichiro’s past. A son of a woodcutter, he enjoyed helping his father who was a kind person himself. But one stormy night, mother was so sick and dad went out to get herbs. Unfortunately, he slipped to his death. On that very same night, mother died. All alone? Well, Muichiro had an older twin brother, Yuichiro. However he seems to be harsh with his words despite being a realist. For instance, calling dad foolish to go out that night. There was nothing that would’ve guaranteed the herb would worked. Had he stayed in, they would’ve only lost their mother. Worst, he claims the ‘mu’ in Muichiro’s name means useless. One day, Amane (Ubuyashiki’s wife came to visit) but was chased away by Yuichiro. Muichiro became excited with the thought that they were descendants of the first breathing technique swordsman and that she was here to invite them to become swordsmen to fight demons. Yuichiro snapped at his brother for such dreams. He claimed the woman was going only to use them. Remember, Muichiro is supposed to be useless and can’t even cook rice! Although Amane continued to visit, Yuichiro still chased her away. Until one hot summer night, a demon came and attacked Muichiro. Yuichiro jumped to protect him and lost an arm. Muichiro became so enraged, he blacked out and couldn’t remember what happened next. All he remembered was the demon dismembered and suffering. He died via sunlight.

Muichiro crawled back to Yuichiro whose dying words were praying to God and to save Muichiro. Because unlike him, he is a kind hearted kid who wants to help others. Hence only he is to blame and to be punished. He also revealed the real meaning of ‘mu’ in his name meant infinity. We return to the somewhat comical situation of Gyokko still trying to break Haganezuka’s concentration. He almost got killed but dodges Muichiro’s slash. He is puzzled of his escape and thought he would’ve surely died. But guess what? Thinking he avoided Muichiro’s attack means he is fully concentrated! Whatever you say… Though, Gyokko is confused because now Muichiro shows the same markings on his face like Tanjirou. Nevertheless, Gyokko will deal with this Hashira first as he uses his octopus vase to attack. Muichiro slashes them all as he thanks Kanamori for forging his sword. Humble guy claims he was just following Muichiro’s previous swordsmith, Tetsuido who recently died from a heart disease. Flashback shows Tetsuido was worried about Muichiro’s busy and reckless lifestyle that broke many swords. He has not long to live but still can’t help worry about him. Muichiro is now faster than ever as he could now put some scratches on Gyokko. More last words of Yuichiro. He believed no matter how virtuous Muichiro is, God cannot protect him. That was why Yuichiro acted like a strict dick to protect him. Because he does things for others, he can exert infinite strength. He is one of the chosen ones.

Episode 9
Oh well, Muichiro and his deadpan sarcasm! Is this him reborn?! Gyokko won’t fall for such cheap insults until Muichiro points out his vases aren’t that beautiful. Time to get pissed! Gyokko avoids another fatal blow but this time he shreds his skin and shows his true form. Some scaly fish, huh? Yeah, Muichiro doesn’t even have words to describe the ugly mother he is! So as Gyokko continues to brag about himself, Muichiro further remembers watching Yuichiro die and maggots eating his rotting flesh. Had not Amane and her daughters came to his rescue, Muichiro would’ve met the same fate since he was gravely injured. After he was taken in as a Demon Slayer Corps member, he continue to train harshly and endlessly. The trauma made him lose his memories but his body never forgot the fury he felt that day. This was how he became the youngest Hashira in history. Gyokko gets played as Muichiro moves seamlessly in his mist. Did Jason Voorhees copy this move?! Gyokko is shocked he got decapitated. As he throws insults of this unthinkable defeat, Muichiro slices him to bits. STFU and go to hell already! You said it! That’s another upper half demon gone! Now Muichiro can collapse from exhaustion. This makes Kanamori panic on what to do. Making him even more panicky is the ghost of Kotetsu! Oh wait. He is still alive. Thanks to the hilt for Tanjirou protecting his vitals. This hilt looking familiar? Yeah, it belonged to Kyojuro. Muichiro sees a vision of his family, happy that things turned out okay. Now we return to Tanjirou’s fight. He think he has got some info in fighting Zohakuten’s dragons but there are always surprises on what this monster can still spring. With his ear drums burst and sustaining injuries, Tanjirou then gets swallowed up by one of the dragons. He is about to be crushed inside when it is cue for Mitsuri to come slice him out of his wooden doom. It’s about time. A fresh new Hashira in the fray should turn the tables as she shows us her swift ballerina-like move sets.

Episode 10
Mitsuri is able to blast through any direct attacks Zohakuten throws at her. When she finally has her sword around his neck and is about to decapitate him, Tanjirou screams to her a little too late because that’s not the real body and decapitating him will not kill him. She takes a direct blow from Zohakuten’s sound waves. Although knocked out, her body is still intact. I THINK HER BOOBS ABSORBED THE BLAST!!! Time for her turn for a flashback. We see her getting rejected by a potential marriage suitor because he doesn’t want his kids to have such weird hair colour! JERK! Since young, Mitsuri displayed great feats of strength and even ate a lot, putting those sumo wrestlers to shame. It was all fun and games until the thought of that strength made her worry she will never find her husband. Her dad was fine with it, though. She can stay home forever. So in order to have a chance at marriage, she died her hair black, restrained herself from eating and acted weak. However this made her worry and realize if she would have to live this way for the rest of herself. This is not who she is. Will there be anyone who will love her for who she is? Mitsuri wakes up to see Tanjirou and co protecting her from Zohakuten. Tanjirou claiming she is their best hope in defeating this demon and thus they have to protect her. This makes Mitsuri very happy as she vows to protect them. When she got inducted into Demon Slayer Corps, she was enlightened by Ubuyashiki that all those who speak ill of her were only jealous as they wished they had such strength. For every demon she killed, those she saved thanked her in tears. She has always wondered if a girl should be this strong. Well, now you know the answer. Mitsuri is now faster, slicing up all attacks Zohakuten can throw at her. He notices a strange mark on her chest. Like Tanjirou’s mark? Because of Mitsuri keeping him at bay, Tanjirou and the rest go off of to find Hantengu. Yes, pretty much protected in this thick layer of wood. Genya bites off the wood?! Oh, he can use his ability to temporarily gain demonic traits if he devours them. By the time Nezuko burns open the wood, the little bugger has escaped. Mad Tanjirou tells him not to run away from his responsibilities. But Hantengu continues to cower and run away in fear. He remembers he never lied and was just an honest weakling, yet he was accused of lying and nobody showed him sympathy.

Episode 11
The chase continues but Tanjirou is falling behind because of his injured leg. But then he remembers Zenitsu telling him on how to breathe properly for that extra push in your legs. Yup, how convenient. With this breathing technique, he is able to spring forward and then slash Hantengu’s head. However Hantengu becomes mad and grows big! He starts to crush Tanjirou’s head. Genya tries to unhand the demon but only with Nezuko’s fiery blood kick did the trick. Genya also catches fire but did this revert him back to his human self? Hantengu falls off the short cliff. He realizes his regeneration is slow due to Zohakuten using a lot of his power. Besides, sunrise is near. He needs to devour some humans to replenish. Ah look, a few swordsmiths ahead. And so another round of chasing! Tanjirou hears Muichiro calling to him. He throws him a sword to be used to decapitate the demon. Apparently Haganezuka has not completed it and is mad about this and wants it back. Don’t listen to him. Just cut the demon! Tanjirou does so and the head goes off. But wait. Hantengu is still running! OMG! Uhm, how the heck can he devour those swordsmith even if he catches them? But at this point sun is up. Tanjirou tries to warn Nezuko to hide but she instead runs towards him. Then she starts getting burnt up even though he tries to shield her. Hantengu is getting away. What will he do? He cannot decide! Genya is still stuck and Muichiro is passed out! What can he do?! That is when Nezuko kicks him away. She decided for you. Oh damn, snippets of Nezuko scenes. Is this her death flag!? Time to get out a box of tissues! Tanjirou is forced to focus to find the real body which is thankfully inside the heart of this chasing body. He is able to slice this mini Hantengu inside.

Now for a little Hantengu flashback. He was accused of stealing from the people he trusted. He denied and said it was his hands who moved on its own. When he is about to be reported, he killed that man. Even before the magistrate who was putting up crocodile tears and vouching he is innocent but the magistrate did not buy it and will sentence him to death. That was when Kibutsuji came to his rescue. And so with his life flashed before his eyes, Hantengu is dead for real. Thank goodness. The game of tag is finally over after lasting half this episode!!! Tanjirou laments that this victory came at a great cost of Nezuko’s sacrifice. Time for the tears to flow. But a different one. Because the swordsmiths point out she is still alive! OMG! An illusion? A ghost? Nope. The real Nezuko in the flesh?! So is she human!? Oh wait. Is she a hybrid demon because she still exhibits demon traits. Just that she can now walk in the sun. But do forgive her retarded speech. She hasn’t been talking for a while. Tanjirou can now cry his heart out. Meanwhile so as not to forget about Mitsuri, we see her in trouble. She is about to die! Thank goodness for the sun and Tanjirou’s victory, Zohakuten vanishes just like that! Wow. Save us all the trouble.

Now we see Kibutsuji. Is he mad that he trashed his room? Yeah, mom and maid thought he couldn’t find some book. However Kibutsuji cannot contain his happiness. He has finally found a demon who can withstand sunlight. Because of that, he doesn’t need to do any more research on blue spider lilies or increase his kind. He kills off mom and the maid as he plans to devour Nezuko. Flashback shows Kibutsuji was dying of some illness 1000 years ago. He viewed his doctor who served him as inept and killed him, believing his medicine he was administering wouldn’t work anyway. But after that, he realized it really did work. Other than superhuman strength, the downside was that he cannot be exposed to the sun. He also craved for human blood and stated killing all those who got in his way. Because it was humiliating he couldn’t go out in the sunlight, he started examining the doctor’s medicine. It was perhaps in experimental stage and it did contain those blue spider lilies. Apparently the doctor is the only person in the whole wide world who knew about his secret ingredient but now he’s dead. Thanks a lot, Kibutsuji. He couldn’t replicate them nor find them throughout Japan. Hence his quest to research that to gain immortality. Now that Nezuko has appeared, he shifts his attention to absorbing her to conquer the sunlight.

Muichiro thanks Tanjirou for helping him regain something important. But look who isn’t happy? Haganezuka blaming Tanjirou for breaking his sword despite clearly it is still intact. Won’t accept reality, huh? Oh God, do we need another tag game?! Thankfully it ends quickly as Mitsuri joins the celebration. We see Tamayo writing a letter for Tanjirou about the results of Nezuko’s blood sample. Not really sure about this vague explanation but it seems her blood can change properties. It could also help others release from Kibutsuji’s control. She also speculates about Nezuko will become human soon. It’s going to be a big clean-up operation as the swordsmith pick up the pieces to rebuild their village. Tecchin sees off Tanjirou and thanks him for what he is done. Is that Haganezuka hiding at the corner? Come out, please. Please say to Tanjirou what needs to be said. Still blaming him for using an unfinished sword? Well, he is going to finish it and send it to him. Thanks a lot. As he is blindfolded and leaves, the Kakushi soon takes it off just to let him see the entire village cheering and thanking him. We all should know better Tanjirou isn’t the one to rat out this secret, right?

Don’t Leave Home Without Your Sword
It goes without saying. You know the drill already. There is another season coming up so fans can anticipate another great season! Oh yeah. Can’t end it just like that, right?! Surely we’re carrying on the story, right?! Strike while the iron is hot! After all, we all know that the manga has already ended back in 2020 but as far as the adapted anime of the series, we are about halfway there so there is still quite a bit of content to animate. So we can expect a few more years of this series to grace our screens.

I still find this arc and season to be as exciting as before. Although, I have read a few comments that many have found this series to have fallen from its grace ever since it debuted. Am I missing something? Or did everybody evolve into some sophisticated being. What were they expecting? It’s supposed to be some action battle genre so obviously the focus is there on the fighting. But anyway, thank goodness I’m such an oddity so I don’t agree with those who have started to dislike the series. As long as it can entertain me and retain my attention, I definitely would mark the series as good, excellent, brilliant, superior, and all the other synonyms you can possibly describe. Sure, still not a 100% masterpiece (somehow I still prefer Shingeki No Kyojin) but it did its job in making me glued to the screen for most of the time. Yeah, didn’t realize the episode ended until the credits showed up. Unlike boring animes were I keep wishing for the end credits to just come sooner! Yeah. That.

But I have to admit that if you look in another context, this arc itself can be said as draggy. After all, the entire arc is set in just one night in this village. At least a big chunk of it. By the third episode, the gang has already started to fight demons. And yes, they really drag out the fights till the last drop too. Thankfully for me, it is kept interesting so no worries there from me. I believe the fights are satisfactory paced since in this single cour, they have thrown not 1 but 2 upper rank demons into the fray. Thus you can’t expect the fight to last just for a single episode as we need to show their prowess and why they are even more powerful than the 6th ranked dude FKA Gyutaro. It could be a good think having 2 villains to fight in this arc not because they needed to trim the numbers and rush towards the finale but to stave the boredom. What I mean is that imagine if this was just a single fight with a single upper half, that would be just mundane. Now they get to keep it fresh by switching in between both sides fighting both demons until we reach a (predicted) happy ending.

Obviously the fights have been dragged out and making this arc draggy is because in between the fights, you have character flashbacks. Yes, time to see the tragic past that these characters have. So before we all finally cast Genya as some angry guy and Muichiro as some emotionless guy and Mitsuri as some dense slut, here, have a peek at what they went through. So have your thoughts about them changed? Well, at least we won’t see them the way when we were first introduced to them. Thankfully, this season seems to take a break from having tragic side effects. Oh you know, I’m sure we’re still reeling from the death of Kyojuro from that Mugen Train arc as well as the tough battle at the entertainment district has put Tengen on early retirement. Yeah. So this arc breaks that combo as we don’t see any side of the heroes dying or permanently incapacitated and they even gave us a sweet bonus of Nezuko becoming a step closer in regaining her human self. Wow. Don’t we all love such happy endings. Though, the unbelievable part is how much damage Tanjirou has taken and the punishment he puts on his body but yet he heals up back to normal. I wonder if he has got some hidden mutant healing power.

I’m going to have to ask if characters who share the similar characteristics as Tanjirou would be the ones who would slay the upper half. For instance, take a look at Muichiro. After we see his past, he turns into some kind of weird deadpan sarcastic character! I mean, Muichiro this way isn’t so bad and is a lot more amusing but definitely this makes him strange! Like as though he turned into a different character! Sometimes I don’t know whether to cringe because of those deadpan comebacks but he definitely made the situation more amusing. And now to think he has that similar mark as Tanjirou, could they be related? Though, I still don’t understand how he came to master the mist breathing technique. Son of a woodcutter, I thought he would be using some wood breathing technique. So how he got to be a mist master anyway? Am I missing something?

The same liveliness and positivity can be said for Mitsuri. Not only she shares that mark but her ditzy behaviour too rings similar with Tanjirou’s. Only, she is more outgoing and because of those humongous racks. Yeah. After all, can’t let Tanjirou be the one who will slay the entire upper half and Kibutsuji himself. Score card of higher demons slain: Tanjirou = 2 and Muichiro = 1. Or if you like, Tanjirou = 1.5, Muichiro = 1 and Mitsuri = 0.5. Though, that Mitsuri fight with Zohakuten ended in such an anti-climactic fashion that it took a bit of enthusiasm off there. I mean, Demon Corps fight hard to defeat a demon especially a tough one and although Zohakuten is just one of the many emotions and versions of Hantengu, I can’t believe the fight just ended like that. Oh well, maybe that’s the surprise for us? On a side note, I wonder if Mutsuri’s name was derived from Mutsurii, meaning closet pervert. Hmm…

The thing that surprises me about Haganezuka is that he is actually a young man!!! Oh damn, here I thought he was actually an elderly man and thus that is why he is always in a seemingly perpetual state of grumpiness and stubbornness. So I guess that is why all the swordsmiths wear a mask so as not to only cover their faces but their true emotions? Wow. So young and so angry already? Don’t tell me this is his way of being shy! Yeah, can’t blame anybody to think that he might be one of those psychotic killers! Thank goodness he is one of the good guys. On second thought, maybe he should attend some anger management classes…

And as we have seen, Nezuko overcoming this sun problem that has me think demons are the vampires of the series. Isn’t that why the first breathing technique is the sun technique, the ultimate weakness to the demons? Anyway, Nezuko now evolving into this state might sound a bit convenient because now she can fight better alongside Tanjirou without having the biggest drawbacks. I initially though she is completely human and wondered how Tanjirou will use the fire blood techniques if she is no longer a demon but I guess this hybrid or evolved version works. Good in that sense because Kibutsuji will now be even more desperate to get his hands on her. Yeah, from the outside it looks like he is trying to get his hands on somebody’s sister! No way in hell Tanjirou is going to give his sister to a man like that! Holy sh*t! This is also a great excuse so that there would be no more demons created by him because the cocky bastard now thinks he is the only one who need such immortality and thus we can have the final battle concentrated on the few demons that are left. So Tanjirou, better protect your sister even more than before. Somebody’s literally trying to get her inside of him! Holy sh*t! On the same topic, it is never mentioned about Genya and his demonic abilities because that was a real curious one as he was in this mode during the battle and then just like that in the end, he reverted back. Did Nezuko blood do something about it?

Speaking of the villains and in particular the 2 upper half of the Twelve Kizuki (can we already change the name due to its dwindling number?), however unlike Gyutaro who has a considerable screen time of fleshing out his past with Daki, Gyokko and Hantengu were literally close to none. I guess they don’t want us to feel sympathy about these demons who are going to die anyway. Thus there was no need to know about their past. Sure, Hantengu in his final moments showed us briefly about his pathetic life but I’m sure that won’t be pulling any heartstrings (is he bipolar?). But as for Gyokko, we don’t even know his origins. It would’ve been a bit better why this fish guy has ‘exquisite’ taste in art but oh well, I suppose he isn’t that important to take notice of.

At this point, the series has already a lot of characters and many were obviously omitted from this arc (Shinobu baby, where were you? And still remember Giyuu?). I’m pointing this out because the absence of Zenitsu and Inosuke were greatly felt. After all, I thought they would be some sort fraternity bros since they have been somewhat together from the start on important missions. So at first it was kinda weird to not have them being featured in this arc and they even make a joke out of it in one of the next episode previews. And that seemed to be their last appearance for this arc! Except for that flashback in the final episode. But yeah, it does feel odd without them by Tanjirou’s side (how’s Genya for replacement this season?) although I gradually didn’t come to notice this as I became engrossed in watching the action and all. Oh well, at least the good news is that we don’t have to hear Zenitsu complain or Inosuke being haughty. Phew.

One aspect that was a hot debate for viewers this season was the CGI. Especially those employed on those lesser fish demons and those dragon heads of Zohakuten. Many felt they looked horrible and weird, thus killing their vibes and excitement of this show. Well, I do have to admit that those demons actually look very weird. However I am still contemplating whether it is bad CGI. Well, Ufotable continues to animate this series and they’re very well known for their great visual and art quality. They can’t be lazy and going downhill, right? So perhaps it is my bias that prevents me from calling them out about this ‘horrendous’ CGI. Because for other aspects like the background sceneries and effects, they still look quite awesome and breath-taking while the series’ trademark 2D visuals and art style are also maintained. So this weird looking CGI demons (even if they were intended to look so) could be that little blot spot on what could’ve been a slightly more amazing season. On a trivial note, is it me or does Gyokko look like an uglier version of Frieza and Zokuhaten a way angrier Vegeta? Why do I see Dragonball guys here?!

This season has a few new seiyuus joining. Most notable Rie Kugimiya as Muichiro’s Kasugai Crow. Oh yeah. Back to that very familiar trademark squeaky voice that I am accustomed and so in love with. So that made my day. I heard Yui Horie did a cameo as Kasugai Crow but it wasn’t that obvious. Yuichiro Umehara as Sekido is slightly surprising. Yeah, I’ve pigeonholed this guy to voice boring monotonous characters like Goblin Slayer and Spy Kyoushitsu’s Klaus. But here he exudes a lot of emotions as the angry embodiment. Of course a talented guy like him could but I guess when you pigeonhole somebody so hard to a particular role…

The other new casts debuting this season are Ayumu Murase as Kotetsu (Menel in Saihate No Paladin), Toshio Furukawa as Hantengu (Piccolo in Dragonball series, Ataru in Urusei Yatsura), Kousuke Toriumi as Gyokko (Nozel in Black Clover), Kouichi Yamadera as Zokuhaten (Spike in Cowboy Bebop), Souma Saitou as Aizetsu (Tatsumi in Akame Ga Kill), Kaito Ishikawa as Karaku (Iida in Boku No Hero Academia), Shunsuke Takeuchi as Urogi (Yamato in Nanbaka), Ryotaro Okiayu as Kokushibo (Byakuya in Bleach), Yuusaku Yara as Tecchin (Chin in Toriko) and Kengo Kawanishi as Yuichiro (Rei in 3-gatsu No Lion).

This season’s opening theme, Kizuna No Kiseki by Man With A Mission x Milet is your typical lively anime rock to get you into the groove of this series’ action. But is it me or do I find the duet of both singers to be a bit weak in their vocals? The same band sings the ending theme, Koi Kogare which is another rock version although faring slight better than the opener even if it feels it has somewhat similar vibes. But the song that touches everyone’s hearts the most is probably the insert song, Kamado Nezuko No Uto by Go Shiina featuring Nami Nakagawa. It is a slow and beautiful ballad as well as it is sad. But the weird part is that I thought a kindergarten child sung this song but oh damn, she’s a full grownup? Sounds could be deceiving…

Overall, I still find this season to be amazing and exhilarating. Nice action scenes and satisfactory character development made my day even if many would like to beg to differ. Can’t wait for the next season to come because boo hoo, Shingeki No Kyojin has already ended! Yeah, time for this series to fill in those big shoes as my next #1! As the series inches closer to its finale, I’m expecting a lot more characters to be fleshed out as well as a whole lot of demon slaying and beheading action. This season gave Tanjirou a whole new sharpened sword so he can cut more stubborn demon heads and make them roll. Hopefully enough to make those dissenting disbelievers’ head roll too. See you soon, next season!

Jigokuraku

It’s time to employ another Suicide Squad-like theme. Oh you know, when good guys are feeling too chicken to get a dangerous job done because the cost will be countless casualties from their side, the only way is to use hardened criminals. That’s right. It might also seem like an oxymoron that Jigokuraku AKA Hell’s Paradise is named so. Sorry folks, not some sort of isekai slapstick comedy. Nope. Seriously. Phew. Hence your fantasy period drama of a group being formed using criminals on death row to go look for the legendary elixir of life at some mysterious but very dangerous place because some fat ass shogun wants to live forever. And to think the reward for doing so is an official pardon of one’s past crimes. That’s it? I don’t know, if you ask me, I’d say the criminals still got the raw end of the stick. Better to keep your honour and die like a criminal. But what do I know? I’m not part of this suicide mission.

Episode 1
Gabimaru is sentenced to death. However he won’t die! From beheading to being burnt alive and even torn apart by bulls, damn this guy is tough! Sagiri Asaemon Yamada has been tasked to observe and record him. She learns his parents were killed when he was a baby, taken in by a village chief and trained to be a cold hearted killing ninja from Iwagakure but got captured when he tried to leave the village, a sign that marks as betrayal as no one leaves the village. Why would he want to leave? You see, he married the chief’s daughter and being the sheltered and naïve girl, I guess she got too naggy and fearing his skills would dull, he tried to leave. Gabimaru claims he has no attachment to life so why is he resisting death as Sagiri observes. Even the next sentence of boiling him alive didn’t work. Hence his final execution would be to die at the hands of Sagiri. She comes from a family of well-known executioners. Just then, Gabimaru becomes afraid and even dodges getting killed by her. Sagiri explains he is indeed hollow like he is called but knows about his lie. He does have an attachment to life and that is his wife. This is the reason why he is living because of her feelings for her. Flashback shows she is a very sweet and understanding girl. He thought she will only see the dark side of him but apparently she has this huge hideous scar on her face and only Gabimaru wasn’t repulsed by it. As men become soldiers and women bear children, those who live in Iwagakure cannot live a normal life. Hence the scar was put there by her own father. But her heart won’t give up easily and she knew Gabimaru isn’t as hollow as he thinks. So when Gabimaru talked to the chief for them to leave and lead a normal life, the rest is history. Sagiri throws a surprise for Gabimaru. Apparently he will get an official pardon from the shogun himself but with a condition. There is this risky mission he must undertake. You see, legend has it that there is a land like heavens called Shinsenkyo. Recently it was discovered and an expedition was sent there to retrieve the elixir of life. However none came back alive and their bodies turned into flowers. The shogun then gave an order to find condemned criminals to bring that elixir back. Whoever does so will be pardoned. Hence Gabimaru will be in competition with other condemned criminals. Sagiri tells him she heard news that his wife has shut herself off and hasn’t spoken to anyone. This means she still believes in his return. With that desire to return to his wife, what choice does he have? Mission accepted.

Episode 2
Sagiri’s father was a legendary executioner. One time he was tasked to behead a storyteller. So swift and painless the beheading that the storyteller didn’t know he was beheaded and continued his storytelling until it ended. Sagiri tried to imitate that skill but with all the doubts, her victims mostly died a painful death and it still haunts her. All the death row criminals are gathered on the beach as they are told about their mission. Many mock this fairytale mission. Until they bring out the only survivor of Shinsenkyo who is now dead. Flowers bloomed all over his body. When one wants out, he is swiftly beheaded. They are reminded that each of them will have a guard accompany them to the island. If they act out of line, they will be beheaded on the spot. Also one more thing, because of the limited number of guards, they want to trim the numbers. For those who don’t get it: Kill each other and those who survive will qualify to head to Shinsenkyo. It soon erupts to a bloody violent brawl. The shogun is enjoying this bloodbath but some officials wonder the logic behind this. Yeah, shouldn’t they have more hands to try in getting the elusive elixir? Eizen talks to Sagiri about being overwhelmed by this scene. He thinks she is not suited for this job. She explains that being born into the Yamada clan, they make their living through people’s deaths. One may turn a blind eye to it but the truth is always reflected in the blade. When some prisoners want to kill her to take her sword and make a break, she hesitates for a while but manages to kill them. But still, those dreaded feelings still haunt her. Gabimaru then asks the officials if this is the right way of doing things. Because not killing others should be the most natural thing in this world. The officials then announce whoever kills Gabimaru will get to go on the expedition. The baddies will rather kill than talk so Gabimaru has no choice but to brutally kill all of them. Yeah, seen too much for today, shogun? It is then Sagiri realizes what she needed wasn’t the strength to not fear killing but the resolve to take on the burden of that fear and the lives she took. Screening test is over and the 10 ‘qualifiers’ are Gabimaru, Chobei Aza, Gantetsusai Tamiya, Keiun, Nurugai, Horubo, Akaginu, Yuzuriha, Makiya Moro and Rokurota.

Episode 3
Gabimaru believes the village chief is immortal because there was once a demon on how much you kill him, he won’t die. Therefore he believes such elixir of life exists but isn’t sure if it’s here. Walking through the beautiful and colourful flora, Gabimaru finds it all unnatural. WTF Sagiri being a rigid b*tch and doesn’t want him to untie his hands? She claims she is not his friend but executioner. Refuse to heed and off goes his head. Suddenly Gabimaru is smashed by Keuin’s weapon. Of course he lives but calls out to Sagiri’s double standards because isn’t Keuin’s hands free? Kisho can’t be bothered over something trivial and will just tie his hands on the way back. If that ever happens. Keuin wants to test all his weapons on Gabimaru and eliminate all competition before taking his time to look for the elixir. The executioners will not interfere in this quarrel but WTF Sagiri still wants Gabimaru to fight with his hands tied? Probably too violent for us to see because we see Keuin’s corpse. Kisho finishes the job and decapitates him just in case. Kisho is relieved he gets to go home early. He has seen so much when they arrived on shore. Criminals trying to kill each other while others forming alliance. Some breaking the rules for their own convenience. Those don’t matter if nobody follows as the priority now is the elixir. He warns the situation will change within a few hours. We see snippets of some already dead. Like Eizen getting killed by Rokurota. Then he mentions news about the shogun will make contact with the new Iwagakure and this job might be some sort of test to see who becomes the next ruler of Asaemon. After he leaves, Gabimaru swiftly tries to kill Sagiri. However both seem hesitant to strike the finishing blow. For Gabimaru, blame it on his wife. Yeah, as long as he is true to his feelings, lovely wife will follow him anywhere. He thinks because she introduced emotions to him, he has gained some and became weak. Eventually Gabimaru overwhelms Sagiri. But he still cannot bring himself to kill her. Ghost of his wife stopping him? Sagiri realizes he has been wearing the same expression and trying to endure something. Watching him allowed her to face her own emotions. She tells him emotions are not weakness and because he faced them, it is strength. Normally she would’ve executed him but will let this slide for she wants to see whether he can reclaim his life or not. Gantetsusai and Fuchi are in a weird place. When a butterfly stings Gantetsusai’s hand, he immediately cuts it off! He notices the butterflies have human faces and their stinger soon turn that severed hand into flowers. More creepy creatures show up. Some with human limbs.

Episode 4
Gantetsusai was once called by some hotshot to be his officer. But when he jokingly doubted his skills to cut a dragon, Gantetsusai cut down his dragon gate. His clan arrested him and put him on death row. Hence his goal is to get the pardon so he can cut down things again. As he calls Fuchi weird, he explains the clan doesn’t do just executions as some dabble in medicine like him. He likes dissecting the human body to find its secrets so beware. They realize that this task is also an attempt to create the strongest warrior as the criminals will be attempting to eliminate each other. But it won’t be the strongest because if they fail, the shogun will send another batch here. Gabimaru fights the weird creatures and he can actually hold his ground well. Sagiri is being the hindrance so he wonders if he should save her or his own skin. Eventually his reflex did the former. This almost causes them to be killed but luckily the final monster is cut down by Yuzuriha. She wants to work together and tries to use her feminine charms to seduce him. Too bad it won’t work. This guy got a cuter wife! Wondering why she has 2 executioners with her, originally Genji was assigned to Makiya but deemed her dangerous and decided to go with her. Is he weak against woman? Her executioner is Senta. Yuzuriha wants Gabimaru’s strength and in exchange she will tell him info about this island. Apparently the most dangerous ones are those butterflies with faces. Other insects and monsters are relatively harmless unless you approach them. She knows all this because she tested it on Makiya. Gabimaru wonders why she is telling all this. Isn’t she desperate to survive? True, her goal is not to die young. That is all. He asks about Gabimaru’s fate but she doesn’t tell. Clips hint that he is already dead. Sagiri must be feeling so useless that she hasn’t done anything worth on this island that she collapses.

When Touma rose up to be a top executioner in the Yamada clan, it seems it is all part of the plan to infiltrate it and save his older brother, Chobei who is deemed to be executed. We watch Chobei mercilessly killing the monsters. He is excited that they are alive because it means they can be killed. Flashback shows their father was executed for avenging his lord’s death. The brothers were left to fend for themselves. They were kidnapped by bandits but Chobei worked his charm and eventually ended up controlling the group. Hence Touma’s narration about the law of the world is not the strong preying on the weak but survival of the fittest. Those who can adapt are strong. This is where Chobei excels in. As the monsters surprisingly speak and call them sinners for killing (because insects also have lives), Chobei doesn’t give a sh*t and continues to mow them all down. He mocks they are slaves to justice who cannot do anything on their own. Because he is not letting anyone telling him what to do and will become his own lord. Become his own God. A time when Touma was lost, Chobei told him to trust him whenever so. Because he is always right. As these monsters are real, he believes so must be the elixir. Thus they are going to kill all monsters and humans here and claim the elixir for themselves. Not even death can tell them how to live.

Episode 5
Despite being poisoned by those butterfly scales, Sagiri is still okay. Rejoining the rest, Gabimaru has gathered what he can to make some food. While scouting around, he saw familiar and unfamiliar plants. Especially those that grew on the dead. It could very well mean those plants are from those who never returned. He also didn’t find any mandarin orange, a sketch of what it is believed to be the elixir. Forget about what it looks like, they should be noting the strange statues and what kind of technology makes them. They also discuss about the weird creatures, monsters haphazardly joined to human bodies and they have no reproductive organs. Like as though they are malformed gods and this is some sick mandala. But this gives Gabimaru some hope since if something can survive without organs, it means the elixir is possible. Soon, Genji wants Sagiri to head back and he’ll take over her duties. As a woman, it is her job to bear children for the clan. She might have exceptional sword skills but that is only as a tester and executioner. In battle, it is very different and she is clearly not strong enough. Because can she kill Gabimaru without hesitating? But here is the next question: Can you get off this island? Because many didn’t. We see Tenza trying to escape with Nurugai. They stumble upon a graveyard of ships and are soon attacked by monster tentacles. As Tenza cuts through them, Nurugai is disillusioned. Apparently she let some samurais into her village where they cut down all her tribe. The shogun believed they are rebels or something. Nurugai was to be executed after she reveals the other villages but that was when Tenza offered this mission. He believes she is the one most deserving to live. To Tenza’s shock, he sees Kisho’s corpse with those flowers. Nurugai becomes even more disillusioned and wants to die. She thinks this is punishment for letting her tribe die. However Tenza doesn’t understand all that is not asking that. He wants to know if she wants to live. Nurugai realizes she wants to so he tells her to do all it takes to survive.

They manage to get a boat back but they end back up on Shinsenkyo. They realize that the currents lead back to the island and that the graveyards of ships barricade the island and some weird monster guarding it. They need to walk around the island to find that current that flows out. But they can’t do it alone and need cooperation from others. Senta tells Sagiri part of him wants her to leave but another part wants her to stay. Because of her, Gabimaru is different. That night, she talks to Gabimaru who thanks her that her actions have made him calm down and think rationally. He needs to better plan and won’t run away from those trying to get in his way. People might understand themselves less than they think but they’re all the same when they start to act. Next morning, Sagiri tells Genji she won’t be leaving because she wants to walk her own path. She has lived with the scorn from even her own father who didn’t want her to become a samurai. She doesn’t want to be haunted by all those regrets and wants to decide how to live. She chooses to be a samurai. Genji is going to cut her to teach her a lesson but she manages to steal his sword. But soon Rokurota smashes Genji in half!

Episode 6
Flashback shows Rokurota loves to eat and push things till they break. Of course eventually his parents and the villagers fell victim to this. Sagiri could have died had not Gabimaru come to her aid. He needs Yuzuriha’s help but it seems she isn’t willing to put her neck on the line. Gabimaru tries to analyse Rokurota’s attacks. Just plain brute force. This means whatever skills Gabimaru throws at him whether it is close or range attacks, all have no effect. And he can’t get slammed once by his palm or he’s dead. Sagiri tries to save Genji but he knows he is a goner. Then he realizes that instead of clearly dividing everything into clear cut categories, Sagiri chose the middle ground and accepted all. Noting that this is the path she has taken, he gives her his sword. As a samurai, do not run but kill Rokurota. She returns to the battle and deflects Rokurota’s swings and even cut off a pinky (hardly any damage to him). As narrated, Sagiri’s low rank is only because she is a woman. If she puts her mind and focus into it, her sword skills surpass all others. Because of his posture and toughness of the skin, Sagiri cannot easily decapitate him. The duo try to find a way to bring him to his knees. Sagiri using her calm reasoning to objective assess the situation and what to do next. Rokurota gets hungry and starts crying? So loud that Gabimaru takes some damage. Then he does a risky gamble move. Casting fire into rocks and throwing at the giant, this is part of the plan to burn down the forest. This is to choke and suffocate him, bringing him to his knees. Once he is in kneeling position, Gabimaru pins down his hand for Sagiri to cut off his head. We hear Rokurota wondering why he can never be full nor why people would not want to play with him. Sagiri calms the giant down as she claims all those he hate are dead and to rest in peace. Then they get out of here before they burn to death. Sagiri is sad to leave Genji behind. He’s already dead. They notice the monsters are heading towards the fire and hence their only clue is to go where they came from. As they reunite with Sagiri and Senta, they are shocked to see a village. This is where hermits live? As explained, they are immortals or at least super humans with strange magic. Touma and Chobei stumble into a pair of hot chicks making out! Uhm, is this the paradise?

Episode 7
Hot chicks not impressed humans got this far and the Soshin didn’t do their job. One of them then transforms into a man to get rid of them. Gabimaru notices somebody watching her. This little girl? Is she Sakura of Naruto?! He chases her but this discount Groot guardian tries to stall them. Gabimaru lets Yuzuriha handle it while he chases after Sakura (temporary name). He realizes for a kid, she is fast and strong but when finally cornered and tied up, she starts crying. Sagiri consoles her as they return to the rest. Groot wants Sakura returned to her and in exchange will tell them about the elixir as well as provide them shelter and food. Yuzuriha does not trust him and thinks are lies until he mentions there is also a bath. He takes them back to the village where the ladies enjoy their bath and after food, Groot tells them what they need to know. The elixir exists and is called Tan. This place is called Kotaku and the island has 3 layers: Eishu the shore and woods, Hojo the village and Horai the centre with mist where Tan is located. Groot has no reason to lie to them because this the least he can do as it will be their last request. You see, those eternal beings guarding Tan are called Tensen. Soshin are those monsters. Tensen are on a different level since they are immortal and beautiful. They do not allow anyone on this island to leave and will kill them. However those punished will not die outright. They are reborn as flowers and serve as the source of Tan. Speaking of that, Touma and Chobei lost to the Tensen and got thrown into the pit as vines start creeping up to them. Groot tells them it is up to them to believe it or not. This place is indeed Shinsenkyo and it is up to the gods to decide the fate of humans. Groot introduces himself as Hoko and this girl is Mei. They were born and raised on this island for centuries. Gabimaru then goes to take a bath to wash off his wounds. Sagiri notices Mei doesn’t know how to clean herself perhaps nobody taught her. To thank for the food and shelter, Sagiri teaches Mei on how to clean herself. This has Gabimaru remember his wife washing his back and talking about things in life. Because she covered her facial scar with her hair, Gabimaru told her not to because he doesn’t mind it. This means he tells Mei not to be shameful of hers because he knows a woman with a huge scar but yet is the most beautiful woman in the world. Aww… How sweet. So can we expedite getting the elixir so he can return to his beautiful wife soon?

Episode 8
Tenza was born to say the least a street urchin. He did whatever he want without a care. Until that is, Shion from the Yamada clan picked him up. As Tenza and Nurugai continue to find a way out, a Tensen pops up before them. Seeing his abnormal powers especially his regeneration, Tenza needs them to run. Of course all that cutting is futile as the Tensen can regenerate but it bought them time to run into the woods. Still, they get cornered but had not Shion come to their rescue, they would’ve died. Shion is Tenza’s master and despite being completely blind, he has acute senses of smell and hearing. Shion was about to head home after killing Akaginu for trying to seduce him. However he couldn’t find a path out and when he found the only one, sensed a very strange presence he could not make out. But Shion wants to know why Tenza is keeping Nurugai alive and flouting the rules. Because he sees potential in this child. The same reason why Tenza picked him up. Like the kind soul he is, Shion agrees to that and lets Nurugai live. Break time over as the Tensen returns. Shion is dealt a heavy blow as Tenza gets reckless to fight it. Oh my, he got a few holes blown into his body! I guess when you’re dying, you see a flashback of your life. And so we see Tenza as an unimpressed kid being trained under Shion. Shion maintained his confidence that Tenza’s potential will bloom but Tenza himself does not see that and is sick of this. He wants to quit. Okay. But he must land a blow on him anytime or anywhere. Tenza won’t play along and just left. But he stumbled into Eizen who then brought him to a grave where Shion’s former disciple lies. Tesshin was a scoundrel like Tenza too. However at that time Shion placed importance in honing his skills and did not give much attention to Tesshin. Eventually Tesshin left. A few years later, the criminal whom Shion executed was Tesshin. Life was hard and he fell into a life of crime. His last words were sorry to his master. Ever since, Shion began helping others. Tenza returned to fight Shion but this time with motivation. Now Tenza realizes he is dying but he can at least buy time for the rest to escape. If he can’t use his sword, use his fist for beat down! Against Nurugai’s wishes, Shion takes her and run while Tenza continues his futile brawling. Nurugai is upset Shion abandoned his pupil but he believes that is what Tenza wants. They must not waste his chance of letting them live and vows to avenge him one day. Final flashback, Tenza was able to finally hit Shion. He is free to live but requested Shion to continue teaching him the ways of the sword. RIP, Tenza…

Episode 9
Senta is so confused. Despite all the books he has read, he still finds the mystery even more mysterious. His brains gonna explode! He thinks it is best to sort this out and come up with a plan before entering Horai. However Gabimaru cannot wait for that so when everyone is sleeping, he sneaks off into Horai. Entering a misty area, he sees many Hoko-like creatures praying and chanting sutra towards Horai. As he is at the gates of Horai, he stumbles into a Tensen (the one who killed Tenza). This Tensen is troubled because he just fought a tough one and he’ll be damned if he fights another on his watch. But I guess he has to as both sides start fighting. Gabimaru soon watches his regenerative abilities no matter how many times he breaks him. The Tensen even fighting back using some wave force. Gabimaru thinks he doesn’t need a plan. Just keep moving. He’ll just pummel it until his regenerative abilities cannot keep up. The Tensen then turns into his flower hybrid monster form. And shoots electric beams! Obviously this is Gabimaru’s limit and even his teachings of giving it all to take down the enemy together with his last ounce of life didn’t work. A vision of his wife. Can’t make it back home? I thought he said he will come back even if he is dead! Maybe there’s hope because Mei saves him and escapes. Next day, Senta and the rest believe Gabimaru has gone to Horai on his own. Hoko is willing to guide them there since he hasn’t seen Mei too.

Along the way, Hoko talks about the Tensen who are the 7 hermits in the legends. Now we see them frolicking in their beautiful garden, arguing which gender suits them best. Zhu Jin is blamed for the reason fiasco of letting some humans escape. The rest know he has used up a lot of Tao as his regeneration now isn’t complete. The leader, Rien reminds them they are family and must stick together. As they compare notes about the recent humans, Rien reminds Ju Fa about the humans he tossed into the pit. Because if they make it out alive, they’ll be even more dangerous. Seeing which, looks like Chobei indeed got out with his brother. Then they drink a cup of Tan to replenish their vitality. Hoko continues his explanation that there was originally only 1 Tensen but split into 7 different personalities and roles. Long ago, Hoko was once human. His village was prospering 1000 years ago and his people was more devout. When they are about to die, they slowly transform into trees and gather at this place to pray. Because they believe the Tensen will only choose those who will enter Horai. Hoko’s daughter was the first in his family to transform and subsequently his village fell into ruin. Gabimaru wakes up near a river. Realizing he is alive and that Tensen he fought aren’t gods but monsters, it means there must be a way to kill them. However he can’t do it by himself and needs help. But look who’s here? Gantetsusai and Fuchi.

Episode 10
Not sure about this visual showdown between Gabimaru and Gantetsusai. It’s like they’re killing each other so Fuchi tells them to stop this pointless thingy as what they need now is info. Surprisingly Gabimaru bows his head to seek an alliance with them. He tells them what he encountered and this sends them into shock. Gantetsusai is even more interested to fight and kill a Tensen. He is not interested in the pardon and wants to become immortal. No, not live forever. He wants his name and face to be forever remembered by the future generations. That is what he meant of being immortal. Fuchi is of course interested to dissect and research on immortals. Mei has awakened but now she looks more grown up and can speak. Gabimaru asks for any ways to defeat Tensen but she speaks retardedly and doesn’t make much sense. Tao. Mind. Strength. Weakness. Huh? Meanwhile Senta has put together his findings and believes all the Tensen are names taken from different religions. Because this place is so mixed up, this all comes from culturally specific interpretations, which means they were preceded by human religious views. He cites Makiya as an example because he wanted to use a new religion he created to overthrow the shogun. This means that this island most likely has a creator. Hoko continues to explain that Tao is the flow that creates everything in the world. Obviously the Tensen control that.

Meanwhile Nurugai is trying to force Shion to teach him the sword. However he will not let more young ones die and will do the killing. Because she too share the same sentiments, he starts talking about how he could see everything in waves and then explains the correct way to use a sword. So is he teaching her or what? However Soshin pops up and Shion has to start cutting them down. Sorry, he is too busy to be her teacher. But feel free to observe and learn. Gantetsusai relishes cutting down the Soshin as practice and a way to find the Tensen’s weakness. As Chobei and Touma are out of the pit, Touma wants to escape the island but Chobei is hell bent on killing those bastards. From his observations, he believes the weakness is at the lower parts of the body like the navel or groin because that is where it regenerates. Because they are like plants, it makes sense the roots is at the bottom and not at the top where the head or the heart is. They are approached by a strange fellow known as Doshi. He wants to talk and is amenable to reason unlike the defects known as Soshin who are not even allowed into Horai. The Doshi serve the Tensen directly and do their dirty work. Now they are scouting the island from humans who have arrived. He hopes they can go back into the pit and became Tan. Obviously Chobei will not and starts fighting him. He lets Touma handle the Soshin grunts. Doshi can tell Chobei is no ordinary man because of his incredible strength and all. However he is exhausted and he can see weaknesses in his waves. Using the blind spot to his advantage, he takes out Chobei.

Episode 11
However it seems Chobei has learnt to see Tao now and he is getting confident this is the key to kill Tensen. He fights to force Doshi to reveal more secrets. Doshi starts to fear him as he could be on the same level with Tensen. It could be that inside the pit, he might have absorbed some of the powers and that’s why he is now showing superhuman abilities. Doshi tries to call the Soshin for help but Touma has taken care of all of them. Touma then notices vine scars slowly appearing all over Chobei’s body. He is worried what will become of him. As Gantetsusai and Gabimaru fight the Shoshin, Mei seems to be in distraught. Her cryptic words of strong x strong is a no. But strong x weak, yes? A Doshi is glad to see Mei again since she has been missing from Horai and Rien forbade them to look for her. He wants her to return with them to Horai to complete their training. Mei is hesitant and Gabimaru wouldn’t want anything to do with her since it will distract him from his goal. Noticing he has changed since entering the island and that he can’t bear to see her cry, he goes to protect her. Another Doshi pops up to attack. Then they start explaining the 5 different stages of mastering Tao. The final and most important step is bochu jutsu that involves circulation of yin and yang. To put it bluntly, sex. Unlike Tensen that have both sexes, many other creatures only have one. Mei shares the same origins with Tensen but she was given the ultimatum to die or continue her training. The scars on her body were inflicted by Rien. Well, Mei as a sex object makes Gabimaru real mad. He’s on fire! No wonder Mei doesn’t want to go back there. The guys attack the Doshi in their transformed form. They are even more formidable. Fuchi has deciphered Mei’s words. She meant that in order to see Tao, the mind must both be weak and strong. With Mei touching his hand and Fuchi doing more explanations, Gabimaru gets the gist of it and learns on the fly. Yeah, because time is running out too! With this adaptation, Gabimaru now can see the Tao and easily dodge all attacks. The Doshi get destroyed. At Hoko’s side, they arrive at the gates of Horai. Upon entering, Hoko gets decapitated.

Episode 12
While Hoko is still alive, Mu Dan welcomes Sagiri and co to Horai. Yuzuriha’s first reaction is to flee but Mu Dan catches her in an instant. As Hoko tells them who Mu Dan is, he accepts his death fate and prays his soul would at least be invited to Horai. But Mu Dan rubbishes all that as untrue. Those were just lies to maintain order on the island. All humans here are simply prototypes for experiments. This includes the Kyoshi humans he shows them. Once humans but now experimented on and now are his toys. As for the elixir, sorry people, no such thing. Because many humans who are of high quality just get turn into Tan. This shocking truth has Sagiri’s first thoughts on how Gabimaru will get back to his wife. Mu Dan is interested in Yuzuriha because she has great amount of Tao but has not efficiently used it. She manages to escape his clutches as the rest cooperate to fight this monster. Of course as they see for themselves, he regenerates after any sort of decapitation. Sagiri pleads to Hoko for any weakness. Then she slices his guts where the important Tanden source is. However, Sagiri’s Tao is too weak to do any damage. But then she changes the way she breathes and this increases her Tao tremendously. She manages to cut a wound on Mu Dan that doesn’t regenerate. The trio continue to cooperate until Senta restrains him for Sagiri to cut his Tanden. As they rest, Sagiri wanders if Senta likes Yuzuriha because he has been trying to protect her ever since. He says he is envious of her freedom. You see, Senta loves to draw but as a Yamada clan, he is not permitted to defy tradition to become an executioner. Thus he actually hated all the executing. Because he spent time learning on the reasons why human kill, many thought he was diligent. This was also the way how he became knowledgeable in religion. But too much killing has made him closed off his heart. Until he met Yuzuriha. Despite both lie to themselves before others, there is something so free about her lies. He is ashamed for having a soft spot for a criminal but Sagiri can also relate to him. When Yuzuriha notices strange flowers, Senta pushes her away but gets sting instead. Now he turns into flowers as we see him in dreamland, wanting to draw Yuzuriha for eternity and if he cannot be close to her, at least he can keep watching by her side. Apparently Mu Dan is still alive and has transformed into his hideous flower monster version. Yeah, that is enough to zap the morale out of the ladies. There is no way they can beat this monster again, right? So is it time for them to die? Not if Shion can help jump in to save the day.

Episode 13
Shion instructs them to tear away the flowers on Senta to slow the process and of course to get out. Shion fights Mu Dan and it seems he knows where to cut and all because he used all those monsters along the way as practice. With his heightened senses, it is no surprise he can put up a formidable fight. But even so when he gets stung and flowers growing all over him, he tears them off. He is willing to die if it means progressing. Sagiri can’t sit back and watch and wants to help. Nurugai too. Not Yuzuriha, though. But they won’t go back in blindly as they have covered themselves with Yuzuriha’s mucus for better protection. Together with Shion, they fight the monstrosity. As Shion is about to cut the Tanden, he finds it strange as he doesn’t feel its power source. That is when Senta using his last ounce of strength to say it is in the ovule since it is like a plant. Shion cuts there as Mu Dan dies. He laments seeing the perfection in Shion because of the space between his life and death, something he himself can never attain. Sagiri tries to save Senta but Yuzuriha points out she would rather use what’s left of her salve on Shion. Let’s be realistic, Senta is a goner. She talks to him to let things go. No use hanging on. Think of all the nice things you want. With that, Senta is able to pass on with a smile. After burying him, they seek refuge inside this fancy palace. They share the info they have. Like this Tao thing, while it might give you superhuman abilities, he cautions of using them too much as it might cause mental or physical changes and worse, death. Then there’s the elixir which is non-existent. But Sagiri believes it does because of Gabimaru’s chief. However Yuzuriha points out that could be an illusion to imprint into his men never to defy orders. Furthermore, she suspects something about Gabimaru’s wife: She might not exist and could be an illusion! Do you even know her name?! Because if Gabimaru is a pawn, he needs some sort of motivation to carry out his missions. And is it not strange for a young man like him to be married to a woman? Meanwhile Gabimaru seems to be having trouble with his memories. Nevertheless he will play along to get info. Yuzuriha’s words have caused Sagiri to be further worried. While she brushes Shion’s ‘joke’ that she is in love with him, it is clear that she feels strongly about him. So that’s not love? Okay. Meanwhile the shogun has tasked Shugen with a mission to select new monitors to head back to Shinsenkyo to check on the expedition. I guess life sucks when you don’t have the internet to update stuffs!

Oh, Think Twice, Just Another Death For You And Me In Hell’s Paradise
Well, good news. If everything has seemed to end so abruptly and unresolved, be glad to know that there will be a second season coming! But of course. With so much development and potential, it would have been a real crying shame to just end it with a single cour. Yes, I was actually loving and enjoying this series and was quite worried at the pacing and direction of the season as it further draws to a close. With each episode dwindling and counting down to end the season, I wonder how they will tie it all up and heck, worse, an unsatisfying cliff-hanger-cum-teaser. Well, thank goodness I can rest my anxious heart now that a sequel has been confirmed. Phew.

Honestly, I didn’t actually expect myself to be drawn and fascinated by the story and plot here. While on the outside it looks like a group of criminals being tasked with a suicidal mission to find the elixir of life, there is more to it all than meets the eye. It goes way deeper than that as it delves more than just about finding the elixir. There are a lot of intrigue and enigma surrounding just about everything here. After all, as one who has not read the original manga source (which of course already ended in 2021), I was going into the series absolutely not knowing anything except with the intriguing synopsis as my only basis.

However I have to admit that there are some parts of the season which feels draggy but I suppose this is necessary to flesh out the characters and bring about some drama. Heck, even the fight scenes have such drama. They have to explain their moves or the thing they see in the midst of the battle. How are they going to drag out this mission for 13 episodes and beyond, right? I mean, if they skipped chapters and just showcase the action bits, this series would have lost a lot of shine and charm. So it is an irony that despite that the drama parts can sometimes feel like it is moving at a snail pace, I do not actually find it completely boring at all. Yes, sometimes I do catch myself feeling impatient to get this drama over and wanting to move on to the next scene. But at the same time, all that character drama, flashback and fleshing out are not that bad to actually watch. I do find watching such moments to be quite absorbing to a point where I sometimes lose track of time. Oh you know, when the episode ends, I will be in shock, “Oh mah goodness, it’s over already???!!!”. Yeah. That.

Obviously, the characters play an important role to drag out, oops I mean to make the entire series a whole lot more interesting. Not only the criminals but their executioners as well have their own story and past to tell. I would say that each of them are interesting in their own right. By having at least the main characters telling their past, it gives them more depth as we learn and understand their position better. They’re only criminals because of the current justice system says so. As for the executioners, it isn’t all a bed of roses either. A family line and tradition of beheading others, this kind of job is not for the queasy. Not all enjoy such fate and were thrusted into it and some trying to battle discrimination of age old conservative traditions. The lines between executioner and criminals are further blurred when both have to work together to ensure their survival so as they don’t become fodder for Tensen. I believe for that part, it brings out the best and worst aspects of the characters’ humanity because at the end of the day, it is the strongest of the fittest and like any other mortals, you die if you don’t adapt. There’s the motivation to become the strongest unlike immortals who know not the concept of death so there is no reason for them to seek improvement to become stronger.

Gabimaru being the main character of course has the most spotlight although in between they flesh out other characters of concern. Unlike many others who know him of his cruel reputation, Gabimaru is just like any other human. There is a kind side that he doesn’t show others and you could say that his greatest motivation is to get back to his lovely wife. She is the reason for him living and bringing out his humanity even at times when he is down. Best wife ever. So you bet he isn’t going to pull any punches to get the job done. Of course Yuzuriha’s theory throws the spanner in the works and what if it is all just an illusion. Oh no! The wife is a lie?! There might be some truths to it because we all know Yuzuriha is a realist and she can’t be telling jokes, right? Unless she too is putting on a show to fool us. Damn, who to believe! Then there is his assigned executioner, Sagiri. For the most part, she has been trying to fight this battle of insecurity inside her. Always hesitating because of using her gender as an excuse. It is with irony that she learns how to become stronger and be more level headed after learning indirectly from Gabimaru. If I should say, both actually learn from each other and grow to overcome their weaknesses. Not to say that they are completely out of the woods yet but they are much better than where they started.

The other characters are rather interesting too. Even made more so when they have their back stories flesh out or at least mentioned. So we have seen a full episode on Tenza and Shion, Chobei and Touma while the rest like Gantetsusai, Fuchi and even Yuzuriha were just briefly mentioned. Perhaps next season would flesh them about even more. Of course there were a few that were a bit disappointing but I only have myself to blame for having such expectations. You see when 10 criminals ‘qualified’ to be part of the expedition, I thought this was going to be some sort of a slow battle royale and they will be picked off one by one. Something like Basilisk. But in the very early episodes, some get killed off instantly. Akaginu, Horubo and Makiya, I am only thinking that their characters are just to troll and throw us off because otherwise we would be forming early conclusions on who are going to make it out alive. Some like Rokurota and Keiun only serve as stepping stones for the next plot so that’s that. So with half of the field gone, I guess we have to drag out the drama from here and not let any more unnecessary deaths follow until the time is right.

On a trivial note, I thought it was dumb of criminals initially trying to fight each other to get the elixir even if it was all baseless. Heck, they should at least just steal the elixir for themselves (like what Chobei said himself because did he steal my idea?)! Screw whatever pardon! Because if you’re immortal, nobody can stop you, right?! Either they are too dumb to think that or they have to keep this intention under wraps because if found out, their executioner will just lop off their head. Hey, even if they do cooperate and find the elixir, it’s not like they’re going to share it among themselves, assuming the elixir has enough room for more than a single person.

As for the Tensen beings, virtually immortal only because they keep using human as fuel for their Tan. Even if they consider themselves as gods, eventually it is just a big lie because they still have a weakness and can be killed. My suggestion is to pit Tensen against the Iwagakure chief to see who is more immortal! But then again, the fight might drag out so long and break all records from the Dragonball series! Yeah, I don’t want to watch a fight between immortals that last forever! Even if it is an illusion. Anyway, Tensen being not humans, there are many aspects that we do not understand about them. Even more so, the series has deep roots in the religions of Buddhism and Shinto, both of which I am of course not really familiar with. So when they start spamming those Buddhism and Shinto terms in their explanation, I’m already lost. Even those terms feel like tongue twisters! Can’t even remember! Sorry people, not really a religious guy. Unless you say anime is a religion then I’m in!

While the action bits are part and parcel of the series (how can you not have any fights when you have badass criminals in it?!), I won’t really say they are an integral factor to the whole thing. Sure, it’s nice to see the characters using their weird jutsu whatever against enemies, human or nonhuman alike. But yeah, it must be just me that sometimes the action parts can be dragged out a bit longer than I expected. Am I complaining?! Well you see as already mentioned, there are also a lot of drama parts in the midst of the action. For instance, Gabimaru having some sort of monologue in his mind in finding the best technique to kill his enemy or some other related drama pertaining to his mission. Or Sagiri, trying to psyche herself to be stronger on whatever insecurities that is plaguing her at the moment. Thus it is not really 100% punch fest or slash fest. So yeah, perhaps this is why sometimes the whole series felt draggy because of this too. Oh, I almost forgot, lots of blood too so this show isn’t for the faint of heart either.

I have to say that the art and animation are a mixed baggage. It is not a masterpiece but it could have been given better attention to quality. At certain times, I would notice the animation quality degrading like as though they wanted to finish a fast job. This happens usually with the fight with Tensen. I don’t know, is this the series’ trademark visuals? I don’t think so because at slow drama moments, the characters are decently animated. Though, some characters look familiar like Gabimaru I thought he is a ninja version of Accelerator from the To Aru series, Sagiri the executioner version of Houki from Infinite Stratos fame and did Bleach’s Renji disguised as Eizen? Touma looking such a pretty boy, I thought he is the male version of Sawako from Kimi Ni Todoke! And here I thought Chobei was a badass bandit version of Chainsaw Man’s Denji! And don’t even mention about Mei looking like Naruto’s Sakura and Hoko the discount version of Groot.

I keep wondering if the Tensen look so because they aren’t exactly humans to begin with and understandably, they will look weird even when taking a human form. But even so, their character design seems left to be much desired as at times they look simpler. Even more so when they change into their female version. I thought there were going to be bare tits but looks like it’s that anime loophole of not drawing the nipples and getting away with it! That’s right. When Tensen are in their female form, you can see the boobs and cleavage. However no tits so this doesn’t constitute to be even hentai. Hey, at least we can all fap to hot sexy Yuzuriha chick, right? Just don’t let her get all sweaty, you know…

Another part of the visual animation I would like to bring up is of course the Soshin. If I were to describe them in a short sentence: Nightmare fuel. You know me, I don’t really like horror-like things so to see such creatures being weird chimeras of human and animal parts, ugh. Grotesque. Even worse, some of the Soshin have that goofy smiling face, a reminiscence of those terrifying Titans in Shingeki No Kyojin. Yeah, sometimes I thought they would do a Titan and just devour the humans but thankfully they are weaker compared to the Titans. Their design is also because as said, the series’ theme is deeply rooted in Buddhism and Shinto so they have some creatures resembling the smiling Buddha. Which is creepy as f*ck. The Doshin are also weird themselves although it’s just the face that makes them look messed up. The biggest nightmare fuel for me are the centipedes! YIKES! I HATE THOSE!!! PLEASE STOP ANIMATING TOO MANY OF THEM!!! PLEASE!!! ARGH!!! This anime is done by Mappa who did Shingeki No Kyojin, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Dorohedoro and Kakegurui so you can see their trademark works here. Also to note that they did Bucchigire, an original anime that is similar in its theme with Jigokuraku but obviously the latter is way much better in terms of story, characters and even animation visuals than that one.

For the voice acting, let me get this one out of the way first: OH MAY F*CKING GAWD, IT IS MAMIKO NOTO AS GABIMARU’S WIFE!!! OMG! OMG! OMFG!!!!!!!!! HOLY F*CK!!! IT’S REALLY HER!!! OMG! OMG!!!! NO WONDER GABIMARU WANTS TO BACK TO HER! THAT HEAVENLY VOICE! I TOO WANT TO RETURN TO THIS GODDESS OF A VOICE!!! F*CK YEAH!!! At least her voice isn’t an illusion! Oh well. That’s that. For the rest whom I recognized, they are Rie Takahashi as Yuzuriha, Cho as Hoko, Junichi Suwabe as all the Tensen in male version while Yuko Kaida doing the female version. The other casts are Chiaki Kobayashi as Gabimaru (Mash in Mashle), Yumiri Hanamori as Sagiri (Shizuku in Arifureta), Daiki Yamashita as Senta (Midoriya in Boku No Hero Academia), Aoi Ichikawa as Fuchi (Nagara in Sonny Boy), Chikahiro Kobayashi as Shion (Sugimoto in Golden Kamuy), Tetsu Inada as Gantetsusai (Gamagoori in Kill La Kill), Ryohei Kimura as Chobei (Tsubasa in Kyoukai No Rinne), Kensho Ono as Touma (Floch in Shingeki No Kyojin), Makoto Koichi as Nurugai (Sakura in Lycoris Recoil), Yuusuke Kobayashi as Tenza (Subaru in Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu), Konomi Kohara as Mei (Chiaki in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Volcano Oota as Genji (Mora in Boku No Hero Academia) and Makoto Furukawa as Eizen (Shirogane in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai).

The opening theme is Work by Millennium Parade x Ringo Sheena. To put it in a word, strange. Hearing such modern age music for this kind of series, I find it really bizarre and yes, personally I feel it doesn’t quite fit in. Even more so when the opening lines of the song reminds me of an iconic song from Super Mario Bros! You know, the level where you go face Bowser! Did this song sample part of it? Still, hearing the techno beats, rap verses and strange singing voices, it is all a weird experience to me. Hmm… Maybe it is to be synonymous with all the weirdness on Shinsenkyo. As for the ending theme, it is a slow ballad, Kamihitoe by Uru. As calming and gentle this song, I also feel there is some sense of haunting too. I don’t know if it is because part of the animation credits of those ghost hands wrapping themselves over naked Sagiri. Yeah, such images even in the episode can be unnerving. But if I can look past that creepiness, this song is quite soothing to listen to.

Overall, I really liked this anime and despite some of its setbacks like being draggy at times and the animation quality questionable at times, at least the story and characters are intriguing enough to retain my attention and the bloody action bits are enough to keep me entertained. Hopefully the next season will get even better as it reaches its conclusion (assuming it is the last stretch). I read comments that many aren’t really happy with this production in a lot of aspects. Well, I do agree that it could’ve been better but considering the many other sh*tty animes that I watched in that same season (yeah, mostly the isekai ones), this one stood out and retained my attention the best. Sorry, sucks to have sophisticated tastes like you people! Being a simpleton has its benefits. So in the end, this series isn’t exactly the paradise I’ve dreamt of nor the hell that it was, so is it like stuck in between? Like, stuck in limbo?! You mean like Buddhism’s Bardo?! Sorry, not well versed in that to make puns of it…

Megami Paradise

This sounds like a hentai title. Heh. Got your attention there, right? Unfortunately, Megami Paradise is not exactly hentai but if you are a fan of retro JRPGs, you might come across this obscure title from the 90’s. Obviously I’m not one and I only stumbled upon this by chance. You can guess what keywords I used when I Google and chanced upon this… Heh… Anyway… Imagine only a world where only women exist. Some star rules over them but it got corrupted and hence they need some sort of priestess to purify it. Yeah, whatever. How can there be evil atrocities if men don’t exist in this universe and hence no possible rape scenarios? What could be worse than that? Oh right. Other b*tches who have their own nefarious plans. I guess having yuri isn’t so bad after all.

Episode 1
As narrated, over the years, the people’s greed have corrupted everything around them. The current Mamamega is tasked to purify the Astro Star. This will be her final task and plans to hand over her duties to a new successor. Now the whole place is abuzz and excited about the possibility of the new chosen maidens. Yup, many think they have a chance. Lucky girl Lilith has been chosen as one and now tasked to find the rest. She approaches Stashia for it but is turned down. She claims she doesn’t want the fame and fortune that comes with it. Sorry girl, try elsewhere. So as she heads off, Rurubell comes looking for her and thinks she has what it takes to be one. So did she just impose on herself she will be a maiden? She accompanies Lilith to seek out other candidates. They see Juliana in training. Rurubell wants to test Juliana herself but ends up getting owned. Juliana is not impressed with this and scares those pipsqueaks away. But soon she is attacked but is able to fend it off. She thinks it’s those pipsqueaks trying to test her again. As Lilith and Rurubell try to approach other candidates, they seem them defeated. Worse, being caught at the scene, others think they are the ones responsible for this. With this rumour spreading, now the whole paradise is turned upside down going after them. Even if Lilith approaches those who aren’t affected, they run away in fear. Then a group of ladies suddenly get brainwashed and turned into puppets as they attack the duo. Juliana has witnessed this and now believes the duo aren’t the culprit. Indeed. The perpetrators reveal themselves: Maharaja, Rouge and Angela. As Juliana is busy fighting Rouge, Maharaja uses her evil music to have the mind controlled ladies attack and kill the weaklings. Thanks to Stashia’s good music to blow it all away. Angela then summons a huge golem to fight. Lilith is having low self-confidence but realizes she must live up to Mamamega’s expectations. Hence using some discount Dragonballs, she summons a snake monster to destroy the golem. This shocks the evil b*tches. They would love to have another go but Pastel pops up and warns them to retreat as per instructed by Yamimama. See you next time. Lilith then pleads to Juliana and Stashia to become maidens. Juliana agrees since she wants to get back at those evil b*ches but Stashia remains defiant. But with Rurubell bugging her, she changes her mind so as to watch over this loli. Yeah, Rurubell already assuming she is in. And with that, the quartet become the new maidens for Mamamega.

Episode 2
A short narration on how Mamamega purifies the Astro Star before a new successor takes over. So, it’s only good for 1 use? As the ceremony is about to begin, Mamamega senses something amiss. She goes to check it out. Oh my, Astro Star is missing! With all the other priestesses knocked out unconscious, obviously the perpetrators are those evil maidens. They claim they have already stolen it and as underlings of Yamimama, she will be the one who will rule over this world via darkness. They also kidnap Lilith. Well, can’t miss Yamimama’s base. It’s that obvious, that dark ominous structure right across the land. Stashia and Juliana will go over to rescue Lilith and the Astro Star and they want Rurubell to stay here to protect Mamamega. Lilith meets Yamimama and learns her intentions. She wants to expel the Astro Star from this dimension as it is obviously deterring them from achieving their goals. Because they cannot touch it, they are going to use Lilith as a sacrifice to do it. So, HOW THE F*CK DID THEY STEAL IT HERE IF THEY CAN’T F*CKING TOUCH IT?! Oh right, levitation and whatever. Juliana and Stashia are faced with the dark maidens but because the latter play dirty, the duo get trapped and tortured. Having fun, eh? Mamamega is busy healing the priestesses so worried Rurubell sneaks out to go help her fellow maidens. Yeah, the dark maidens are laughing at this loli as she bungles her way to help. Rurubell will be having the last laugh as this weird explosion causes them to be blasted to the base. The dark maidens fight hard to protect Yamimama who is in the midst of the ritual that can’t be interrupted. But thankfully, Mamamega and her priestesses have revived. They send their light prayers over. As per the script, light triumphs over darkness so the evil b*tches are sent reeling to their defeat. Lilith and the Astro Star are safe. The evil ones retreat but vow to return another time. They won’t give up this easily. Our maidens happily return home with the Astro Star to resume the ceremony.

Mama Mia! Almost Hell’s Paradise?
Oh well. That was just pretty mediocre and average. I mean, what else was I expecting from it? Oh right. Fanservice. That’s right. This short little OVA has some fanservice bits like pantsu shots and even bare tits but those are far and few in between. Of course, no genitals shown to beat that hentai label loophole. But of course such fanservice here is already very mild. Yeah, I have seen so much and this paltry fanservice isn’t really anything new or exciting. Perhaps watching this in those days, maybe. But at this point in time, it’s not really a big issue. Especially the internet exploding and having lots hidden smutty stuffs. So I guess back in those days, shows like these were your simple and basic stuff to get the job done. Yeah, now I know why the reason men don’t exist in this universe. They exist outside the universe like us viewers who watch and jerk off to these hotties! That must be it!!! On a side note, if the fanservice style seems pretty familiar, it is because this series was created by the same guy who later on went to create Agent Aika and Najica series. Yeah.

As far as the story is concerned, it is pretty average and nothing really special. So basically it’s just about good girls vs bad girls, light vs darkness. There isn’t anything much to it but of course, this is a story that was created back in the 90’s and from a video game. My guess is that this show is just to serve as something extra to those who played the game as well as advertisement and exposure to get those to check the game out. I am also assuming it is one of the many titles that didn’t become famous or successful. Otherwise we all would’ve known about it and become a household name like the Final Fantasy series. A series that was never final anyway. Yeah, so this one became somewhat of a lost paradise? And who the f*ck are those bad people corrupting the Astro Star?! So great their evil deeds and negative feelings to cause this. I don’t think these cute maidens living here are that evil. ARE THEY?! And to think that they can just purify it but doesn’t that just means the cruel cycle will repeat itself? Oh my maidens, is this your purpose of existence?!

A big bulk of the series sees the characters fighting or running into some sort of trouble. That’s about it. No convoluted plot twist anywhere because damn, the villains are so kind to even introduce themselves, their goal and all. Too bad with only a couple of episodes, we don’t really see their characters being fleshed out because I doubt there is anything more to tell about them. And turning Lilith into a damsel in distress for the second episode? Sounds like she just got relegated to being a side character. The other characters almost feel similar to each other and it’s like as though they are just on the different side. Generally, I can see the maidens on both sides to be quite lively and plucky. Character overlap? Maybe.

Yeah well, in a universe that only hot women exist, everybody here looks so pretty, uhm, retro anime-like? Yeah whatever. But still, my soft spot for retro animes had me still think that the dated looking visuals still look better than today’s animation quality. Not the best there is but still looking decently good. After all, this was done by Studio Fantasia who did Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, Stratos 4 and of course the Aika and Najica series. Not to mention I saw a few hentai titles under their belt… As for the voice acting, surprised to hear Kikuko Inoue as Stashia but I guess in those days, she was like almost everywhere. The rest I don’t recognize and they’re all old veterans who are probably retired now or at least not as active as before. If you are familiar with Masami Okui’s style of lively anime pop songs, you’ll be glad that the opener, Get My Way as well as the ending song, Dreaming Heart has her trademark singing. Clearly, obviously to my taste. Oddly, the instrumental version of Dreaming Heart for the second episode is not too bad either.

Overall, this obscure anime won’t be making any impact just like many of such other obscure series that come and go. It’s like going on a treasure hunt but finding some sort of item that isn’t really a treasure and then just tossing back into the pile of junk. Yeah. This one feels something like that. I’m not saying that this series is bad or close to being worse, but it doesn’t have anything that makes it stand out. Not the mild fanservice or the obligatory battles between the characters. Perhaps it is a good thing that this series continues to remain obscure and away from those with dark intentions of the heart. Now these maidens can happily frolic in private, their yuri paradise! Oh boy. Such dirty thoughts is going to corrupt the Astro Star even faster! Mamamega and her maidens are going to have a lot of work cut out for them purifying such horny thoughts!

Kaminaki Sekai No Kamisama Katsudou

Oh my, this is what happens when I quickly zipped through the synopsis and formed my own conclusions on what the series about without further reading or analysis. Yup, when I read the lines, “… porn books are akin to a child’s doodles…”, I jumped the gun in thinking Kaminaki Sekai No Kamisama Katsudou is going to be one of those sleazy pseudo hentai series of the season. Furthermore, the series has a setting whereby religion doesn’t exist. So there I was again jumping the gun to think the main character is going to use religion as a tool and create a sex cult!!! F*cking yeah! It’s going to be this season’s most ecchi series. I can’t miss this! But oh well… Now as I can see how far it was from what I thought it would be. Plus, that synopsis has changed to something, at least on major sites reviewing the series. Sighs. Oh well, a world so boring without all those sins of the flesh and more, our reincarnated main character now has a goal to create his own brand of followers to fight against the tyranny of the oppressive empire that literally runs the lives of its citizens. Oh. I see. This is isekai, huh?

Episode 1
WTF this macho gay men sect?! Too bad Yukito Urabe is the leader’s son and is going to be thrown into the sea as part of some sick ritual?! WHAT THE F*CK?! HE IS GOING TO RISE FROM IT IN 3 DAYS?! IS THIS SOME SICK JESUS CULT?! Yeah, he is going to be saved by their God they worshipped known as Mitama and with that, Yukito will be the new sect’s leader. Obviously, his unlucky life flashes before him and he dies. He wakes up when this cutie pie, Alural trying to give him a handjob???!!! Well, that somewhat did the trick. Yukito thinks his new isekai fantasy life begins now. Too bad he starts off in farming. Boring as f*ck. When Clen and Roy give him a dagger, it’s not to kill goblins. Just to harvest grapes. Damn, this farming is boring as hell! With too much harvest, what to do with the extra since they have no preservation? Yukito is celebrated as a genius as he turns the excess into wine! Yukito lives with Alural and her older sister, Siluril. One day while farming, a monster attacks. Oh sorry, it’s called strange beasts?! Let me fix that term: BAD CGI MONSTROSITY!!!! Obviously magic doesn’t exist here so they run. More disappointment as Yukito gets his wounds treated the normal way. On another day, Yukito stumbles upon an animal carcass. This has him suddenly ponder how people die in this world because nobody knows the concept of God. That is when Roy lets him in on a secret. A book so forbidden that saying it will have one taken away. Don’t be surprised, it’s just porn mag! Roy and Alural take Yukito to the capital where he is advised to not talk to others. It seems the people here scorn their village. Then they go into a bookshop as they get their much needed, uhm, porn books? On the way back, Yukito witnesses a horrifying scene whereby men line up and drink something till they die! In shock, Alural reveals that this country as an end life system in which people are to die when they are ordered to. Their village is somewhat special. Yeah, what’s this they’re saying about those defects?

As Yukito sleeps, Alural suddenly sneaks into his bed and tries to do BDSM on him as read in today’s books?! Sorry to disappoint, nothing further happens. Going back to that taboo topic, Alural further explains this village is an isolation camp. She shows a hideous mark on her body that brands them as so. Those who end up here are those who do not wish to die and defy the system. Because Yukito doesn’t look at them with disgust, he is the first outsider to do so. Yukito claims this village is the first friends he’s ever made. Noticing Yukito’s beautiful magatama charm, Yukito says somehow this protective charm is the only thing he brought to this world. He gives it to her. Next day, Yukito is shocked to find Roy beaten up. Roy reveals the biggest secret of this village: The people here are actually placed here and forced to die. Today is Alural and Siluril’s death day. He never told Yukito out of Alural’s feelings. Yukito is going to play hero as Clen gives him a ride there. A bit too late because Siluril has already been hung and Alural is going to be decapitated by the imperial guard captain, Bertrand. Yukito fights the guards but is soon overwhelmed. He realizes the people have been brainwashed to think death is normal and that it is something not to be feared. Yukito is stabbed followed by a fatal slash on Alural. This is when Yukito prays on his God to just save the day. And dropping down from the sky is this naked loli! She gets mad upon seeing those who wounded Yukito and absorbs those bastards. Then she easily heals him as well as Alural. This loli is so happy to see him again but who the f*ck is she? She claims she has always been with him all the time. Don’t you remember? It’s your God, Mitama!

Episode 2
Wow! Mitama revives all those who were dead! All those spectators left like as though it was nothing. Returning back to the village, everyone is in disbelief but glad the dead have returned. Back alive, that is. As everyone drinks to celebrate, Yukito now is worried as he has gone against the capital and there will be payback in time. Meanwhile Alural wonders who Mitama is to Yukito. Apparently the concept of God is alien to her. She gets depressed thinking Yukito likes little girls. Siluril reveals Alural has a crush on Yukito. Mitama is happy for that and hopes she can continue to be friends with him. When Mitama joins the party, Roy takes an instant liking for Mitama! Lolicon awakening! She doesn’t like him and badmouths him. He likes it! Oh dear. A masochistic side awakening too! Yukito is pleased to hear Mitama can actually destroy a whole army easily. In fact, she’ll demonstrate it now! Uhm, how come her powers are zero? Then she realizes she has no followers! In this world, obviously. Wait. Does this mean Yukito doesn’t believe in her?! With reports that the imperial army is on their way here, nobody is worried because Yukito will take care of it, RIGHT?! Yeah, this guy feels so screwed. Then he realizes if Mitama gains followers, she can get back her power. Hence it is his duty to introduce the concept of religion and God to this world!

Roy becomes the first follower because this lolicon dreams of being tortured by her! Yeah, Yukito is still not a follower! Next, Yukito thinks of using a speech to lure many over. However Mitama ruins it by using her omnipotence skill to reveal all of Yukito’s embarrassing points! About the miracle she needs to show, she points out Alural is worried about her weight because of her huge boobs! Because Yukito likes them small?! Oh sh*t, Alural wants to chop it off with an axe! Why does she not believe Yukito’s words he prefers them big?! Over the next few scenes, Roy is used as a guinea pig to gain followers. Obviously all of them fail. Not that Roy hates it… Later, Alural is disheartened that her pet, Chilchil is sick and going to die after eating anti-pest poison. Obviously Yukito wants to take it to the vet but as Siluril points out, the capital doesn’t care for lives that are non-human and hence no such technology in this field. Yukito then forces Mitama to help him find some herbs. Too bad it didn’t work as Chilchil is this close to death. It is then Mitama uses every ounce of her power to heal it back to normal. Mitama is now shrivelled up. However with the sisters now believing in Mitama because of this miracle, with the increase in followers, Mitama’s power increases. Many times fold! This has Yukito realize the importance of how one becomes her follower. But Alural has a request: She wants all those guards who tried to kill them be revived. She believes they were just doing their job. Yukito cautions her because Bertrand is a dangerous one and might kill them. Mitama revives them but something went wrong somewhere because Bertrand is now a smoking hot babe!

Episode 3
Bertrand returns to the empire but the guards won’t let her in and of course they don’t believe this sexy babe is the captain as they throw her out. Alone in the woods, WTF Roy tries to rape her?! I thought he is a lolicon?! Luckily Yukito won’t let that happen and noticing Bertrand’s loyalty to the empire, invites her to join his side as he offers her a place to stay. When Mitama’s legendary weapon failed to even kill a strange beast, it is Bertrand’s sword that cuts it in half! Yes, now she is a lackey of the religion. Yukito promotes Bertrand’s protection as a benefit to join the religion as well as the sisters’ booze and cooking. This works like a charm as they have now 101 followers. Yukito is pleased despite the concept of religion and God are hard to explain in this world, this also means they are easy to convert as they have no aversion to it. That is why he is using personal gain as a method to attract followers rather than devotion. Later he asks Bertrand the size of the empire’s army but is told it is not quantity that matters. There are a small number of elite soldiers under the direct command of the emperor known as Archon. They are personally bestowed special powers by the emperor and one can easily destroy a mountain. Yukito then asks Mitama if she can destroy a mountain. Yes. Very easily. Provided she has 10,000 followers! Yukito then looks at Bertrand’s sword. Ordinary. However she explains officers with certain ranks are given weapons imbued with special powers by the emperor. Hence his sword is no ordinary one and can cut through anything.

Yukito then talks to Siluril and Clen about the empire coming to crush them and hence wants to relocate. They don’t think so because there are many other isolation camps and each only will have maximum 2,000 villagers. I guess achieving 10,000 will be impossible for a single village. As Yukito stresses over how to get more followers, Siluril comes to comfort him and knows he is doing his best. For without him, the sisters would have died. This is when Yukito remembers his dad on how the cult started out with a meagre number and grew into a huge one thanks to proving their physical strength. Yeah, just straight up invade territory of others via force! As Yukito ponders more about the fate of this village, Clen says it is not a bad thing because they have at least freedom and can do anything they wish. Hence Yukito is going to move forward this village by 500 years! A month later, Bertrand notes no Archons have come to attack. Yeah, she jinxed it because now she is attacked by one, Atar. She has been disposing of the strange beasts around and now she has orders to eliminate a certain isolation camp. She scans Bertrand and knows her identity. Bertrand tries to vouch for her case but Atar doesn’t understand and deems her a rebel. Bertrand is easily defeated but not killed. Not until Atar gets to the bottom of how her gender changed. When Atar sees this village, she is in shock as she sees technology that is unknown to the empire. Yeah, Yukito has advanced it with farming technology!

Episode 4
Yukito claims that these farming tools are creation of Mitama AKA God. So become her followers and you’ll be granted permission to use them! Hell yeah! Just like that, Mitama now has 927 followers. Yukito then introduces the convenience of water. Oh yeah! Babes in bikinis! Having a splash of a time! Too bad Mitama had to work hard to provide them all. 1659 followers aren’t still enough so Yukito goes for exclusivity. Yes, providing free electricity means they can drink from night till dawn! Once more, Mitama doing all the work to provide these. WTF Roy trying to get Siluril’s ass and Alural’s boobs?! Thanks to ‘electricity’ as weapon, Siluril beats up the pervert. With Bertrand and Clen amazed about Yukito’s work, it is then Clen reveals he once lived in the imperial palace. As proof, he shows them he has now mark on his body. This means he came to live in an isolation camp on his own volition. Interested in knowing more about the concept God from Yukito’s world, he explains about God being divided into religion and the unexplained phenomenon. While they don’t understand, but if they compare their emperor as God, then they have an idea because the emperor is the one responsible for creating natural phenomena, disasters, illness, strange beasts, etc.

Now that Mitama has 2008 followers and basically the entire village, it is still not enough for Yukito. But before he can move on to his next plan, news arrive that Bertrand has been beating up by Atar. The Archon is questioning her how this village got such amenities when it is not possible for such to be created without authorization. Only the emperor or Archons can do such a thing. She remembers Loki telling her about an Archon traitor and the instruction from the emperor was to eliminate such traitors. As Bertrand won’t say a thing, she is going to kill him but Mitama is here in time. Oh boy. Epic loli battle. So basically, battle of the Gods? Mitama shows her might and fights on par by summoning plant based golems. But the going gets tough when Atar starts using a never seen before weapon. At this point Mitama has used up all her power and thinks she will really lose. But luckily she regains some as she calls upon some primordial Gods to aid her. However they soon leave once they realize how many followers she has! Mitama is defeated not before she has dealt some major damage on Atar too. As Yukito and Mitama lament they can’t do anything more to save the village, a pissed Atar lets loose her destructive force. Goodbye isolation camp. But wait! All just an illusion. Nothing is destroyed. Courtesy of Loki who is actually the true form of Clen! WHY AM I NOT F*CKING SURPRISED?! OH RIGHT. SAME SEIYUU! As Loki reveals her true form to the rest, she believes now the time is right. She wants Yukito to help her in assassinating the emperor.

Episode 5
Atar tries to kill Loki but gets owned instead. However this is all part of Loki’s illusions to trick her. Loki then brings them to the imperial palace to meet the emperor. He rambles about knowing all this would happen including the advent of Yukito. This has Yukito in shock if the concept of God already existed in this world and that the emperor came from another world like him. Suddenly Mitama destroys a core to reveal the shocking truth. The real emperor is all bones and dead! Loki admits to that and the whole assembly thing that runs the kingdom are nothing but machines running on some sophisticated software and programmes. Plus, all this technology were from a civilization that was once annihilated. The survivors band together to create such technology, never to be replicated again. Hence to ensure such survival, the concept of God and religion were eliminated to also ensure compliance. Now here is the ultimate real shocker: Mitama says this is what Yukito wanted. When he was dying, he wanted to go to a world where God and religion do not exist. Hence she had to scour the entire human history and this is the only time period which God and religion do not exist. That’s right. This is not isekai! It is the past of planet Earth!!! OMG! I don’t know if I should feel happy or sad! Loki wants Mitama to destroy the machines in this room. Doing so will free the people and thus no more such end life system farce. However Yukito attacks her and wants to know her real goal. Because she could’ve destroyed the room herself but couldn’t and needed Mitama instead.

Flashback shows Loki was sick of this end life system. People had no free will. Even insects run when they sense death. Hence those who accepted the system are beneath insects. Doing her research, she stumbled upon materials related to ancient civilization where people lived freely. The term God interested her. She started questioning the purpose of Archons. From time to time, Loki would disguise as Clen and live among isolated camps. There she observed how people lived freely without the rules. Then came Yukito. He was strange. Using strange words and unaware of the local culture as well as the appearance of Mitama soon after, Yukito preached for a free world and wanted to create the concept of religion and God. Clen even suggested for followers to live freely as Yukito incorporated that into his religion doctrine. But the ultimate clincher is when Mitama could tell Clen was a woman in disguise. You cannot hide anything from a true God. Subsequently Loki did a similar experiment to another isolated camp to show off her godly powers. They became followers in an instant. Hence Loki’s true goal now is to destroy the empire and for them to become Gods. Atar disagrees because Archons exist to serve the empire. If it’s gone, they have no purpose. Loki then reveals she has talked to other Archons about this except her. Looks like they all are sick of this system and agreed to destroy it too. Yukito agrees to Loki’s idea. However he notes when that happens, Archons will fight among themselves to become the ultimate God. The village will be dragged into this. There is only one way to protect them. He orders Mitama to destroy the place. The palace is destroyed as Mitama sprouts a giant tree. Yukito then declares that the only God he is making is Mitama. Nobody else.

Episode 6
Everybody is partying to celebrate the downfall of the capital. They think they won’t be targeted anymore. Loki is still hanging out with the gang and considers this her farewell party. She’ll return to the capital to do what it takes to become God. With Yukito hell bent on protecting this village, they will no doubt be clashing in the future. Bertrand will not forgive Loki but the latter turns her back into a guy. But that happiness is short-lived as Bertrand is soon turned back into a woman. Bertrand decides to follow Loki back to the capital and use the chaos there to kill her. Do as you wish. Meanwhile Atar is depressed and she has lost her power. She blames Yukito for causing all this. However Yukito offers his help to defeat other Archons. She can then absorb their power and rebuild the assembly. After all, he can’t leave alone a crying girl. Atar is emotionally grateful for his help but of course we hear Yukito’s dark thoughts this is all a ploy just to manipulate her. Soon, Yukito announces they will have 2 Gods: Mitama and Atar. Of course Mitama is jealous. Why is she not the only God?! Worse, Atar steals more than half of Mitama’s followers! Yukito’s plan to spread his religion to other isolation camps, he tempts them with food and beer first. Then brings them back to the village to enjoy more. They can have these and more with condition they revere Mitama as their God. And just like that, Mitama has close to almost 3,000 followers after subjugating 3 camps although Atar still has much higher follower count.

Siluril has been doing some investigations. She cannot find Bertrand but notes an isolation camp where someone named Dakini has been amassing close to 10,000 followers. Yukito believes she is one of the Archons and asking Atar about it, she is unsure as Archons do not interact with each other. But she read her power is related to love. Yukito’s strategy is to infiltrate the camp and pretend to join the group. To prepare his team not to be seduced, he teaches them about sex! Oh well, Siluril is sitting this one out then. The rest head to that isolation camp (looking like a love hotel?) on pretence of wanting to join. Riche the deputy will take them to see their boss Gohonzon. Along the way, they hear followers talking extreme and weird make-out sessions and all. Especially Riche’s reputation of being a slut of sleeping with a thousand people in a night and can make one climax just be looking at you! WTF?! Yukito and Alural are paired in one room as they wait for Gohonzon who is no other than Dakini. So, this gaudy gal is an Archon? She easily lets them join as it’s their policy to do whatever they want. After taking pictures of them and leaving, the duo start to feel hot and horny. Alural already trying to have sex with Yukito as he is finding it hard to resist. The spell breaks only when Roy is thrown in from another room! Yeah, he tried to defile Mitama! As Riche goes to check on them, she sees Mitama using her powers to rebuild the broken wall. Yukito then threatens Riche not to speak of this to anyone or he will, uhm, rape her?! HOLY F*CK?! SHE GETS DEFILED???!!! Turns out it is her weird delusion and f*cking hell she gets orgasmic with this rape scene?! She reveals despite her legendary reputation, she has not slept with anyone. Learning the spell doesn’t work on them and especially Mitama a God, suddenly she begs them for help to destroy this group.

Episode 7
Loki and Bertrand notice that the people are starting to rot lifelessly at the capital. This is what happens with the absence of the assembly who once tended to the sick and injured. Loki plans to use this as part of her plans because not all Archons are tools of war like Atar. Some are like her who want to control others and these types can’t be taken lightly. Riche reveals that before this isolation camp got absorbed by Dakini, she bought all the forbidden dirty mags. This made her knowledgeable in sex and soon everything thinks she is the best slut. She doesn’t like this tag and that’s why she wants out. Yukito agrees to collaborate and first up, Riche convinces her followers that Yukito’s gang has officially join the group. But a new problem creeps out: Mitama is losing followers like mad! Turns out without her in the village, everybody is now putting their faith in Atar as she helps them kill strange beasts. Of course to rev Mitama up, Yukito wants her to do something and he’ll be her follower! Yeah, she used up almost all her power to create sex toys???!!! Learning that Dakini rotates and visits different villages under her authority, it will be some time before she comes back here. Riche then has a study group and has her followers learn more about sex techniques!

In no time, Dakini returns sooner than expected as she has felt a dip in followers. She confronts Riche about trying to usurp her control although Riche denies. With some of the followers begging for mercy, Dakini shows no mercy as she has her bodyguards apprehend Yukito’s group. It seems Roy is now part of Dakini’s bodyguards after she has shown him the pleasure of his right hand!!! First punishment is to kick their asses in public?! Then Dakini interrogates Riche about her intentions. This is when Riche breaks down and claims she is prepared to receive any punishment that includes her life. This noble act has the followers feel pity as they beg Dakini for mercy since Riche did not wrong. Of course this is all part of Yukito’s plan. He foresaw that Dakini would take action once her followers dip. She then move in to denounce and destroy her. WTF Yukito going to teach her by raping her body?! Obviously just Riche’s delusions but she orgasms and wets herself!!! WTF???!! Yukito’s true objective is to teach her how to act. Yup, until Dakini returns, Yukito is going to train her to be a world class actress! In order for Dakini to protect her reputation, she calls the execution off but she maintains her suspicions on Yukito because she knows he is under Loki. Yukito and co are thrown in prison as Roy is now fully absorbed into the cult. Yeah, blaming Mitama for not accepting his love and thus who you calling traitor?! Unfortunately Dakini views she has no use for Riche any more so she sends her bodyguards to go destroy them.

Episode 8
Long ago, the emperor gave Dakini a special mission. No, it is not to spread love and have humans procreate. Rather the opposite. Wipe out love from humans so they no longer have any such desires. As the assembly has already figured out how to make artificial humans, they want to keep unwarranted births in check. And so Dakini reluctantly does so for many years until humans actually lost that desire. However she wrote all those sex techniques in books and spread them around the capital. One day, she met a young girl named Touka who was very fascinated with such erotic books. Dakini took a liking for her because she was different unlike those boring robots. Unfortunately as Touka was considered an anomaly, she was sent to an isolation camp. Dakini thought it was for the better of her. But many years later, she learnt Touka got killed because she slept with someone and gave birth to a child. Humans then didn’t know how to procreate and found childbirth something terrifying. Dakini became distraught and vowed to return humans to their original state. Now we see Yukito and co trying to escape the bodyguards. But look who is here to rescue them? Siluril and Atar! You think Mitama would at least be glad to see them but why is she in shock? Because Atar has more than 6,000 followers!!! As they run, Yukito explains this is all part of his double strategy. First was to infiltrate Dakini’s group and sow division. Second, by purposely making Mitama leave their village, her followers will lose faith in her and follow Atar. With powers concentrated in Atar, they can attack this village, all part of Yukito’s plan to take it by force. Yeah, Mitama felt so betrayed!

They stumble into Dakini who won’t let them go. Though, Yukito tells Riche to take Mitama away as part of his plan. Dakini then shows her true powers. Because she has more than 14,000 followers, she unleashes some spell on the gang as it makes them horny and want to f*ck! Oh Yukito, is it orgy time?! However the spell soon breaks thanks to Mitama’s resurgence. Yeah, now she’s bragging. Riche then claims she is breaking off and forming a new faction with her followers. This is how Dakini’s power transferred to Mitama. But even so, Dakini claims it won’t put a dent to it. Mitama further adds how Dakini’s powers are borrowed from others. While bragging she ranks higher than the real Dakini, in actual fact we see Mitama begging like hell to the real Dakini to reduce this fake’s powers. Yeah, so pathetic the begging that she allowed it. Dakini tries to run and leaves Roy to handle them. However he grabs hold of Dakini in hopes this will score points with Mitama. Yeah, that perverted face makes it hard to believe. Apparently all part of Yukito’s plan as he left a note to him saying that eventually Mitama is a woman. Mitama is a woman… Yeah… Creepy. This allows Atar to finish off Dakini. As she lies powerless, Riche then comes up to reveal that Touka is actually her mother. Dakini then remembers Touka’s words of wanting a baby the natural way so that her child would become friends with her. Dakini realizes she has twisted this world herself and erased the love she was supposed to bring back. She cries in Riche’s arms, noting how much she loved Touka.

Episode 9
Yukito wants Dakini to have all her followers to worship Mitama. However she isn’t willing to cooperate so Yukito threatens to get rid of her is she stays useless. Soon Riche visits Dakini in her cell and because she was good friends with her mom, she will side by her. Soon she returns with Yukito completely submitted to her! OMFG. Riche now the S&M queen over piggy Yukito?! Riche hope they can consolidate their factions as one again so Dakini agrees to that. Of course this is all part of the plan and Yukito was just acting. Barely. When he was discussing with the girls on how to get Dakini’s followers to their side, looks like it is Riche’s turn for revenge as she trained Yukito to become a pig! Yeah, Alural and Siluril also help out. Here comes to pain from those latex babes! Thanks to the followers believing in Riche who worships Mitama, Mitama’s followers have blown up to over 10,000. Yeah, look how much she is bragging to Atar. But how the f*ck Atar still has more than her at over 11,000 followers?! Atar shows what she’s got by destroying a strange beast. But when more pop up and she can’t do anything about it, time for Mitama to strut her stuff and protect everyone. But when they return to the village, it is all destroyed although no casualties. Yukito then begs Mitama to revert the village back to normal, something she is reluctant to do because it zaps her power and she doesn’t want to go through all that again. But since Atar and others also start begging, Mitama relents and the village is as good as new. An Archon watching this notes Mitama’s power. She is about to send strange beasts to destroy it again but something went wrong and she got attacked by them.

So as everyone is back to partying mood, Yukito is deeply analysing the dangerous weakness of this religious method. Since everyone has their own immediate gratification, if that cannot be provided, they will leave the group. That is the danger if a religious is built not on loyalty or charisma. Soon Roy is being attacked by a strange beast while saving that Archon, Gaia. However she beats him up and claims he is not her type and then feigns for someone to save her. When Atar checks on her, she kisses and sucks her life force? Don’t worry, it’s not fatal. After introducing herself and claiming how she can control strange beasts, Yukito seems hell bent on killing her! Her power is deemed dangerous! However Gaia claims she has not many followers and that is why she lost control of the strange beasts who attacked their village. Her goal is to regain as much followers to crush Loki in this sick battle royale game that she started. So they all revisit the capital but looks like there’s a wall now. Gaia can create strange beasts too but with her being low on power, this puny one will do. As it approaches the walls, it gets destroyed by a beam. Security system. Then a dark knight jumps down, claiming she cuts those who try to enter. Oh, it’s Bertrand, isn’t it? Well, she seems unhappy and wants to die. What’s this about her body being unable to feel anything? Loki shows up and wow, she has 1.1 million followers! However Yukito laughs at that paltry number and ends the recon. Time to go back. He threatens Loki if she dares attack the village, she’s dead. Even Loki is puzzled and shocked at that but soon we all know it was just a lie created by Yukito! With those astronomical numbers, there’s no way he could beat Loki now! Bertrand explains after the emperor died, the citizens were left to rot. Loki then entered the throne room and the people soon return to normal. Each time Bertrand tried to ask Loki about her plans, she was turned away. This has Yukito deducing Loki became the emperor and using her illusion, she made the entire capital’s citizens her followers. But he can take heart there is a way to beat her. Her 1.1 million followers are because the citizens think she is the emperor and thus the power does not belong to her. Yukito has a plan to strike back first on this psychological war and that is to become a producer. A what? Oh my, Mitama the idol?!

Episode 10
Oh what’s this? An all-female rock band?! Oh yeah! But Mitama is not part of it?! Well, the part Mitama being an idol was shelved by Yukito as he admits that setting her up in the initial phase of their faith was a mistake! Because this world is void of music and that the emperor has erased such records, Yukito knows the importance of music in increasing and keeping the faith. Uhm, so is Yukito going to teach them how to play instruments? Whatever the case, he kicks Bertrand out because she sucks! And so we have the rock group consisting of Alural, Siluril, Atar and Gaia. Thanks to the success of this experimental concert, Mitama’s powers replenish as she regains her 10,000 plus followers. While Bertrand continues to beg Yukito not to abandon her, he gives her a big hug and tells her that there are some things she can only do. Of course this is all a ploy to make her feel needed and thus carry out her next mission that is to tail Gaia. Bertrand does so as she observes Gaia enter another village, interact with some kids (some don’t like her) before she finally returns to her own home where her own children are waiting. Bertrand reports back as Yukito realizes Gaia’s source of power is family. In many cases, that is how certain religious faiths get started. Yukito’s plan now is to crush her family or at least replace her as the head. After all, they don’t know what kind of plan she is plotting behind their backs.

Before Yukito can carry out his next phase, Bertrand suddenly attacks him! WTF she wants to rape him?! Yukito realizes this kind of extreme lust is only because of Dakini! There she is. She only disables the spell when Riche forces her to. Dakini then mocks Bertrand as a woman, making that poor gal run away in tears. It seems Dakini and Riche are called by Yukito for his next plan. Dakini trolls him by seemingly uncooperative. Then she thanks him for introducing music because her followers love it when they’re making out. So it seems Yukito’s next plan is to keep Gaia practice with the band instead of having her return home. Gaia is suspicious, though. But she is assured because something is almost at its completion. Because of Gaia away, this is where Dakini comes in to corrupt her children by introducing to them sex! Just when you thought she’s getting really dirty with them, it’s actually not as she notes she plans on doing it without resorting to those powers. Flashback shows Yukito telling Dakini to do so under the context to save those children. He knows it because he has been through it. As a tool of his own father for his own ulterior motive, once the children outlive their usefulness, they will be abandoned. Dakini accepted the mission although she claimed she’s not doing it for him. Of course, all part of Yukito’s plan to get her moving and all he needs is to wait and confirm Gaia’s waning power. As Dakini frolics with the children, however Cyan and Kai are the only kids who believe Dakini as a stranger is out to destroy the family. Dakini tries to play nice and convince them otherwise but they remain stubborn. They then summon strange beasts to attack her.

Episode 11
Dakini takes the kids to run from the strange beasts. We hear Cyan’s narration that she is like other kids from the capital born via artificial means. She was assigned to parents and they lived normally until one day the guards decided it is her father’s time to die. He went along with it but since Cyan protested, she was deemed to be a defect and sent to an isolation camp. Because of that, she believed she was deceived and those weren’t her parents. In the same carriage with Kai, a strange beast attacked. All except them died and had not for Gaia, the duo could’ve met the same fate. Because Gaia wanted to start over again for them as family, this is why Cyan also will not fail this time to fulfil her duty as family. The strange beast is taken out by Yukito’s group. Then Gaia shows her face and she realizes their plan to lure her away from her family. However things are already set in motion as the ground trembles and coming up is a strange beast she has been creating all the while. Yeah, so bad the CGI I don’t even know what to make out of this! Cyan and Kai are glad that mom is here to save them. However Gaia shows her true colours. She doesn’t need them anymore and it’s time to end the family game. She has them devoured. This strange beast named Typhon is even more powerful than an Archon so you bet Atar’s blast can do jack sh*t about it. But what’s this? The truck driven by Alural and Siluril manage to bump one of it away?! Get on board. We’re riding this out! Sure, all those puny modifications are supposed to make us think this truck is supped to outrun Typhon?! WTF?! Where did Alural learn to drive like that?! It seems Yushii has a book on old civilizations before this one came about. That’s why he knows a bit about Typhon. Basically it took a long time to create and barely needs any followers. Easy to obey. As Yukito tries to get on his good side, now the entire body of Typhon shows up. Yukito gets bumped off while trying to save the kids. He gets devoured while Mitama clings onto him, promising to save him. The rest escape back to the village and relay the bad news that Yukito and Mitama are dead. What will they do now?

Of course Yukito and Mitama are still alive. They are inside a strange room inside Typhon as Gaia in her true battle form notes that she has tried to kill Yukito 300 times but Mitama kept reviving him. So loved. Look at that withered God right there. Gaia is having Typhon moving towards the capital. This is capable enough to destroy everything and all Archons. Since Alural continues to believe Yukito is still alive, her pendant sprouts a weird Mitama as it writes to inform the duo are still alive inside Typhon as well as Kai and Cyan. However they cannot read Japanese. Only thanks to Yushii able to do so. With renewed confidence, it’s time to go save them. Gaia continues to tell the origins of Archons. They are half-human biological weapons. Apparently all Archons have forgotten about this except her. In a time where science ruled to world, Gaia came from a community who want to form their own cult and return to nature. Her mom was the leader of the cult and Gaia was made as a God. She was just a tool for her fame and profit. Obviously Gaia suffered until she cannot stand it no more and killed her and destroyed the community. With no one to turn to, the government took her in and remade her into an Archon. All other Archons shared such similar origin story. Gaia hates people like Yukito because he tried to deceive others and exploit them. This was how his group could expand so quickly. His followers are just victims who were conned. Yukito then thinks back, his original life he had no friends. This was the only way he knew how to interact with others. He is no different than Gaia but Gaia hates all the Gods and even more so those who want to revive the world into one where it reveres them. Therefore she is going to destroy them all. But look who is going to save Yukito? Alural and co have setup a concert. They view Yukito and Mitama as their saviours and they’re going to have their previous friend back.

Episode 12
Badass girl rock band vs bad CGI Typhon! I guess the outcome is obvious… Atar powers up and shoves guitar duties to Bertrand. Uhm, does she even know how to play?! With Atar cutting Typhon like a butter through hot knife, Dakini assists and also powers up with Riche molesting her! WTF?! Everyone knows Mitama is back as her power returns and restrains Typhon. However in order to fully defeat Typhon, she needs Yukito as his believer. Yukito agrees to be so if she helps break him out of his chains. She does that and before she could celebrate, Yukito goes back on his word! Don’t remember becoming her follower! Deceived yet again! I saw that coming!!! Now that Yukito is free, he is going to kill Gaia directly. Meanwhile the next phase of the plan begins. Atar according to plan, makes an announcement to her fans that she is retiring from the group. This makes her fans sad although she hopes they will continue to believe in Mitama. Then Riche drops the bomb that Atar will also be servicing her believers if they worship Mitama. Uhm, this wasn’t in the plan! Now that Mitama has garnered more followers, she definitely is more powerful than before. Yukito starts fighting Gaia and despite taking lots of damage, with Mitama’s power flowing through him, he can regenerate infinitely. In that case, Gaia will just keep killing him forever. During the fight, Mitama deals a fatal blow though Gaia. Yukito’s fight with her was just a distraction for this move. Mitama’s power finally destroys Typhon.

Yukito’s groupie come to pick him up. Some worried sick about him. Looking at you, Bertrand. Gaia admits her loss and allows her children to kill her as revenge for the deception. Kai is about to do that but Cyan pleads for him not to. He relents as Cyan asks about Gaia’s intentions in forming a family. She doesn’t know and perhaps she wanted to have something. However it is still a fact that Gaia did stuffs to help her kids and for that, Cyan still looks at her as her mom. Now everybody celebrates and party big time. Yukito tells Gaia that she and her kids will be under their custody. Kai is given a special task to watch over her and is confident he will not betray. Previously, Yukito spoke with Kai and knows he is in love with Cyan. If Dakini’s charms couldn’t work on him and he is not an avid follower of Gaia like Cyan, he is definitely in love with her considering how he was able to listen to her words. Hence he became Gaia’s follower just for Cyan. As Mitama brags about having 30,000 followers now, Yukito is alarmed because even after absorbing all the followers of Atar, it wouldn’t be this high. Loki shows her face and admits that she used her powers to lend some of her powers to Mitama. It would be troublesome if Typhon attacks the capital now. Yukito continues to be wary of Loki and warns her but she has never underestimated him and in fact admires him. She looks forward to see him next time. In the aftermath, Yukito remembers again how this village gave him a lot of things when he had none in his previous world. That is why he will do what it takes to protect them. Dakini suggests using porn books to spread the love while Mitama continues to bug Yukito to be her follower. Still not working… Yukito notes this world has its bad points but also its good points. That’s why these people don’t need any God.

Cult Of The Lame: The Gods Must Be Crazy
Yeah. Who needs God when you can have friends, right?! Oh well, even quirky and strange friends are better than any omnipotent and omniscient God anytime, anywhere! I guess it is okay as long as Yukito is the one pulling the strings and the puppet master behind everybody. So I figure Yukito saying nobody here needs God as long as he is the God! All they need is him and only him! OMG. Sneaky, sneaky.

So will this series have a sequel since it leaves us with a question mark teaser of to be continued? Well, considering the delays and postponement of some episodes, safe to say its viewer and follower count has decreased substantially and you bet we viewers aren’t impressed! We’re taking our devotion elsewhere! Yeah. Not enough power/funds for another season! Boo hoo!

Not very clear what the plot is about but if I have to guess, could it be Yukito trying to play God in this godless world? Seems like it. Although he looks like he is prepping up Mitama to be that God by increasing her followers, she is just a puppet and the real mastermind pulling the strings behind her is him, right? Then after the ‘shocking’ revelation about the truth of this world, then it becomes somewhat of a battle royale to see which Archon will become the God for this world? Well, as far as we have seen, it doesn’t seem anything like that at least for now. We are not sure how many Archons are out there and we’re not going to see some sort of bloody survival war. Perhaps this is not where the series is meant to focus on. Its focus is primarily on Yukito’s group and village and how they are going to survive whatever trials and tribulations that come their way. Hey, at least you could say that they aren’t trials and tribulations from God! The way Yukito is slowly defeating Archons one by one and getting to ally his side, it’s most likely a build up for the final showdown with Loki.

The interesting part was the enigma of the royal capital. People being lifeless zombies and being told to die whenever instructed to. Those who defied such ruling are sent to live outside in isolation camps. And since there are so many, which begs the question, why? Isn’t it strange for such people to continue living instead of being killed off by the autocratic tyranny? Imagine having your life extended just because you don’t want to die. Seems justified and logic in normal sense but if I try to look from the perspective of the kingdom, it doesn’t. So why allow these people to live freely outside the capital? Is there a bug in the programming?

Then there is the shocking revelation that this series isn’t isekai at all! Ah yes, sorry to disappoint all you disappointers and haters but yup, this is in fact in the past where eons and ages of civilizations have come and go. Sounds quite plausible assuming that the world is billions of years old. The only problem is that if this takes place in the past and if Yukito came from the future, are they saying that Archons no longer exist in Yukito’s time? Oh yeah. This means Loki and other Archons must be waging a futile war that ended in their own destruction or at least the destruction of the current world! Or some Archon won and reset the whole thing by doing that. Oh wait. Maybe it all makes sense. Yukito being thrown back into the past and started altering the history and that’s why in the future there are no Archons and the likes. Hmm…

Character wise, they are a mixed baggage. Like Yukito as the main character, sometimes it boggles my mind that he is doing all this purely for the sake of protecting his friends. Only because he has no friends in his original world and these people in this particular isolation camp became his first. And that’s why he is going to great lengths to maintain their friendship. Uh huh. Using his own version of a cult to reel them in for the long term. Yeah, sounds like a bribe or something. Good for him. But sometimes when I think about how this guy is such a smooth operator, it doesn’t make sense because had he used such skills in his original world, he could’ve made tons of friends and in fact, create a large following of his own! Oh right. People in this world are much more gullible and primitive. Simpleminded. Not to say there aren’t in Yukito’s original world but I guess as long as his crazy dad is still around, he’ll always be in his shadows. So now Yukito gets to be in control and be the man of his own destiny. By, uhm, deceiving others? Hey, at least he gives them what they want, right? So it’s not so bad of a cult. Sorry, friendship I mean. So I’m still deliberating if Yukito is actually a friend or foe because at the end of the day, he does things to make it all go his way. Everything going as planned…

Then there is Mitama who looks more like a joker than any sort of character whom you can take seriously. Because she resembles more of a bratty brat rather than a God. You can often see how much she brags when she thinks she is more powerful than you. Hence that holier-than-thou attitude, trying to talk and look down on others. Yes, that trademark smug look on her face tells it all. Sure, she does have powerful moves but that can only last for a while before she shrivels up like a withered flower. Her main obsession is getting Yukito to like her but the irony that he is never her follower in the first place is the biggest thorn in her side. Yet she doesn’t give up. And continues to be deceived by his ploys. Feels like she is his slave. Therefore, it is mind boggling to wonder if she is actually a God because in that case, the real God controlling her is obviously Yukito. She is always under his thumb. Is her love for Yukito this blind to make her character this dumb? Maybe. Otherwise Mitama could be one of those lesser and inferior Gods. But what do we care? As long as she looks cute and do funny stuffs, we give her a free pass!

Speaking of the follower count that increases one’s power the more followers that particular deity has, somehow this seems to remind me of the current times of the number of likes, follows and subscriptions on social media. Oh my, does it not look like that very much?! Hence if you get a much higher number, it gives you the bragging rights. In this case and world, it translates to how powerful your power can be. And to think Mitama whenever she thinks she has tons of followers only to be usurped by others like Atar who surprisingly has even more. Well, keep subscribing and continue to smash that like button! For now, Mitama may have Atar’s followers but I am sure in no time they will come back to her and make Atar powerful again. I can foresee it as part of Yukito’s slyness. Yeah, imagine transferring of followers from one God to another is as easy as transferring shares and portfolios! OMFG!

As for the other characters in the village AKA Yukito’s groupie, on first looks they look like they are only hanging around him because of all the goodies he can provide them. After all, they are still humans and have their own desires and needs. What’s the use of staying if you cannot provide them as promised? From Alural’s need to porn books (?!), Siluril’s booze, Atar’s ice cream, Bertrand the need to be needed and Roy whatever perversion you can give this masochist, as long as Yukito can continue to feed this and maintain his cult, they’re always be with him. But of course seeing all that he has done and the way the script of a typical anime goes, they’re going to stick with him because they consider his friend. Ah yes, the thing that Yukito himself needs. A symbiotic relationship as Yukito provides what they want and in return they give him the friendship and company he needs. All genuine. So you can’t say this is a cult, right?

Special mention needs to be said about Roy’s character. In short, he is a loser. It is obvious that his character is written in such a way so that he would be the punching bag of the series. Yes, even far worse a joker character compared to Mitama. Because of his eternal perverted loser status, it elevates Yukito’s character into a saint-like character. Watching him do all the perverted stuffs, his perverted reactions and expressions, it all only serves to make you cringe. Nobody seems to really like him and only puts up with him because, well, he is one of the villagers. Because otherwise he would’ve been ostracized a long time ago.

I guess to keep us perverts hooked, that is why there are some scenes which offers fanservice. Ah yes, such a convenient tool to reel in horny otaku male audiences… No wonder Alural has got such huge racks. Please don’t chop them off! We like them big! HAHA! I am not sure but I don’t think there is an uncensored version of the episodes running simultaneously or at least delayed by a few days (unlike some other ecchi series that has several censored/uncensored versions). Too bad horny viewers can’t see all those delicious parts as they are darkened or blackened out. Don’t know about you guys feeling disappointed but I always rely on my superior imagination! HAHAHA!!! Obviously nobody wants to see the dicks of the guys so they can keep that censored with some white ray of light. Especially Yukito’s final fight with Gaia. He’s fighting naked all the time, no? Heh.

As for the art and animation, many won’t have qualms with the 2D visuals although I would say that it is a bit rough around the edges and there were some scenes especially during those fast action where there has been an obvious dip in quality. That was still bearable. However, the issue that many viewers will complain about and perhaps the most notorious thing that many will remember this series for generations to come (oh heck, who am I kidding? It’ll be forgotten by the next season) is the 3D CGI effects. Ah yes, it boggles many why such atrocity can still be produced in today’s hi-tech modern era. I don’t know, do they really want to make us hate such effects? To remind us that the only way and future for anime is traditional hand drawn 2D? If so, they’re in the right direction.

The CGI effects are mainly used on strange beasts and in this visual context, they are aptly named so. One can only wonder if there are other reasons why the strange beasts are made to look so different and jarring from the other 2D visuals. Is it because it is some sort of hint that they are not of this world? Even so, this is not an excuse for such bad visuals!!! It is not the case that it is so bad it is good. Rather, it is so bad that it’s even worse! They look so out of place especially when you look at Chilchil. Like, did they pluck that pet out from somewhere else and superimpose it here? Mind you, it’s not even looking cute! Studio Palette who did this (Sekai Saikyou No Ansatsusha Isekai Kizoku Ni Tensei Suru is their only other work but was jointly done with Silver Link) hopefully they will take note of this and not use this uncouth savagery again in their future productions! Please!

Voice acting, there are a few veteran seiyuus here but I only could recognize Kana Hanazwa as Alural, Megumi Ogata as Loki/Clen, Junichi Suwabe as Bertrand (male version) and Sho Hayami as Yukito’s father. The rest took me a while to identify because they weren’t in their trademark voices whom I often recognize them as. For instance, Aoi Yuuki is very subdued as Atar (did she have a flu or something?), Akari Kitou sounding brattier and retarded as Mitama, Ami Koshimizu too dreamy as retarded as Gaia (at times I thought it was Mai Nakahara instead) and the same for Rie Takahashi as Dakini (perhaps too slutty?). Then there is Mikako Komatsu as Riche and Miyu Tomita as the female Bertrand that didn’t somehow slipped past my radar. Or I wasn’t paying too much attention. The other casts are Junya Enoki as Yukito (Nasa in Tonikaku Kawaii), Sumire Uesaka as Siluril (Sanae in Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai), Sho Fujisawa as Roy and Maria Naganawa as Touka (Kanna in Kobayashi-san Chi No Dragon Maid).

The opening theme is I Wish by Rin Kurusu (voice of Cyan). While it sounds like a typical anime pop song, somehow I can’t seem to get this song out of my head! Oh gosh, does this mean I kinda like this song? Well, if that is how it looks then so be it. The ending theme, Steppin’ Up Life by Mitama is cute in its own ways and its energetic beat makes it sound like it is a song suitable for workouts. Yeah, play this song while you’re in a gym. I bet everyone is going to have their eyebrows raised too. The pixelated ending credits animation makes it all look cuter and hell yeah, the strange beasts looking better in their pixelated form than CGI format! There are a few insert songs too, namely the rock based Kyuusei Mitama Kyouka by Alural and the techno-like Together by Mitama. I just find them rather okay and not that appealing.

Overall, this anime is just okay in my standards. Can I blame that horrendous CGI that took off a lot points? Nah. Even if it had better CGI animation, it still wouldn’t be a lot better. Otherwise, the story and characters are just hovering around average. Nothing that special. Especially when this anime is about trying to introduce the concept of religion in a world where God doesn’t exist, damn sometimes it feels like that White Man’s Burden thingy whereby western explorers-cum-colonizers have this alleged ‘duty’ to take care of their indigenous subjects-cum-slaves whereby they imposed their version of religion onto them. This whole concept of religion is very iffy and controversial and I believe this series isn’t so much as to debate on this topic and only for entertainment purposes. So that’s why in today’s world where we worship those with the highest number of likes, largest amount of followers and subscribers, this sort of religion is sure changing our very lives. Thank goodness I’m not into that. Because I’m still a traditional worshipper of the religion known as ANIME! Just keep those cute 2D babes coming and I’ll be back for more!

Isekai De Cheat Skill Wo Te Ni Shita Ore Wa Genjitsu Sekai Wo Mo Musou Suru: Level Up Wa Jinsei Wo Kaeta

Alright guys, you know the drill. It is another one of those ubiquitous isekai titles of the season. And make it one hell of a long ass title too. That’s right, Isekai De Cheat Skill Wo Te Ni Shita Ore Wa Genjitsu Sekai Wo Mo Musou Suru: Level Up Wa Jinsei Wo Kaeta AKA Iseleve has your typical protagonist a loser. Then he gets the isekai treatment of being powered up in terms of skill, abilities and even looks! Best of all, he doesn’t even have to die, reincarnate or get summoned to another world. Oh heck, in fact he can go in between both worlds as he wishes! OMFG. Is there some sort of trend where the isekai main character now can transcend both worlds as they wish? You know, like that retirement fund isekai one too? Anyway, now our main character here is on a roll after receiving so many powered up goodies and is having a blast with his new life. Trying to make up for lost time?

Episode 1
You know the drill. Yuuya Tenjou is a freaking fat and ugly kid! He tries to save a cute girl being harassed by punks behind the convenience store but gets beaten to a pulp. Could’ve died had not the police come. But he just walks off like that! You see, Yuuya has been a bully victim since young because he’s so damn ugly. Even his family members hate him! Yeah, he’s like the ugly duckling within the family of beautiful swans! The only person who is kind to him is his grandpa but he just passed on and left Yuuya his house. His family tried to take that away but grandpa was thorough in making sure Yuuya gets it and so the family gave up. Even until graduation day Yuuya continues to get bullied. Can’t blame him for feeling so upset that nothing changes. As he punches his mirror, this accidentally reveals a secret room. Could it be belong to grandpa as he used to travel around the world and kept strange things as souvenirs. Then he opens the door to another world and that’s when all the isekai tropes flood in. Yup, from his stats and registering him as the house master, Yuuya reads a note left behind by the previous owner who died. How convenient because he left everything to the next owner and has the house protected. Only its master can enter. Yuuya checks out a few weapons but his stats are too low for him to use effectively. Then a bloody ogre attacks! Thank goodness for the barrier. Yuuya throws his weapon and it dies instantly! Oh, now he gets to level up and distribute a few points to his attributes. Even better, he can sell some rare item in exchange for Japanese yen! OMFG!!! That night he undergoes a painful transformation. Yes, now he is looking smokin’ hot and a very toned body! WOW!!! Yuuya repeats the process of tending to this isekai garden, kill monsters that try to break in and then level up while exchange items for money. Soon, he needs to begin his high school life. Everyone is in shock with this never seen before hunk. They think he is a transfer student but to their shock, he is Yuuya! That fatty pig Yuuya?! Even Yuuya doesn’t believe it as he takes a look at himself in the mirror! OMG! He didn’t see his face the whole time?! Can’t blame him if he even doesn’t want to look at his own fat f*ck ugly face!

Episode 2
Kaori Houjou soon approaches Yuuya. Who is she? The girl he saved at the convenience store. Turns out she is a rich girl and she had him investigated after that incident. To thank him, she wants him to enrol at Ousei Academy. You mean that school for geniuses and elites?! While Yuuya feels he is not qualified, his siblings try to usurp him and want to take that offer to be enrolled. Kaori scoffs them off that they are not qualified since they too bullied Yuuya. GTFO, losers! Instead of talking here, she takes him to her school to let him experience it himself. First he talks to the director, Tsukasa who is also Kaori’s father. Obviously Yuuya’s low self-confidence still has him reluctant so Tsukasa talks about potentials and talents and that is why people like him is qualified here. Why not give a trial run? Yuuya attends a class and he thought he messed up since no reaction after he introduces himself. Well, everyone is just dumbstruck by his handsomeness! Yuuya soon makes friends with Ryou Igarashi and Shingo Kurata. At the end of the day, Tsukasa asks how it went. Absolutely terrific. More importantly, everyone treated him so nicely! So safe to say he wants to come back here. Definitely. Don’t tell me he wants to go back to his old bully victim life! No way! After school, Kaori takes Yuuya out to a popular hangout place. Wow, they look like a couple and you’re making all the girls swoon at the perfect couple they are. We can’t forget that Yuuya also has another isekai life. Now that he has levelled up quite a lot and the levelling has becoming more infrequent, this means he needs to step out of his safe zone if he wants to level up faster. I’m sure the confidence he built at Ousei has him do so. He then sees dead bodies nearby. He quickly kills several goblins before they could perhaps rape this cutie, Lexia Von Alceria. He hides himself when other guards arrive.

Episode 3
Yuuya’s clothes don’t get dirty but since he is tired of wearing the same one and he has the cash, time to go shop for clothes. Yeah, all the girls just stealing glances at this hunk! I wonder how many couples broke up that day… HAHAHA!!! And Yuuya thinks some girls approaching him is to sell some magic lamp?! Are you serious?! Nearby, some celebrity photography, Hikaru is frustrated because some male model hasn’t turned up. See where this is going? Thank goodness Yuuya is nearby so he snags him as replacement. Yuuya can’t say no since his policy is to help others. Yuuya is being a bit stiff and amateurish compared to his co-model Miu Midou. But I guess his handsomeness can cover up anything! Yuuya learns Miu’s inspiration in the fashion industry and hopes to spur others to pursue a path in this trade. Finally the male model, Shou shows up. Oh my. Another handsome hunk. However his personality is rotten. He tries to flirt with Miu in public despite she is very uncomfortable about it. When Yuuya tries to advise him about this, Shou tries to punch him! Yuuya’s great reflexes judo throws him. Hikaru has caught this on camera and so it’s the end of Shou’s career. Don’t show your face here again. Worse, legion of Shou’s fans now convert to Yuuya! Hikaru talks to Yuuya that he would love for him to have an exclusive contract with him. Of course Yuuya declines as he thinks he isn’t suited in this line. As thanks, he is given several nice clothes as Hikaru hopes they can work again in the future. Even Miu thinks so. Meanwhile Lexia wants to find that man who saved her and has her knights accompany her again to the forest. Could’ve been on her head as her men are fighting for their lives against vicious monsters. Until of course Yuuya shows up and kills them all. Lexia recognizes and goes up to him with this single question: Please marry me! Too fast! Too fast! Such an eligible bachelor because a rival model agency has taken note on Yuuya and wants a contract on him before other agency does.

Episode 4
Lexia is arguing with her head knight, Owen about marrying Yuuya. He invites him to his home to talk this out. While she is still very much adamant on marrying him, but Yuuya puts this marriage thing as too fast for him. I suppose all those books Lexia read, she realizes there is a need to overcome obstacles in their love and hence wants to start out as friends. Okay. He’ll take that. Owen also points out that the king wants to meet Yuuya to thank him. Since he isn’t free within this few days, they will prepare when he is ready. Because now it is back to Yuuya’s school life as he is now a full-fledged student at Ousei. During PE, Kaede Kazama strikes up a conversation with him. Akira Ichinose tries to show off his football skills but accidentally kicks towards Kaede. Yuuya does his acrobatic move to kick it away and even scores! OMFG! Akira apologizes and they all laugh about it and become friends. The girls are now talking how cool Yuuya is. This begs the question: Does he have a girlfriend! Kaori and Kaede looking worried there… Soon, the delinquent group of Red Ogres gate crash into Ousei. They are causing a nuisance. This farce is set up by Yuuya’s siblings who can’t forgive Kaori for not admitting them but their brother. They want Kaori to be kidnapped. Yuuya, it’s your cue. Oh wait. You telling me he is frozen with fear?! You killed monsters before why are you scared of this?! No worries, he slaps himself out as he jumps out to go kick their asses. Even Araki the gang leader tries to ram him with his bike but Yuuya dodges and makes him crash. In the end, the police arrest them. However Araki blames this humiliation on Youta and tries to strangle him! Hey wait a minute! Why the police not doing anything?! Are they waiting for Yuuya to take action?! The siblings wonder why he did so after they treat him so badly. Sure, he did things he can never forgive. But they are still family and he can’t abandon them. Oh wow. So touching. Now they’re crying and apologizing. I take it they have turned over a new leaf. Yuuya’s pals are in awe at how cool and awesome Yuuya kicked ass.

Episode 5
Yuuya sees a high level monster attacking a wounded pup. Theoretically his skill level isn’t enough to defeat it but because he is main character, he pulls off that miracle. Heh. He treats the pup and makes it his familiar. Night as he is named because of his dark fur. I guess it’s better than Kuro. With a new pet, he asks his friends if there is any pet store around. Sure, there are but since they are busy with stuffs and can’t accompany him, the only one free is Kaede. So this like a date? We brush through all that as we now see Yuuya walking his dog in the park and stumbles into Kaori. Nice dog. Now Miu also comes into the picture. She lives nearby. Sorry, no cat fight but the way Kaori reacts, it shows that she feels she is inferior to this model. I’m sure Kaori would love to interrogate him if he is dating Miu but this is disrupted with a purse snatcher nearby. Don’t worry, Night reins him in as Yuuya tends to the grandma. As Kaori tries to call the cops, the thief breaks free and tries to attack her. Nothing Yuuya can’t handle and show off how cool he is, right? That’s the second time Yuuya saved her now. Then it’s back to more adventuring but this time Yuuya has got Night as his partner. One of the tough monsters they fight, WTF it drops a box with a portable hot bath?! SERIOUSLY?! More adventuring and killing monsters as training until they stumble into a cave and Night sniffs out this Book of Sage next to a corpse for him.

Episode 6
Reading this tome, the sage (who is the house’s previous owner) writes how he obtained power enough to enter the realm of the gods when he was alive. However he turned that offer down and suffered because he possessed such abnormal strength, humans started to fear him. Hence this book is like some sort of advice on how to make friends? Power of friendship! Yeah, the only way he could die as a human. The book ends granting Yuuya anything he wants to know. Magic. And just like that he gets installed with magic. Convenient. Back home, a little mediation and following of instructions, voila! Now Yuuya and Night can do magic! Owen reports to the king about Yuuya but also hopes he can admonish Lexia for that marriage proposal. Oops, because the king gets furious and wrecks his own throne room! WHO THAT BASTARD SEDUCED MY DARLING LEXIA???!!! For the off campus study, Yuuya is in the same group as Akira, Kaede and Rin Kanzaki. Then together with Kaori, they go shop for camping essentials. At the crane vending machine, Yuuya uses his skills to make the best of the mechanism and gets everyone the prize they want! Wow! Technically not cheating! At this rate he can bankrupt the industry if wants to! Then as the guys take a break while the girls continue shopping upstairs, suddenly a fire breaks out. Realizing Kaori and co are trapped (because Ryou just called and confirmed they couldn’t get out in time), Yuuya dashes through security to play the hero to save them. Yes, must protect those smiles. Time to put his water and air magic to good use as he searches through the thick smoke and carry all 3 of them! And if he can’t make it in time, just blast a hole through the wall or floors! Enough for them to get out safe! Obviously Yuuya gets lectured by the firemen for that dangerous stunt but Kaori and her father couldn’t be ever more grateful. Yup, that’s the second time he saved her. Yuuya thought he has no family for such lovely warm acts of love but did he forget about Night? Yup, waiting for you right back home. Meanwhile some loli deems this other world not worthy to be saved or protected and must be destroyed and that’s why she wants this bunny deity’s help to destroy it. But he won’t and feels the need to pass down his techniques.

Episode 7
After another adventuring with Night, Yuuya sees a girl being attacked by goblins. Of course he wants to rescue her but what’s this? Night doesn’t want him to? They see Luna fight off the goblins but eventually their numbers are too much and she’s injured. Yuuya defies Night and rescues her, killing all goblins and their reinforcements with this magical whip?! Night continues to growl at Luna although Yuuya helps her. Wary of him at first, Luna soon learns that he is training in this woods. What a coincidence. She is here training too. She’s feeling a bit dirty (not in the horny sense, mind you!) and what luck, Yuuya’s portable bath is a wonder. As Luna is here also because of a customer’s request, she suggests he help train her. And so they teach each other and learn a lot. It’s like they’re a team now. At the end of it all, she is very grateful for this and she rewards him by bathing with him? Sorry folks, nothing steamy. Except loads of bath steam. Yuuya and friends arrive at their off campus trip. Sawada explains the purpose of this trip to train them as future elites. Uhm, so this is basically like camping in the woods and they have to find their own food. Oh well, can’t be an elite if you fail the basics of survival, right? So as not for the students to pick the wrong food, they have to show their catch to teachers who will verify it. Otherwise, Dr Yomikawa can help treat them. Uhm, why does she look like a witch?! Doubt this medicine she’s holding! Could be poison! Of course, time for Yuuya to put his survival skills to use. And show off to the rest. Like how he f*cking catches the fish with his bare hands! And filling up the bucket with it! OMFG!!! You’re right, he’s not human! Meanwhile we see Luna noticing her skills have sharpened thanks to Yuuya. Her true job is an assassin and has been so as a child. If only she had met Yuuya sooner. But now it’s goodbye.

Episode 8
Yuuya’s group has gathered what is needed so they show it to Sawada for approval. She is happy they are doing well and tells them to keep up. Because her bonus is riding on it! Yuuya also shows he is a great cook. So much so when Sawada tastes it, she wants to marry him! She’s not even trying to hide it! Sure, we can blame her being drunk and she’s the kind of woman who is already at that age and without a boyfriend. Good luck to the other teachers and friends trying to get Sawada away from Yuuya. Yeah, he almost got suffocated by those boobs. I’ll be damned if the guy who killed dangerous monsters dies this way! That night, Yuuya has time to teleport home to feed night. Fanservice time because Rin gropes Kaede’s boobs and then tells Kaori about the earlier incident between Yuuya and Sawada. Kaori worried if Yuuya likes big boobs? So you’re not confident? Well, Sawada is the biggest of the lot… Next day, a wild bear ravages through the camp like a mad man. I hope this is not cocaine bear!!! But after all the students are safe and when Sawada is in danger of being smacked down, Yuuya wrestles with the bear! OMFG! Even doing a supplex to knock it out! OMFG!!! Kaori uses her authority to have the local government’s permission to take care of it. Don’t worry if it rampages again because they can have nice bear meat then! Oh my, the bear understands what Kaori is saying?! Be on your best behaviour! Yuuya returns to the other world. He fights off monsters seemingly on Lexia’s path. Her entourage is here to bring him to see the king. When Night seemingly attacks Lexia, it is actually to push her away from a falling tree. Yuuya cuts it up but finds it is no ordinary phenomenon. Someone has laced wire traps around it and looks around. He manages to knock out the assassin and to his horror, it is Luna. He needs to hold off the audience and tend to Luna’s injuries back at his home. Lexia doesn’t mind because this means she gets to spend time at his place! Oh, so she’s coming along?! She needs an explanation for this and Yuuya believes Luna isn’t a bad person and needs to ask her a few stuffs.

Episode 9
Lexia hopes Yuuya can keep his teleport abilities a secret because this is super rare and if word gets out, it could spark a war! Time for Luna to explain her past. As an orphan, she stole to survive. Until a man from the Dark Guild took her in, taught her to read, write and all those survival skills. She became the finest assassin until she received her mission to kill Lexia. Either way she is doomed. By killing the princess, her execution was set. Failure to do so, assassins will be sent to kill her. Yuuya is not happy she accepted that fate because he still thinks of her as a friend. Lexia solves this issue by hiring her as her bodyguard. Because she failed to kill her, she lost and now must listen to her. Okay. Whatever. Lexia learns about Yuuya’s special bath and wants to experience it too. Lexia talks to Luna if she loves Yuuya. No? So why is she agitated when Lexia claims she wants to marry Yuuya? This proves that she is in love and hence a declaration, a challenge to win Yuuya’s heart. And they start off by cooking. Lexia sucks… Damn, she almost killed Yuuya mishandling the knife! Then feeding and being fed shenanigans. Yeah, what a tiring day for Yuuya. Next day when they reunite with Owen, Lexia lets it slip that Luna was her assassin. The guards surround Luna but Lexia’s logic and assurance soon finally wins Owen over although he still cannot trust Luna completely. Bad news because Yuuya can’t go to the palace anymore. Got school to attend. So maybe next time when he is convenient. As they leave, Luna sets an advantage by giving Yuuya a kiss! War is real! While Yuuya soaks in his bath, he didn’t know he has tamed this little piggy familiar. Testing its healing properties and finding them good, he names it Akatsuki. Back at school, time for the sports competition. During football, Rin molests a different set of balls to have the guys distracted. Kaede’s jugs if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Akira thought he could score but WTF did Yuuya teleport do save that shot?! Then he throws the ball from his end and scores! WTF is that legal?!

Episode 10
The agency is here to scout for Yuuya. However he turns them down because he prefers his normal high school life. The director is super pissed things aren’t going her way. Since Miu works under her, she hopes she can help convince Yuuya to join, making everyone think Yuuya has connections with her. But noticing that the school is having a sports competition, she gets an idea to get photos of him during the action. Now to go get permission from the principal. As Yuuya and his pets train, Yuuya is suddenly attacked by a monster boar. He is no match for this one and could have died had not that bunny deity, Usagi come to his aid. After easily destroying the boar, he has everyone show their kicks. He only sees some potential in Yuuya so Usagi shows off his kick. A single kick blasts several holes through the trees! Since when did Yuuya become his apprentice and undergoes his training? Usagi explains that those who master their fields will become the Divine. This is necessary to counter the natural self-purification system called Vile. That’s right, good vs evil thingy. That fight is inevitable and it would be better if they have more allies on their side. However Yuuya refuses to become a Divine successor. Usagi respects his decision but will train him so he can help save more life. But in return, Yuuya needs to teach him some magic. The training carries on until Yuuya goes into evolution mode! Don’t worry, he looks the same but has more skills. I’ll be damned if he looks even more handsome than this! Back to the sports competition, see how powerful Yuuya has evolved as he puts a hole in the ping pong table! Thank goodness he didn’t hit anyone. Yuuya then becomes a pinch hitter to replace those who got injured. Damn, so powerful he destroys the court?! Since he is too fast, the photographers couldn’t get pics of him. So they got pics of Kaede’s boobs instead?! WTF?! Finally Yuuya teams up with Kaori for the tennis match. You wonder if she knows how to play because she keeps losing her racquet! WTF, girl!!! Yuuya can play by himself and easily beats the competition! By now he has gotten used to controlling his powers and the director is satisfied getting the required pics on him. Later Kaori thanks Yuuya for his help. Not sure if he understood what he said to her about being happy just to be with her so she pecks his cheek while his eyes are closed. As Usagi battles Yuti a Vile, the latter realizes the former now can use magic. Learning that Yuuya is behind this, she will go kill him first.

Episode 11
Kaori wants to study at Yuuya’s place. Then she stumbles into his secret room where he goes to the other world. This is when Yuuya blurts out everything about this isekai and how he levelled up and obtained all his skills. You sure you want to tell her everything? Heck, he even brings her there and explains more stuffs. Wow. Kaori also has stats of her own. Though, all low level. He hopes she can keep this a secret and she is thrilled to do that because it’s like their secret. Yeah, he better not be sharing this with his other friends. Lexia’s father the king, Arnold learns Luna is an assassin and wants to kill her. She manages to stop him before his sword cuts her. But he is forced to entirely stop because Lexia claims she will hate him! That should stop him. But now he gets mad after learning Lexia stayed a night at Yuuya’s place! That philanderer! I pity the furniture that receive his rage… Meanwhile a Dark Guild member reports to his boss about Luna’s behaviour. Obviously he is the prince, right?! He is given some special weapon to nullify all magic. They will use this chance to kill the king and Lexia. If that fails, they will pin the blame on Yuuya. Yuuya goes to town to trade some stuffs for money. Yeah, can’t imagine how shocked the trader is when Yuuya sells his Japanese pepper! High quality! 100 gold coins?! To put that in perspective, a family of 4 can live comfortably for a year with 5 gold coins! HOLY SH*T! Yuuya makes his way to the capital. He panics when Owen immediately brings him to the king although it is an informal audience. Arnold is not pleased Yuuya is the one seducing his daughter and has a hard time controlling his anger. Panicky Yuuya gives some gifts as instructed. Bedding sheets?! Arnold is now angrier! Can you not blame Yuuya for not knowing the kingdom’s customs? Bedding sheets as gift means you want to sleep with the person! OMFG. Before it is off with Yuuya’s head, everyone is surrounded by Dark Guild who are here to kill. Of course Yuuya knocks them all out before they can do anything. Lexia so happy Yuuya saved them again and can’t stop hugging him. Uhm, doing this right before the king? Yuuya gonna die… After searching the bodies of the Dark Guild goons, they find a familiar crest. Belongs to the Prince Reigar, right? Looks like they need Yuuya’s help to save the kingdom.

Episode 12
Lexia wants to take Yuuya around the capital. But due to recent events, Luna needs her to stay in the palace and she’ll do it in her stead. Oh, Lexia thinks she wants Yuuya all for herself so it’s a no go. Owen offers himself to solve the problem but I guess the ladies don’t want some gay stuffs happening! And so the ladies accompany Yuuya in town while Owen looks out from afar. Yeah, hot girls flanking Yuuya’s side. Yuuya notes the adventurer guild and seeing he is interested to join one, Luna will go register with him. Can’t always stay as Lexia’s bodyguard forever. After handing their registration to the receptionist, Emilia, Yuuya is then given a crystal ball for an aptitude test. Well, the crystal ball breaks! They are given a card and then some basic etiquette rules. While looking for some quests, this witch babe, Glena tries to flirt with him and hope they can do quests together someday. While picking herbs, a competition between Lexia and Luna to see who can gather the most and the winner can spend the whole day with him. Luckily or not, Yuuya doesn’t have to be that judge since Owen returns with news that they have found Reigar’s hideout. Yuuya follows Owen and his guards to some stowaway villa in the woods. As they enter to capture him, he puts up some traps and struggle. At one point, even threatening to kill himself. Of course Yuuya is fast enough to prevent that. When he is apprehended and about to be taken away, Yuti pops up and calls him a failure. Therefore he is no longer needed. Reigar is shocked because the deal was to make him king so that she herself could get some high position. She corrects him that her true goal is to destroy the world! Making him king is only the start to start wars on many fronts. Too late to feel deceived as Yuti tries to kill him so Yuuya and the rest try to stop her. She remains superior until she learns who Yuuya is. Realizing she needs all her Vile powers against him, she has expended a lot already so she retreats for now.

Episode 13
As everyone tries to deal with Reigar, they unmask him and see his hideous scars all over. He blames Lexia for it all because he got caught up in her magic when it went berserk. Although those scars were healed, because of that magic he absorbed, he went crazy and to suppress that urge was to destroy his own body. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was removed as heir to the throne and isolated. Heck, he wasn’t even treated like human. He now wants to die as there is no reason to live. This case rings close to home for Yuuya as he has a suggestion. Uhm, gonna let him drink this aloe vera stuff? Miraculously all his scars are gone! Back to the handsome prince again! Hell, he grows this miracle plant in his home! However this doesn’t do away with the fact that he must still die for his crimes. That is when Lexia forgives him. And then forces father to do the same. Issue solved, right? Yeah. I’ve got a feeling that Lexia runs the show… With Reigar avoiding death, he is stripped of his land as well. Lexia and Luna fight over to be Yuuya’s bride but Reigar has a better idea and gives him all his possessions. Yeah, wife issue avoided for now. Because Yuuya is still worried about Yuti’s case, he doesn’t even have time for his school life. Each time school is over, he rushes back to the other world to train. But then he gets attacked by Yuti who is out to seek revenge for the death of her master. Kaori, concerned for Yuuya, checks on him and wanders into the other world. Damn, how the f*ck she got in the crossfire?! Yuuya going to have a tough time protecting her! Thank goodness Usagi comes to his aid and he now knows about Yuti’s past. Something about her master was a Divine archer and she inherited his skills. However Yuti blames the people for betraying her master that ultimately led to his death. That is why she wants to destroy the world. Since it is not her place to decide the worth of humans, that same logic is what she’ll use to destroy the world. The power of Vile powers her up as she fights more ferociously with Usagi. Not sure why Akatsuki didn’t do this earlier on because using some holy barrier to nullify her Vile (maybe the Vile needs to activate?), this allows Usagi and Yuuya to defeat her. And now she cannot use Vile anymore because she is purified? Usagi leaves Yuti in Yuuya’s care. Yuuya has a hard time trying to explain all this to Kaori. He thinks he has cheated to get all this but Kaori is glad because he is still the same as before. Still the same person when he first saved her. We see Kaori being friends with Lexia and Luna while Yuti becomes a transfer student at Ousei. Yuuya continues his happy life.

The Fruits Of Cheat Skill, Before I Knew It My Life Had It Made
When you’re a God like Yuuya, you can do anything and save everything while continuing to live a happy normal life. Of course everything is far from over as there are some developments and potentials like the agency who is still trying to get Yuuya’s cooperation and that witch Glena’s cameo. Uhm, so what happened to all that? I guess all that does not matter for now since Yuuya already has a lot to deal with on his plate and if the season can end on a good note without any foreboding cliff-hanger, that will be great. So yeah, Yuuya please continue to be happy with your life because you’re the main character and running the show.

It seems there isn’t a solid storyline for this series. At least not in the early and middle parts of it. At first, it is all about seeing Yuuya levelling up and adapting to his new life. Basically he has the best of both worlds and you could say that he is leading a double life! That’s right. Like as though he is making up for lost time, now we see him very active leading double lives as a high school kid while at the same time being an adventurer in the other world. OMFG. Does this kid have more than 24 hours in a day? Well, assuming that the isekai’s time run differently, then yeah, probably that is why Yuuya seem to have time for everything. Or at least barely making back in time for his class or other commitments. Well, having Yuuya leading a pretty normal high school life would seem freaking boring. That is why later towards the end of the season, some sort of plot where good vs evil clash might seem inevitable, I have to admit that this got a bit interesting. Too bad it came too late so there’s that. The fact that Yuuya could be the balance that make or break the other world, at least in terms of this series’ story, it could have been one of the more interesting plots to follow had this series had another cour.

Strangely and interestingly, Yuuya doesn’t have both sides of his worlds meet each other. For the most part. I believe this is for the good of everyone since it will be so freaking chaotic if his high school friends learn about this privileged access and imagine they too get their stats levelled up. They would want to go adventuring in the other world and skip school. Screw your school for elites. This fantasy adventuring life more fun! How would that affect the school’s reputation? And if Lexia ever finds out about the modern Japan, I bet she will want to quit as princess of her kingdom and go live a normal free life as an ordinary citizen. Yeah, screw the medieval kingdom. Magic can’t beat all the great Japanese goods and entertainment! Hence Yuuya keeping both life separate seems like a good idea but it gives off that feel that he is indeed living a double life. As long as he lives his life to the fullest without regrets, there is nothing we armchair critics can further say about. But now with Kaori being friends with Lexia and Yuti attending school, I am assuming so long as the secret doesn’t get out, life can resume like normal. Can’t imagine all the press and paparazzi hounding the other world.

At first, I was mocking how this series on the surface looked pretty similar to Shinka No Mi. Oh you know, fat ugly protagonist loser with no friends gets the isekai treatment. After he levels up with awesome powers and looking real good, he gets his own harem. Destiny to save the world. Yeah. That. Taunting how this series is a copycat, etc. Too bad the joke is on me because I just found out that both series are written by the same author! Gee, so embarrassing. Yeah, now I can see why Yuuya and Seiichi look pretty similar to each other. Seeing that Iseleve is written a few years later, I would comparatively say that it is slightly better than Shinka No Mi because it doesn’t have all those dumb harem shenanigans. Yeah, we got no pink gorilla here! Also, the adapted anime version of Shinka No Mi was atrocious in its quality, even more so its second season. So I’m not sure adapting Iseleve is to give some sort of redemption to the author? Either way, still comparatively better than Shinka No Mi in many aspects.

Character wise, all too familiar, cliché and I’m not really impressed. As we all know, Yuuya reeks all the typical formula and ingredient that makes him the main character and hero of both worlds. It is a good thing that he decided to use his new turn in life to do good because imagine if he had decided to use it for bad deeds and get revenge on all those who wronged him, oh my, that would be terrible. But heck, on second thought it would’ve made the whole series more interesting with this darker turn! But unfortunately it did not go that way so Yuuya with a saint-like personality who helps and saves everybody, is now your typical sugar coated hero with all the main qualities of justice and ideals as one. That’s right. It is all justice because Yuuya wins.

This guy is such a hot eligible bachelor in his new form that he literally makes all the girls around him swoon. There’s your cue for him to have his own set of girls who like him AKA harem. Almost everybody wants a piece of him. Because Yuuya is so obliging and has to save girls in trouble and that reason is enough for them to like him. So anyway, the girls in Yuuya’s own world seem to be pretty boring and checking off the harem list. We got Kaori on top of the pecking order since she is the director’s daughter and the one ‘closest’ to Yuuya. Then there is Kaede whom we will mostly remember for fanservice purposes because damn her racks are just huge! And bouncy! Is this even allowed?! Somebody needs to take advantage of those boobs by caressing them and providing horny otaku guys with such cock teasers. That’s you, Rin. Make her with a bit of a sharp tongue too. Outside his classroom, there is Miu from the modelling agency because beautiful people will flock together, right? Over to the other world, Yuuya already has the princess of the kingdom set on her sights. She’s very honest about her feelings and doesn’t bat an eyelid to say what she wants. It would be bad for her to monopolize Yuuya all for herself and thus Luna as her supposed rival. Yeah, Yuuya sure has his hands full. I don’t think Sawada is really into Yuuya and that was just one of her drunken antics. But never say no. After all, she is that kind of category of women who has past their prime, still single and b*tching about it. Beware. Because who knows Yuuya may be into older women!

So as not to turn Yuuya into some seemingly sleazy playboy, that is why he too has a few male friends whom he can hang out with. But unfortunately they are very insignificant and are not memorable compared to their female counterparts. Yeah, I can’t remember a thing about Ryou and Shingo and for Akira, he is only memorable because he is an idiot and all the girls like to tease him about being one. Then we have Owen who is having a hard time, between a rock and a hard place because he is having it tough keeping up with Lexia’s liberal shenanigans. She’s a princess who can do anything, you know… And to think her father is going to blow his top each time he misinterprets his only daughter being seduced by some outsider, I really pity all the furniture he has taken out his rage on. Imagine marrying Lexia and Yuuya will become the next king of this kingdom! Oh wow. Sometimes it feels like Lexia is pulling the strings since the king has got no balls to go against her. When she has made up her mind about something, that’s that. Not even the king can go against her wishes.

Humans are such complicated creatures. That is why to give Yuuya some sort of peace of mind and those whom he can actually call his family, that’s right, we give him not 1 but 2 pets! Oh yeah. Somehow we judge him less harsh as he has a couple of cute pets as his familiar by his side. Oh yeah. Animals can’t do anything wrong, no? Other than looking cute, Night and Akatsuki provide great battle support to Yuuya so they’re not there for cute aesthetic purposes. I wonder if Usagi will become part of his family too. He might be Yuuya’s master in some ways but seeing he needs more allies, what better way to forge closer ties than to be his pet, uhm, I mean family? And as for Yuti, my guts is that she isn’t the strongest Vile out there and give Yuuya some time and he might even convert her to the good side! Oh heck, he already did it by the end of the series! Wonderful. Surpassed my expectations (as I thought they will end with a cliff-hanger of Yuti getting away). After all, Yuuya ‘tamed’ Dark Guild’s strongest assassin, right? Oh my, I can imagine Yuti calling Yuuya her onii-chan right now!!! Yuuya’s wife is already a crowded field so I am going to give her the imouto role! So beware all you Vile, because Yuuya can do the impossible and convert you over. Even more so if you’re a cute girl!

It is a good thing that there is no strange God who bestowed Yuuya those awesome powers. Instead, that role is replaced by some dead sage. Oh well, same thing. How convenient for grandpa to have such a secret room. I wonder if he too got some sort of isekai treatment and all those occult stuffs in his secret room are actually from other isekai worlds. The reason why grandpa is the only kind soul to Yuuya is because he could be some exiled royalty from another world and Yuuya is the only heir left! How do you explain Yuuya being the only ugly f*ck in the family?! That ‘beautiful’ family is fake! I’m waiting for someone to bust this conspiracy theory of mine… Anytime now… Anyway, what I also want to point out is that some of the items dropped by the monsters that Yuuya kills, aren’t they the strangest of the lot? I mean, I get it if it is some strange artefact or potions but when they start dropping items that are of modern tools from our world like a bath and bedsheets, OMFG, are you kidding me???!!! REALLY???!!! It’s just so freaking out of place!!! Now I’m waiting for one to drop a condom! HOLY SH*T!!!

The action scenes are pretty average. Obviously all is to showcase Yuuya’s awesomeness because now he has superhuman skills and he can show off how fast and strong he is. And all his classmates can only watch in awe. Yeah, they don’t even stop to suspect him if he is even human! Awww, because they are friends, no? Yeah. Like as though there are some humans who are pretty normal doing such superhuman feats. Give me a break. Or are they all blinded at how handsome and cool Yuuya is? Must be. Then over to the other world, it’s all pretty basic action as we see Yuuya hack and slash his way through the monsters and sometimes getting assisted by his pets. The thing that bugs me is that when Yuuya scans for the items’ description, obviously the description is zoomed in so one can read its lines pertaining to it. Considering I watched the series subbed, this means the words take up the entire screen and it is sure as annoying as hell. Imagine your whole screen covered with ugly Roman alphabets and boring font! Sheesh. Then there’s that novelty of being able to exchange those items into Japanese yen. F*ck! How the heck does that even work?! Yuuya could be a billionaire at this point but I guess it’s just some flimsy cover he can lead a normal daily life without money problems. WTF. Not taxable so he gets it clean for 100% too. WTF! I WANT TO HAVE THIS!!!

Art and animation, well, I want to point out that everybody here looks so beautiful and good. Of course the only exception is Yuuya at the start. He was really fat and ugly as f*ck! Really. Like as though he came from another anime. So ugly, you literally want to puke each time you see this fat f*ck face! Obviously the ugly duckling effect as Yuuya soon transforms into something more beautiful than a swan! Oh f*ck, he’s an angel right now!!! But yeah, this brings me to point out something about the ‘beautifulness’ of everything here. You see, the characters especially the girls look really so cute and beautiful that all have this one kind looks. Like as though they are dolls coming alive. No joke. The longer I stare at them, the weirder I feel about their looks instead of being cute. But at least I can say that the animation quality and the visuals are much better than Shinka No Mi. Heh. But is it me as the final episode ramped up the CGI effects? Although CGI Yuuya in his armour doesn’t look all that bad, but it is still obvious that he turned into CGI. Like as though this became a cutscene from a game. Millepensee (Teekyuu, Kumo Desu Ga Nani Ka) produced this anime and the promotional poster of this series had me confused with the Berserk remake that the studio also made. Yeah, the dark shades looking similar to each other. And there I thought Yuuya was a handsomer version of Guts or something. Sheesh.

Voice acting, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Yuuya sounds pretty familiar in his trademark voice. He is no Kirito but it’s him. Surprisingly, there are a few seiyuus I recognized. Namely Ayana Taketatsu as Kaede, Mai Nakahara as Rin, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ryou, Jun Fukuyama as Akira, Rina Hidaka as Yuti, Youko Hikasa as Glena and even Akari Kitou as Kaori. Of course the best cameo goes to MAMIKO NOTO AS YOMIKAWA!!! OMFG!!! I’M SO HAPPY TO HEAR HER VOICE ONCE AGAIN!!! Can we make this poison lover the main character in some spinoff?! Who knows, she could be the real head of the Dark Guild!!! Then there are Nao Touyama and Yuka Iguchi lending their talents here too. WHERE?! Oh… Night and Akatsuki respectively. Oh well, I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years.

The rest of the other casts are Kaori Maeda as Lexia (Shizuku in Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai), Ai Kakuma as Luna (Eris in Mushoku Tensei), Sayaka Senbongi as Miu (Shuna in Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken), Ayumu Murase as Shingo (Luck in Black Clover), Manami Numakura as Sawada (Pieck in Shingeki No Kyojin), Masaki Terasoma as Owen (Kiroranke in Golden Kamuy), Akio Ootsuka as Arnold (titular character in Black Jack) and Kazuhiko Inoue as Usagi (Gildarts in Fairy Tail). The opening theme is Gyakuten Geki by Tsukuyomi (heck, she sounds a lot like Miyuki Sawashiro). Anyway, it’s a fast paced rock piece and not really to my liking since the singer’s voice sometimes sound strange as some lines she tries to hit the high notes. As for the ending theme, Hachimitsu by Shikao Suga, it’s another rock piece with funky bass lines but with strange pacing at certain lines. Plus, the singer’s voice sounds gay so…

Overall, this is another run of the mill isekai themed anime. Nothing really special that would make it really stand out like the rest of the other animes in this overly crowded field. Obviously the many comments I read did not take kindly to these trash. Yeah, these people must have watched countless isekai animes like yours truly. And although there are a small number who praised and said good things about it, I am going to assume they are anime noobs. Young newcomers in this industry. Watch a few more of such craps and you’ll be heading down the same path of disappointment. Sorry people, watching anime isn’t some sort of privileged luxury and double life that I am leading. It is the only life that I have!!! And I won’t trade it for some isekai power up for it :-).

Yuusha Ga Shinda

A couple of years ago, there was a detective who was dead but not really dead. So this time, whose turn is it to be dead but not really dead? That’s right. It’s a hero. A hero has got to be ranked higher than a detective, right? Whatever. But sorry, Yuusha Ga Shinda has nothing to do nor it is related to that pseudo dead detective anime series whatsoever. Instead we have some perverted scumbag who accidentally kills the hero and now he has to assume his role in saving the world from demons! This sounds like a tall order. It feels like the world is accelerating itself to its doom with such a sleazebag in the lead but alas don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s the inside that counts. Technically. Literally. Okay. Maybe. We’re all so doomed… Oh wait, so if the hero is dead but is still running about, is this a zombie flick?!

Episode 1
As narrated, Sion Breydan the hero sealed the Gates of Hell 3 years ago. But now the seal has weakened and demons are coming out once more to terrorize the land. We now focus on Touka Scott, an unremarkable villager who is more interested in putting stockings on his radish?! His childhood friend, Yuna Yunis chides him about it and tells him of the dangers the world is facing. Honest, he doesn’t care as long as his property is protected. Of course Yuna too. Obviously he has a thigh fetish and needs to protect those delicious thighs! He thinks this spiked pit trap is enough. Heh. Suddenly a demon pops up and is going to eat Yuna. What does Scott do? Cook meat?! Demon not interested! Luckily Sion is here to cut down the demon. Yuna fawns over him and when Touka tries to get some credit, she glares at the idiot for doing nothing. All that 3 years of warming up to her went down the drain… Sion is hungry and is attracted to Touka’s cooking. However he falls into the trap and dies! OMFG!!! Say it isn’t so! The villagers blame Touka but he makes everyone their accomplice. Nobody is going to believe the hero died this way, right? Yeah. They bury his body and keep this a secret. Next morning, Touka wakes up and is shocked to find himself in Sion’s body. What gives?! He goes to Yuna for help but thinking he is the hero, scumbag makes her wear what he wants. So easy. Then his eye falls off! Yuna thinks he’s a monster. To prove he is Touka, he tells an embarrassing secret on he knows. What’s this magical girl Yuna thingy? Yeah, more beat downs. While it is certain that this is Touka, who in the world would turn him into Sion? A voice from the pits, Anri Haysworth the necromancer from Sion’s party claims she is the one. Yeah, almost fell into his trap. Now she claims he must save the world. Previously Sion made a promise with her that if he dies, he must find a replacement who is worthy. Considering Touka killed him… Oh well… Touka is forced to do this because Anri threatens his real body is sealed in this coffin necklace. If she destroys it, he dies for real.

And so Touka is forced to play hero as Yuna wants to tag along too. They go to town to get some gear. Pretty expensive. Touka uses his charm and goodwill to get it at a very discounted price. Yes, using this tactic, they can eat for free! Apparently Anri is broke and did not get any reward from the king as necromancers are taboo people. She could be executed. The girls think of getting an honest job. Touka is approached by sexy babes. They wonder if he is an imposter so they make him fight an old bodyguard friend. Touka could’ve won had not his sacred sword go limp. He gets beaten up. Proof he is a fake. At the guild, Kyle Osment who was Sion’s right hand man approaches Yuna and Anri. He is looking for Sion but Anri tells the truth. Meanwhile Touka is going to be burnt at the stake as an example. Kyle will prove his innocence as he gives Touka a sword and to visualize a huge one. He manages to do so but soon goes limp. Now everyone is convinced he is a fake. Until Yuna says they’ll take on this quest to slay demons to prove himself. Troublesome but you wanna live, right? Anri explains the sword went flaccid was because he lacked mana. Despite he has the hero’s body, the mana is linked to the spirit. Yeah, she was careless to assume he had great mana as he killed Sion. Kyle has a suggestion and wants to be the hero instead. Touka agrees to that but Anri refuses. As the hero’s successor must be capable of saving the world, Touka proved that by killing the hero? Wasn’t it an accident? In that case, Kyle will kill Touka. This just got worse, no?

Episode 2
Whatever options Kyle gives, Touka dies. Touka wants Anri to just give Sion’s body so Kyle claims he was just joking and will fight in his stead. That night, Touka tries to steal the necklace but gets distracted putting stockings on Yuna’s beautiful big thighs! Forget something?! Then he witnesses Kyle sneaking in and trying to destroy the necklace. However he flees after a protective barrier activates. It is then Touka realizes Kyle really wants him dead. Too bad the stockings made Yuna believe he is the culprit. Beat down. Next day as they head off for their mission, Touka realizes that as long as he is not alone with Kyle, that bugger won’t kill him. At the demon’s castle, a fast moving demon starts killing the adventurers. Some flee. Including Touka. Kyle manages to figure out his trick and kills him. He gives the demon’s heart which is a magic crystal to the girls as it could help power them up. More demons pop up from the forest so they hide in the castle. Yeah, more demons inside. Anri uses her necromancy to control an army of skeletons and uses the magic crystal to strengthen them. WTF Touka trying to align himself with the demon who likes naked woman in stockings?! Yuna just beat both of them up!

Yuna is then taken out by Kyle who now shows his true colours. In short, he is jealous of not becoming the hero despite having it all. Looks, wealth, title, everything. He became envious when Sion was chosen to wield the sacred sword so that’s when he thought he should become Sion. Hence many demon attacks on Sion were actually premeditated by Kyle just to get his body. Though, he failed all the time. Touka has a point when he says he might not be the smartest or strongest, but he is one who does not hate himself! Gotta give him points for that self-confidence. Anri and Yuna return to help stave off Kyle. Kyle revealing Anri is a demon because she has a magic crystal as heart. That is why she is a necromancer. As they run and hide from him, Anri admits that truth. She is a descendent of necromancers who escaped the Gates of Hell 3 years ago. Only Sion was the one who treated her kindly. Hence if Touka cannot trust her, she allows him to kill her now because she is better off dead if she cannot carry on the hero’s will. Touka admits all the mess he got into but gives her hope that she’ll grow into a beautiful babe with luscious thighs! WTF?! Anri looks forward to it?! Hence Touka has a plan and lures Kyle into a trap. Once he is at a designated spot, the ground gives way as Kyle is sent plunging down into the waters below. Bye. In the end, they might have got lots of magic crystals and its due reward but still not enough to cover the compensation. That is when Touka claims they’ll go to the capital and take all the king’s riches! Anri tries to impress Touka with her stockings. Too bad they’re too small for his liking!

Episode 3
More thigh fetish. More Yuna beat downs. And perhaps that is why Touka has turned into a skeleton?! Knowing entering the capital will freak everyone out, he has this idea. Using the sword as a fake mask, yeah he sure drew a hideous face on it but damn, everyone suspects nothing! Touka is before the king of Farom, Larcvalt XIII and asks for money. However he thinks it is a joke because Sion once refused any payment reward and told him what it means to be a true hero! F*ck! He thinks he is here to marry his daughter instead. That or fight him! Yeah, better go to see her, Marguerite. Sorry, she doesn’t look like her father but a cute princess! He manages to trick her that he got cursed and thus his skeleton face. He wants to turn down her marriage but she mentions about their promise to not see each other because she fears of falling for him for real if they get to know him. Fearing she will kick him out and face her father, he promises to marry her after saving the world. As there will be a mask ball festival, she wants him to date her and she has created a perfect mask for him. For that, Touka can definitely say yes. Meanwhile Yuna and Anri are picked up by a doctor, Leland Tallman. He can tell Anri is a necromancer and to be careful as there are groups hunting for demons before the festival. To hide their intentions to get money, Yuna says they want to increase their mana. He introduces Soma drops but they’re expensive like hell. Sure, they can join the demon hunt but will that be enough? Leland wants Anri to show the rest of her body! Hope he isn’t a lolicon! Well, actually he wants to examine her magic crystal to see how necromancy works to save people. Phew. The duo go on a demon hunt as they witness a top knight, Siruela easily cutting down demons. A couple of adventurers think they won’t get any share at this rate and have the girls come with them to their secret spot to hunt more demons. However it is a trap as they get kidnapped.

Touka witnesses Marguerite eat like a glutton. But because he also ate some of her portion, she soon collapses and her private tutor, Isaac Gardner chews him out about her condition that she cannot store mana, the reason she has to eat like this. But after being fed more and giving the special drops, she revives. More eating and she becomes fat! However Touka loves it because now her damn thighs are thicc! WOW! After that she needs to go see her doctor and this leaves Touka free for a few days. He decides to go rendezvous with his girls but cannot find them. He asks around and this leads him to an orphanage that is run by Leland. Marguerite is also there and is surprised. He asks if his girls were here so Leland says they went out demon hunting and should be back soon. After they leave, we now see Leland’s true colours as he was the one who kidnapped his girls. In his secret basement, he examines Anri and he has a fascination for bones. His plan is to use the festival to turn everyone into skeletons. All other unnecessary parts like flesh, muscle and organs will be given to demons in exchange for coexistence. Anri will be his scapegoat as he will use her to trick others to think she has kidnapped people to offer them to demons. On the day of the festival, Touka and Marguerite date. But why is Isaac here? He doesn’t trust Touka and thinks he might do something bad to her. Marguerite slaps him for badmouthing her future husband. She will not have that. Isaac notes she is serious on him but knows well this is not the hero from 3 years ago. He will get to the bottom of this.

Episode 4
Marguerite narrates how she continued her intense training when Sion left on his journey so that she could be worthy of him in marriage when he returns. Now that he has, she can fulfil her duty. So as they’re watching the fireworks, because Touka obviously don’t remember the time they did so with the rest, this has Marguerite now suspecting him as an imposter. Isaac and Siruela come out of their hiding to confront Touka about the truth. Yes, that’s how Sion died. A shocked Marguerite runs away as now she is confused on what to do. If the hero is dead, what would be her purpose now? However she bumps into Leland who promises to save her. The rest realize Marguerite is missing but there are demons popping up all over. Marguerite now sees Leland’s true colours as he plans to strip her to her bones. Touka is here to save her because it is not his policy to abandon someone. Unfortunately Leland manages to escape with Marguerite. But as Touka, Isaac and Siruela enter Leland’s sewer lab, Isaac realizes this has always been his fault. His strictness has caused Marguerite to develop that syndrome and hence her reliance on Leland. So as not for her to hate him, he let it slip and never checked Leland’s background. Yeah, Touka now gladly shifting the blame 100% on him! Looks like Yuna can’t wait to be rescued and beats up a demon to free herself and meet up with Touka’s side. They also help free Anri nearby. Is she drooling like her?!

Before Leland begins his ritual on Marguerite, he tells of his story on his obsession on skeletons. Basically humans are deceptive so the skeletons show the truth self. Then with Sion showing what true compassion is, that was when his obsession to create a truly equal and conflict world began. He might seem genuine in saving orphans only because he wants their bones to mature. He also admits he loves Marguerite and tonight’s ritual will double as their wedding ceremony. Marguerite refuses but what can she do? Cue for Touka and the rest to come rescue her. He tries to escape but when cornered, drinks all the drops he has to acquire ungodly powers. He tries to get Marguerite but Isaac takes the fall. He considers this his atonement but sorry this isn’t his time to die yet as Touka causes a diversion for the rest to escape. While he sets a sneaky trap for Leland looking for them to go round in circles, Marguerite and Anri ask about Touka’s origin. Yuna’s simple answer is that he is a perverted farmer but Touka continues. During some war in the north, his father wanted to loot those nations. Instead he went missing and mom got killed. Touka went on the run for a year until he safely came back. Anri and Marguerite are so touched with his tragic past but not Yuna of course. Getting back to Leland’s case, because Touka will be weak on him, the only way is to get his drops. Assuming he has already used them all, Isaac points out another way. Because of Marguerite’s syndrome to expel mana via fluids, using any body fluids of hers will help boost Touka’s mana. Oh dear. See where this is going? And the only way we’re getting loads of them in a short amount of time is urine! OMFG!!! We’re really doing this????!!!!

Episode 5
Touka stops her in time. I guess we’re not going ahead then. Touka explains the flaws in Leland’s necromancy since he is not a real necromancer. So as they set traps, Touka disguising himself as an undead sneaks up behind to take him out. Only, he failed. Leland shifted his magic crystal anticipating this would happen. But thanks to Marguerite’s archery skills, she knocks it off his hand as he turns into a useless pulp. However a demon returns after defeating Siruela. Touka saves Marguerite as the demon blasts at her. Uhm, can you kill an undead? Well, he’s not moving. Rather, his regenerative ability is slow. Isaac buys time for her to run while he and Yuna fight him. So Marguerite thanks of that urine solution again, HUH?! But too nervous she is that she can’t bring it all out. WTF Touka’s dying wish is to have her wear stockings?! This makes her sad as she claims she fell in love with him through his lies so he better take responsibility. Because of those tears, Touka revives and is no longer a bag of bones. His mana has also increased as he turns his sword into a giant thigh to bring down the demon! Believe it! A couple of necromancers, Diego Valentine and Friedrich Norstein note this and can’t wait to get their revenge on the hero. In the aftermath, with the overdose of the drops, Leland has turned insane and locked behind bars. Isaac takes over running the orphanage and Marguerite no longer suffers from that syndrome after crying her heart out. With Touka and co going on another journey, Larcvalt hands them a magic powered cart. Yeah, Anri will be the driver… Marguerite can’t tag along as she is a princess who has her own duties. So she leaves them a note thanking them for everything and when everything is over, she hopes to meet Touka’s true form. Now, she has a surprise as she is hiding in a box behind and planning to surprise them by tagging along with them on this journey so as to teach Touka some finer etiquette. Yuna actually sees this coming but Touka doesn’t believe Marguerite is that kind of cunning girl! Oh boy. Awkward. And so they opened the box a few days later to find her starving…

Soon they receive a letter from Siruela claiming that after they defeated that demon, one of her colleagues saw some astral form flying out from the kingdom. It could possibly that a true necromancer was in control of that demon. She wants Touka to investigate this but he writes back to do it herself! As the hero, his priority is to seal the Gates of Hell. Plus, he wants to do real heroic stuffs. During dinner, Marguerite and Anri fighting over Touka?! Marguerite wants to really marry him once he becomes a hero but Anri is hell bent on living the quiet farm life with Touka. WTF this turns into a tug of war? During the bath, Yuna is not impressed with such shenanigans so Marguerite asks about her feelings. If she has none over Touka, surely she will not object to them getting married, right? Well, why does Yuna look so irritated? Later she beats him up trying to peep on her changing. He thinks she still can’t let go of Sion but she lashes back at him he was never there for her especially that event 3 years ago. She claims he doesn’t care for her after all that has happened. Running away in tears, she remembers her promise to Touka to be with him forever. Gonna break it now? But in town, something feels strange. The villagers look like they’ve turned into zombies as one of them bites her. She realizes she is turning into one of them so she tries to push Touka away, claiming she was going to leave the team anyway and that she doesn’t want him around. Oh, so she doesn’t like him anymore? Too bad that is not an excuse to leave her behind as he desperately tries to save her from the zombies, confusing poor Yuna’s heart. But with too many zombies, even Touka can’t handle. Until this spearman named Belarco will come to his aid if Touka admits he is not the real hero.

Episode 6
As they regroup, Touka trying to hide Yuna has turned into a zombie. Belarco suggests the mayor’s mansion as it is quite fortified. Inside, everyone thinks the hero is here to save them. A couple of demons impersonating as humans can see through this trick. One of them, Colin hinting Yuna has turned into a zombie and will kill her on the hero’s behalf. But Touka punches him and threatens he’ll f*cking kill him if he does so. He then tells off everyone there is no way he is going to let a close one die after turning into a zombie. Yeah well, Yuna is attacking him now. Luckily Anri did some necromancer trick to calm her down so everybody thought they’re just fooling around. Later Anri shows them some barrier inside her is wrapping around her mind, causing her to be soulless. Because she is close to a corpse-like state, somehow necromancy works. Touka wants to find the caster mastermind but since it is too dark and they risk getting attacked by zombies, Anri suggests using remote necromancy. Touka volunteers to be the one controlling Yuna since Anri needs to focus on controlling her. Yeah, a sneaky way to get those thighs! He tries to go take a bath but the rest blindfold and wash Yuna’s body. Too bad he can’t enjoy those luscious thighs! Even at night when they sleep together, he thought he could have double the joy with Marguerite’s thighs nearby by too bad, he is all tied up! Serious time as a demon breaks the wall for the zombies to enter. They go help the mayor fend off the zombies. In return, he shows them a steel fortified room with weapons. The mayor regrets he did nothing when the pandemic swept across town. Anri thinks a high level demon is behind controlling the people so Touka uses a mix of crystals to search for the demon. Looks like there are 3 of them. As he counts the numbers they have to fight against them, the disguised demons don’t want to have a part in this. Marguerite recognizes them from the capital and needs their help. Doing so, she’ll use her authority to plead for clemency. What choice do they have? Enemy demons now attack. Belarco gets owned just as he is about to show off. Touka then uses his sword to destroy one of them. However this stumps everyone because if he is in Yuna’s body, how can he use it? Belarco meets a bunch of people outside town. It seems this group claims they are the legendary hero and will save this town.

Episode 7
The only viable explanation is that the sword has accepted Touka as the hero. So Marguerite wants to marry him right now?! Hey, the hero has got more important stuffs to do first! Sorry to disappoint. It’s not sealing the Gates of Hell but conquering the world’s thighs! The demon runs away as Colin gets desperate to kill it but gets seriously wounded by Diego. He is the one controlling the demons and of course he is happy to meet the hero again although he notices this is not Sion. He reveals his goal to get revenge for that tragedy that happened 3 years ago by turning the entire world into corpses. The rest try to consider talking although Diego rubbishes all that. Anri reminds him of the hellish time necromancers spent in hell but Diego is ascertain their real enemies are not demons but humans. Diego then summons all the zombies to attack them. Can they harm the townspeople? Touka uses his sword to wall them in and then tries to rubbish his way out with this nonsensical thigh strategy. WTF?! During the talk, the mayor crashes his carriage into him. Touka managed to convince this dude to do this in exchange to see Marguerite naked in stockings. WTF?! Although Diego lives, that distraction allows Anri to steal his controlling device although she is at her limit in trying to control all the zombies together. It is then that group of legendary heroes pop up to help. One of them as Milly Yunis who is Yuna’s sister, the self-proclaimed hero. Also with her is her father, Fieri who has boobs fetish! Diego decides to flee and warns them that if nothing is done to ward the townspeople of the spell within 24 hours, they will turn into demons forever. Colin gives his tools to Touka and places his hopes on him to bring down the culprit. After all, Touka has got someone he has to save too.

Touka knows where Diego’s base is from the way he talks and the direction he escapes. He believes the necromancer’s base is at Elvania, his and Yuna’s hometown that was destroyed in the war 3 years ago. As they make their journey there, Milly’s party introduces themselves. The others in the group are mages Shannon Petralca and Dorothy Eleonara. Marguerite knows Fieri since he was once the kingdom’s top knights. Too bad lots of sexual harassment got him stripped of his title and exiled! Yeah, Siruela his subordinate bore the brunt of his sexual harassments! Also, Dorothy knows Anri as she was once part of Sion’s group. Milly and co are unaware that Touka is possessing Yuna’s body but luckily they bought the dumb lie that Touka is too focused in saving the world and hence not very much talkative right now. But Milly is suspicious of ‘Yuna’ because she is talking like Touka. Is she trying to steal Touka from her whom she is supposed to marry?! Say what?! Marguerite needs an explanation! Apparently as kids, Touka lost many duels to Milly and their unbinding promise was for him to marry her. Yeah, Touka remembers the times Fieri tried to kill him too. But Fieri wants Yuna to go home and leave the fight to them for she has no magic capabilities. The journey comes to a halt when a large boulder blocks their way. You bet the necromancers have put forth their next plan. Diego’s demon has casted a spell on everyone in town. He has devised an interesting game and has everyone hunt down the hero. Let’s see how far they can go.

Episode 8
While Fieri tries to buy the rest time to escape and fight this group of demons, however the carriage soon falls into a pit. Don’t worry, the carriage might be damage but everyone lives. As they head out, it seems there is a fog over the place and they know it is laced with danger so they can’t wander too far. Touka senses something strange because it is not the demons’ style to put traps and certainly it is not how necromancers fight too. The culprit is Ethel Borgnine and she is using her demons to make such traps. She has them slowly kill them off until Touka is left. He then begs for his life and is willing to give the sacred sword. She’ll take the sword but still kill him. That is when Touka gives the signal for Anri to use her necromancy for the counterattack. They foresee all this and played along just to draw her out. When the fog lifts, Touka then grovels himself because Ethel is his master and the one who taught him how to make traps. This is also where the cat is out of the bag about Touka inhabiting Yuna’s body. Flashback shows 3.5 years ago when Touka was desperate to get back to Elvania, he almost got killed in one of Ethel’s traps. He then insisted on her accompanying him back to Elvania or at least teach him to do traps. As a thief, she refused but seeing how persistent he was, the training began. As for why Ethel decides to wipe out humans. She saw something at the Gates of Hell and won’t say. See it for yourself and decide. Touka has set some trap on the sacred sword so it’ll blow up her arm if she doesn’t do as he wishes. She gives back the sword but that’s not all. Because Touka claims it will be bad for her to go back on her word since she admitted defeat, now Ethel is forced to strip and wear stockings as her punishment! WTF?!

Ethel takes them to a magic workshop where they can fix their carriage. But too bad this old man claims he is retired. Until of course he mistakes Touka for Sion. Ledo is actually Sion’s grandfather although he has very bad eyesight. Can he stop pouring tea on you head?! He mentions there is no quick fix for their carriage especially if they need to reach Elvania within a day. Marguerite has gone through some references and can help find a solution within the hour. In the meantime they talk about Milly’s sacred sword. Apparently there are 4 manmade versions and hers is one of this. While it is not enough to seal the Gates of Hell, it is enough to defeat the Demon Lord and his generals. It is said that the necromancers like Diego and his merry men have each of their possessed by the generals. Plus, with Elvania flooded with a thousand demons, their journey to Gates of Hell might be delayed. Ethel knows a shortcut to bypass that but Touka is going to barge through that party. Because this is just like 3 years ago and he is going to save the same person. Later Milly confronts Touka about this and he confirms and reveals about Yuna being possessed. She further reveals how she won the sword in some kingdom’s tournament and was also granted that hero title. She wants to fight him to renew their marriage promises. Obviously Touka still weak as hell and this makes Milly sad if he can actually save Yuna. Even so, he is going to save her no matter what kind of dirty tricks he’ll have to resort to. While he claims it was Sion who saved the sisters back then, in some ways it was Touka who played that important role. Had not for his traps that delayed the demons, Sion would not have arrived in time and saved the day. Milly is glad Touka can still save Yuna. But now it’s different as he has the hero’s power as well as friends. All sound so noble until of course we hear his real goal in saving Yuna: Those thighs, baby! Not surprising. And while we see him being so absorbed in putting on those thighs, he gets taken out…

Episode 9
Touka is confused that he is seeing his past memories. Heck, he is living it so he thinks he must have gone back in time. However he finds it strange that nobody gets mad at him for destroying things or when he puts stockings on girls. Then he remembers today is the day he met Yuna. That part plays out again before Touka realizes the real Yuna nearby. WTF she naked? Although she cannot touch anything else, she has been following him and knows all his devious thigh deeds… As they go about, they realize this is not his past but someone’s magic to recreate his past as people whom he do not know are acting in a nonresponsive manner. They try to leave town to see what happens. A white barrier. As they enter, they relive another part of Touka’s memories. The time when he first met Milly. They go through several more stages and especially the part mom died. He tries to save her but she still dies. She gave him a letter for Yuna, though. As they continue, Yuna starts to feel bad and apologizes. Because she always had her conscious, this means she has seen all that Touka has done in her body especially that conversation with Milly that he came to save them. She feels bad for always talking bad about him without realizing the truth. Touka still credits Sion for the heroism as he claims that it was Yuna’s letter that gave him hope and saved him. This talk is so boring that the demon mastermind had to pop up and tell Touka to play his role or it will be no fun. You see, this demon eats dreams and to do that, he attacks the dreams of others. In reality, he is sleeping beside his body. Although this is Touka’s memories, the demon can still manipulate them to his own will. He is even kind enough to tell several weaknesses of his and to get out of this is to defeat him. Touka fights him but unfortunately because this is his dream, he can read his thoughts. This is when they realize he cannot sense Yuna. Hence Yuna guides Touka to send this demon to his defeat and return to reality. You think Yuna will continue to remain inside her mind but looks like now she can exist as a ghost! Just in the nick of time, the carriage is done and we’re ready to head for Elvania. Siruela gets Touka’s note and is unhappy. But the court magician, Rosale Charis is not fazed as he has taken his own measures. Having already located the enemy’s base, he has sent his elite of magical warriors to the scene.

Episode 10
Touka returns to his original body and only he can see Yuna. As the elite magical warriors attack Diego and Friedrich, they get easily killed off as Diego unleashes the power of the Demon Lord’s general residing in him. With Rosale in shock that his men are dead, Larcvalt is about to sortie his men when the mayor and Belarco turn up to plead him to do so at once. The mayor revealing he became one for self-interest and profit but realizes his citizens still respected him. They are his real treasures and wants his people saved. Desperate times call for desperate measures so Siruela is going to use Kyle’s service. Yes, this guy is locked up in the dungeon. Kyle accepts this mission because his logic dictates that with the real hero dead, he is the next strongest. But his ulterior motive is to kill Touka to become the hero and then all the necromancers and demons for ultimate glory. Touka parts ways with Ethel. Because he leaves so suddenly, she chases after him. All a trap to extort her service since he knows she still worries for her. When they arrive at Elvania and as Diego gives them a grand welcome, Ethel suddenly kills off Touka. She was just waiting a chance for this and even proves that his core is dead. Of course this is all a ploy and just a distraction as Anri has released Touka back into his real body. Touka with Yuna and Anri infiltrate the underground sewers as they possess a couple of low level demons to get into the horde. They see a few perverted demons trying to get lucky with a few female warriors. Touka has an idea. He makes those ladies get naked wearing nothing but thighs to help increase their enjoyment 120% while also claiming to those females that this is to help save them. Well, they bought it. This method has a few demons approaching Touka and wanting him to help save their queen, Adele who is under Diego’s command. As she is the one who turned those humans into demons, Touka goes up close to her and manages to trick her about realizing their ideals to have humans and demons cohabitate with each other. Because of necromancers kill all humans, demons have no future. However turning on Diego means their kind will be purged. After putting Adele to sleep, Touka shows his true colours and kills off the rest of the demons. Wow, he is like a true villain! Then Friedrich pops up and Anri is glad her brother is still alive.

Episode 11
Friedrich is not amused Anri has sided with the hero. Has she not forgotten the persecution of their people 3 years ago? Touka understands what happened but this is not right to drag innocent people into. Friedrich then claims this revenge thingy is just a pretext to gain companions. His goal is to dispose of the royalty and nobles so they can remake this world where necromancers can live peacefully. Even if that kills off many innocent people, remember that necromancers are accustomed to the dead so they don’t feel any sympathy. Anri still wants to believe in Touka. Diego interrupts this and suggests killing Anri to turn her into a corpse. Corpses don’t disobey, right? Diego then uses his demon, Vertex to absorb Adele. Touka wants to have a fair fight with Diego in which Friedrich claims this is a trick. Touka claims if it was, he would’ve done something by now. All he needs is to get back his sacred sword and beat the sh*t out of him. Diego finds it amusing and agrees. As Diego possesses Vertex, he immediately owns Touka. Didn’t think this pipsqueak can beat him, no? The floor then collapses as Diego falls through. All part of Touka’s sneaky plan to have Ethel controlling the demons to zap him out. Didn’t think Touka would actually play fair, don’t you?! With the Soma drops, Touka repossesses Sion’s body to fight Diego. However Vertex has absorption shields and can absorb attacks from anywhere.

Touka retreats to re-strategize. If Sion fought Vertex and defeated it, there must be a way. Yuna then remembers seeing how Sion did it albeit it was from afar. Something about turning his sacred sword into multiple attacks so Vertex couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Touka then uses Marguerite to test and fire at Diego from the back and it works. He can’t protect his blind spot. And even if he puts up his shields behind, Touka has Yuna as his eyes to see those blind spots. However even if Vertex’s regeneration is nullified, Diego can still use his. So it becomes a battle to see whose mana can last longer as Touka will need to aim at Diego’s core in the head to take him out. Although Diego is weakened, he cherishes this thrill because he needs to feel as such to be alive. Every day was hell as he battled the demons in hell but he loved it. His goal is to bring such hellish landscape to the world. Sorry, Touka doesn’t subscribe to that masochism and his dream is to live peacefully with hot chicks with hot thighs! However Touka collapses as the Soma drops has worn out. Taking anymore will have very detrimental effects. But there’s no other way. So is he going to ride on luck? Looks like his luck ran out. Anri is then in a dilemma to possess his body and fight but that will cause his soul to further degenerate. Just like Yuna, they want to save him but what can they do? Don’t worry, here comes Kyle. Make that God Kyle. He’s going to kill Diego so that he can kill the hero.

Episode 12
Kyle claims he has no time to deal with Diego and he will have to wait his turn if he wants to fight him. Diego is told about the situation around the place and it looks like reinforcements have taken out the demons. Diego will not surrender so he absorbs other demons to become even more powerful. Time is running out as Yuna prays for Touka to return. Speaking of which, he thought he is dead and in heaven because before him is Sion! But Sion suddenly thanks him for taking up his role and taking care of his comrades plus saving the capital. He has been watching him from here. Touka remains suspicious and tries to run. To where? Then he sees a mirror filled with naked babes with stockings. Sion warns him entering this mirror is a point of no return as he will live in his world of fantasies. Probably a reward for being a hero. Touka then realizes he can’t save Yuna but Sion believes he can. He narrates about the body, soul and life force, all are necessary to maintain life of a human. Any one of those gone, you’re dead. Sion is so because he lost his life force but Touka still has his kept in Anri’s coffin. Because his soul wandered here, this place which is where legendary heroes reside and not the afterlife, it means that the sacred sword has chosen him as the next hero. This explains why his mana skyrocketed and he is able to use the sword outside his body. Touka decides to return to save Yuna. He made a promise. Besides, his perfect thighs can’t be found in that world.

Yuna accepts her doom but just wants Touka to wake up to talk to him for 1 last time. Even if it means stroking her thighs 100 times? Yes. Wait. WHAT?! Because Touka is back up and is on a roll! But look who is cutting down Vertex at the speed of light? It is Sion in Touka’s original body! Touka has Sion’s soul temporary possess the sword. Diego is shocked that the sword can perform such ‘necromancy’. As Sion continues to cut down Vertex, this is to destroy the crystal that causes the regeneration. Of course this will regenerate too but this is to buy time so that Touka to finish the job. Since his current skill is still weak, Sion suggested he concentrate all his power by shortening the sword. As Kyle pins down Diego since his regeneration is separate, Touka goes in for the kill and manages to do so with 1 second left to spare! The threat is over. No zombies. Diego is still alive and managed to escape with his body substitution emergency. He is relishing revenge once he heals up. However his body cannot move from all the exhaustion and so he is left to die in the dumbest way as Adele’s underlings kill him. With Yuna back, she cries in Touka’s arms. As for the promise, she pretends she didn’t hear it. She was unconscious. Got any proof? Damn.

A party is held at the mayor’s place to celebrate this victory. He makes good his promise by providing him with girls who want his company. Too bad he won’t get Marguerite’s promise as she too isn’t going him that naked stocking fanservice. Yuna gets jealous seeing many girls all over Touka. She takes him away to a room alone. So better to give him the thigh stroking fanservice? Not! Touka believes she still likes the hero so he tells her to be patient for his mana to increase so she can talk to him. However she claims that it was him who saved her. Hence she makes good her promise by giving Touka the much needed stocking fanservice. But in a swimsuit. Still rocks, however! Oh yeah! Touka then wonders Sion might be looking and throws away the sword. Yuna gets embarrassed and runs away. There goes his only chance… Later Marguerite talks to Yuna and tells her those feelings are of love. That jerk claims he likes only her thighs but he still saved her. So both girls renew their rivalry to Touka’s heart. Before Sion disappeared, he told Touka and co where to go next. Apparently it is not to seal the Gates of Hell. Touka’s power isn’t high enough for that. It will be suicidal for him. But he knows a person who can help increase his power (and then summon Sion for help again). Hence Sion tasked Kyle and Dorothy to guide Touka’s group to go see the sage.

Thigh Master: Over My Dead (Hero) Body!
Not sure this would get another season but it could be highly likely (although none has been announced at this point in writing). I am saying that because the manga that the anime was adapted from has already ended back in 2020. Yeah, sounds like a long time in anime years! Hahaha! All the materials are already there, right for the picking but I suppose maybe they might want us to go have a look at the manga if you’re so curious to find out more about the next adventures of Touka and co (last screenshot of the final episode shows a beach episode?! Why you freakin’…!!!!!). Therefore not sure if a sequel is likely and if it was, hopefully it will happen before I’m dead! HAHAHA! Sighs…

The story seems to be moving along at a snail pace. From the way I look at it, it’s not going to be that sort of redemption story. Well, maybe a little bit but not entirely considering Touka’s personality. After all, it’s not like Touka wanted to become a hero in the first place to save the world and was forcefully-cum-reluctantly thrusted with that responsibility. Hence that is probably what the series is about, Touka assuming the role of the hero to try and save the world so that he can save all those delicious thighs. Oops, I mean the people he loves. Heh. But for now as I can see for this season, it’s all pretty basic and introductory. Always leave room for the possibility of another season.

Therefore for this particular season, it just sets up what is necessary and the big bulk of it especially the second half feels more like a rescue Yuna arc. Uh huh. Personally, it was pretty weird for me that Touka and Yuna can’t exist together in the same space in the latter half of the season. Initially, Touka possessing Yuna’s body and then subsequently because of Yuna fans raging over her absence, that’s why they turn her into some ghost so at least to assure that she is still alive and around. Okay, I made that up but you get the point that Touka and Yuna being physically separated just doesn’t feel right. I mean, it goes against the title of this anime. Sort of. Sure, Yuna not technically dead but she’s close to being one so not only the hero is dead, but you got the thigh chick, oops I mean main heroine given somewhat a similar treatment too.

Character wise, Touka as your main character isn’t one of those sugar coated heroes. Basically he is a pervert and a scumbag. Yeah, we all quickly judge him for his fetish on thighs. It’s like we all don’t have our own fetishes. Let the ones without sin-cum-fetish cast the first stone! Anyway despite his unhealthy obsession for thighs, he isn’t all that bad a person as you can obviously see some of the moments he cares about the things he loves. He goes to great lengths to keep that promise especially the one he made with Yuna. So that’s why he isn’t such a jerk and still has a heart. Okay, but overall he is still a perverted scumbag and has not much value in redemption. So does he love Yuna because of her perfect thighs or is it because of Yuna he has come to appreciate those pair of sexy flanks. Heh.

Touka is no Sion who has left behind a lot of great legacy that is greatly respected far and wide by many. Battling the toughest of adversaries, the irony that the silliest of traps got the hero killed, the baddies must be slapping themselves hard. Oh well, if that is fate, it means it is up to Touka to rewrite that legacy to suit his. He just needs to pull off a miracle and soon he’ll be renowned as the new hero. Perhaps it is necessary this way for a change in hero because methods of the old won’t work anymore as things that happened a few years have changed. Thus the unorthodox methods of the reluctant hero would work better against the demons compared to the traditional ways of the old hero. RIP, Sion. However Sion has yet to cross over and really rest in peace. My guess is that he has regrets of dying too early and wants to be there to help his buddies and see this over. Only then he can cross over to the next side. Yeah, Sion is now relegated to some sort of power trump card for future battles. Oh well, at least this way we can’t totally write him off and relegate his appearance to only in flashbacks!

I feel Yuna’s character is obviously there just for the fanservice. Like the very same reason how I felt Fairy Tail’s Lucy was. She has such a great proportion that she doesn’t cater to those with only thigh fetish. Uhm, okay, should stop talking about her physical traits and more on her character. Just like any childhood friend, she harbours feelings for Touka. Those feelings may have grown cold throughout the years as Touka turned into a thigh degenerate. But deep down inside her heart, that flame is still burning. Albeit a dim one. In many ways, she is stronger than Touka but I guess they needed to give Touka x Yuna relationship some booster and amends and that’s why they turned her into a nearly zombie (and technically a damsel who needs to be rescued) so that she could open her eyes and heart once more to see why Touka was the guy she fell for. Sion might be the hero of the world but Touka is the hero of your heart! Heh. Cheesy.

Supporting the pair in this misadventure are necromancer Anri and Marguerite the princess. Both have their own quirkiness. Like Anri may the most energetic among the pack but sometimes comes off a bit as a retard. Sometimes she makes silly suggestions and actions which feels more like because they needed some sort of comical moment or punchline. After all, Touka is the main character-cum-hero, Yuna the heroine-cum-fanservice girl and Anri the, uhm, little joker? Well, the irony she doesn’t make deadpan jokes, HAHAHA!!! Sighs. Anyway, despite having no feelings for the living, travelling with Touka has changed her a bit as she deviates from the traditions of her fellow necromancers and starts to believe in the hero. I suppose there are some things that can only be experienced and be a whole lot fun while being alive than dead. Like? Oh, being in love! So far I see Anri’s affections for Touka is out of respect and admiration rather than anything romantic.

Completing the group is Marguerite. So far she feels like the long range support of the group since archery is her forte. I wonder if they’re making this series as a harem genre because obviously Marguerite who was in love with the previous hero has started to fall for the current one. I’m sure she is not falling in love with the position but rather the personality of that person sitting in the hero’s shoes. As pointed out, Touka isn’t your typical romanticist or angel. But he has proven himself by saving her from Leland’s schemes and if that isn’t enough to warrant a blossoming of romantic feelings, I don’t know what is. And yeah, she’s got some nice thighs too. So what is stopping Touka from accepting her love?! Surely Yuna’s thighs aren’t going to be enough when the time comes, right???!!!

Then there is the other group of heroes led by Milly. Personally, I feel they are lacking a lot although they were only introduced halfway. I guess there are no rules to say that there can only be 1 hero at the same time or perhaps Milly’s title could be the hero of another kind. Oh I don’t know, a local hero as bestowed to her by a kingdom after she won some tournament. Checking your little sister trope, Milly is bolder with her feelings for Touka than Yuna because of that promise to marry. Oh wow, Touka a scumbag having a lot more girls yearning for him than I can imagine. Unfortunately for Shannon and Dorothy, they feel very much forgettable as they don’t get much screen time. Not sure why Milly’s group isn’t following Touka, or do they have another mission which I am not aware of? I bet they are another bunch of weirdoes but we don’t get to see them flesh out whatever. I hope they are just normal people. It’s already bad enough they have boobs loving Fieri. Poor Siruela, living through that sexual harassment hell.

There is one character whom I feel is like the punching bag or at least written for the role as some strange running joke. That spear dude, Belarco, I noticed that he is quite a serious fellow. You sense no nonsense or a hint of any sort of jokes in this guy. But the series has this tendency to ‘kill him off’ and make the whole thing look like a deadpan joke. I mean, Belarco is always seen narrating some serious stuffs and reminding us that he is the greatest spearman, blah, blah, blah. And then blam! Gets owned. It’s a good thing he isn’t part of Touka’s group or it’ll be just freaking annoying for a member like this to get this sort of treatment.

Other characters, what can I say? I guess some are there to show that they are even far worse a scumbag than Touka. Like Kyle who is obsessed in becoming the next hero and live up to expectation of others. Sorry to break it to you, but you are not main character so you can never be so. HAHA! Ethel as Touka’s master whom he learns traps from, so could you say she is a bigger scumbag because her teachings led him to have this shrewd personality? Villains like Leland as well as the necromancers are one-dimensional because typically you need to have baddies so the main hero can battle with prove his worth. No matter how powerful they are and flimsy Touka’s mana, it is all justified because Touka is main character. Heh. Necromancers who want the world dead? Possessing the greatest generals of the Demon Lord? Touka will get it done somehow. While it is hinted Diego is killed, I won’t write that off easily because as a necromancer, he’ll be back again. As a zombie maybe. Since Friedrich’s nose is never seen after his out-of-place battle with Ethel, he could be the next antagonist as reunion with Anri isn’t part of his agenda.

As already said, Yuna exists for the reason of providing some delicious fanservice for this series. Otherwise it will just be so boring, right? Uh huh. She’s got all the perfect assets and damn Touka fool only looks at her thick thighs. Oh well, even if the rest of us viewers aren’t into thighs, at least she has other areas to go gaga about. Oh so you’re a boobs person? Check. Yuna’s got them big. Like dat ass? Check. Yuna’s got them thicc too. Oh yeah. This walking fanservice is the reason why we continue watching this show, right?! Sing praises of hallelujah when Yuna gets put into a sexy bikini! More boobs galore as you can see how well protruded Ethel’s racks are. I mean, is it even possible?! Or is it the way she dresses. Don’t worry for those who are into flat chest because we got you covered with Anri. More dumb fanservice antics as certain scenes will have the girls stripped down to their undies as they run about because why not. All for the sake of fanservice! For example, the dumb excuse that low level demons are perverts and all our sexy chicks need to do is strip down and let those idiots chase them about as distraction. WTF?! Yeah, human chicks are sexier but whatever. But yeah, thanks for the fanservice.

Art and animation are pretty standard but unfortunately I find it overall to be a little bit bland. I don’t know, the characters have this one kind look especially if you take a look and Yuna and Marguerite. The longer I stare at them the weirder and uhm, un-life-like they look. Oh sh*t, do they look even more than a zombie than Sion’s dead corpse?! Is it me or does Touka (his original form) look like Shiki from Edens Zero? Yeah, the resemblance is uncanny. And those demons, they are the blandest demons ever I’ve seen. They look like discount Hollows from Bleach and if the lower ranked demons are looking so generic, the higher level ones just look slightly better to be differentiated. If I should say, they look more like aliens than demons. This anime is done by Lidenfilms who did Yamada And The Seven Witches, Yofukashi No Uta, Tokyo Revengers and Koi To Uso.

Voice acting is pretty standard. Recognized a few seiyuus like Ayana Taketatsu as Anri, Sayaka Ohara as Ethel and Yuuichi Nakamura as Kyle. The rest are Shunichi Toki as Touka/Shion (Fukuma in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu), Hibiku Yamamura as Yuna (Lisa in Peter Grill No Kenja No Jikan), Yurika Kubo as Marguerite (Hanayo in Love Live), Sakura Shinfuku as Milly (debut role), Hiroki Touchi as Fieri (Lily in Fairy Tail), Ai Kaneta as Siruela, Shintarou Asanuma as Diego (Tsuda in Seitokai Yakuindomo), Kensho Ono as Friedrich (Floch in Shingeki No Kyojin), Wataru Hatano as Belarco (Gajeel in Fairy Tail) and Chikahiro Kobayashi as Leland (Sugimoto in Golden Kamuy).

The opening theme, Shinda by Masayoshi Ooishi, I don’t know if I should call it epic. Oh heck, I think it is. While it is weird it is own right, there is something in this techno hip hop beat that is catchy enough for me to can’t get it out of my head! OMG! Thriller Night it may not be (the opening tune almost fooled me so) but sometimes I feel cringe at certain points but I can’t stop humming this strange song in my head!!! Somebody get this devilishly naughty-cum-cute song out of my head! The ending song is yet another cutie. Kawaiku Tte Ijiwaru Shichau by Yurika Kubo has some cute lines and video game sound effects permeating the song. Honey Honey, Honey Honey, Hi Honey Honey Trap Trap… Yeah, cute… OMG… I can’t get this tune out of my head too!!! Somebody help me!!! Is my mind being controlled by a necromancer?!

Overall, the dead hero is still better than the dead detective anytime! Haha! A bunch of wacky characters in a goofy story to save the world filled lots of silly fanservice bits along the way, surprisingly all the crazy dumb fun has made it enjoyable. Because it would have fared a lot worse had everything been taken too seriously. Now we can just laugh everything off and be entertained rather than being angry at stuffs that don’t even make sense. Yeah, I can’t imagine that thicc thighs save lives! Sorry Touka, I didn’t get converted into a thigh fanatic but I guess to each their own. Because there are so many different parts of a woman’s body to drool appreciate all over! That’s not sexist! Chivalry may be dead in this time and age but fanservice and perversion are still kicking and well alive! Yes, thank goodness what a great time to be alive!

Isekai One Turn Kill Neesan

Are you tired of the same ol’ isekai trope of the main character being overpowered as f*ck and able to do whatever skills and magic so easily? For once, we would like to see one that is just as weak as a pussy! Oh damn, we get our wish in Isekai One Turn Kill Neesan. You see, our main character is given the isekai treatment but with the biggest catch of them all: He is as weak as f*ck! So how can he survive the other world without this basic cliché? Why, his sister is the overpowered as f*ck character! But because he already has established himself as some great hero and he can’t disappoint everyone, you can guess this means he is going to put up the greatest show-cum-lie that he is powerful as f*ck but his sister is doing all the overkills in the background. Now we understand why behind every successful man is a freaking overpowered woman!!!

Episode 1
Some orc brothers are happily and celebrating the destruction of a village. Asahi Ikusaba walks up to them and tell them to leave or they’ll regret it. They laugh and attack when his sister, Maya destroys them all with a single blow!!!! Flashback shows Asahi was killed in an accident after saving a child from an oncoming car. As you would’ve guessed, he gets transported to another world. He is fascinated with this isekai just like the games he played. WTF bootleg games he played?! Skyrom, Witser 3???!!! Since he doesn’t need his handphone anymore (thank goodness!), he sells it to get mani (money?!), enough to get him some decent gear. Then he goes to join a guild and right after leaving town, fights a wyvern. Uhm, too late to check your stats which is as low as f*cK! Stone throwing the only skill he’s got? At level 1?! So what now? Piss in your pants?! Better, he calls out to Maya for help. Suddenly she gets transported here! Damn, she takes down the wyvern in a single blow! As Asahi wonders if this sister is an illusion, Maya starts hugging him and all. Definitely it’s her. Maya has brother complex. Maya then explains she was devastated when Asahi got in an accident. But be assured, he isn’t totally dead but in coma in hospital. Then she heard him murmur about the isekai and thinks his spirit is there. Hence she bangs her head on the wall until she dies just to go there with him! As for why she is overpowered, she thinks it’s her love for him! Asahi thinks his fun is over and it’s time to get back. Only, they don’t know how!

Now we return to Maya just devastating the orcs just because they belittle him. All the villagers praise their heroes. Back at the guild, Asahi is congratulated as he ranks up tremendously. Got to admit the ranking system is unique. Instead of A, B, C, D, etc, it has rabbit class, knight class and so forth. Asahi is up to goblin class. But he is also warned the death penalty for falsifying ranks. Oh you know, one pretending to be a stronger class when you’re not. Oh sh*t. Hence he colludes with Maya to always make it look like he is super strong when she is the one doing the finishing. Whatever. As long as Asahi wishes it. Then checking Maya’s stats, Asahi thought it has nothing until he realizes it is only so because her stats are way off the mark!!! Then there is this parade whereby the hero party led by Siegfried (dragon class) who are tasked to destroy the Demon Lord. A jealous washed out hero speaks back about him and causes a minor nuisance. Everyone is scared but remembers Asahi as the only one who can stand up to him. Yeah, they’re chanting his name! So he makes a deal with Maya to stop this. Pretending he could crack open the ground, the ruffian gets scared and leaves. Everyone praises their hero. But soon, Asahi must make good his promise and give what nee-san wants. Oh my, is she going to rape him?!

Episode 2
Must be an accomplishment now that Asahi can kill a slime. Barely. Next morning, while Maya frolics in the bed warmth of her brother, Asahi goes down to the guild to see what quests he can take. Yeah, Tanya recommending really tough ones. After all, he is ogre class, right? He manages to give excuses to take on smaller ones so this mushroom gathering should be a cinch. While doing so, he is attacked by a bear. All he can do is run, right? He think Maya comes to his rescue after the bear dies in one zap. Can’t blame him to think this hot demon chick, Kilmaria is her because yeah, those boobs. With other bears around, she easily kills them with a single strike! Then she faces off with the boss of this forest, Bear Kaiser. Yeah, not much of a challenge either. Dead in 1 blow! Oh dear. Not another one hit kill character! Asahi learns she is one of the 6 generals serving the Demon Lord. And when she says she wants to find a man named Asahi to fight to the death after hearing how strong he is, you bet Asahi wants to get the hell out of there! Too bad he dropped his class badge as Kilmaria realizes who he is. He runs like hell until he bumps into Maya. Yup, her brother-in-danger sensor must be working. Maya accuses Kilmaria of trying to take her brother’s virginity?! Has she looked in a mirror recently?! So the tough buxom babes battle it out but obviously Maya is still stronger. Kilmaria can’t believe she is defeated and wants to be killed. However Asahi will not allow it since she saved him twice. Maya abides because he said so. To hide the fact he almost mistook Kilmaria for her, he will cook for her and this sends Maya’s horny urges to glomp all over him. Asahi need a third saving from Kilmaria?

Episode 3
Asahi still weak like hell and needs his sister’s help to kill those pesky goblins. Of course he has to put up with her perversion. Thinking of the need to get stronger to at least fend for himself, Maya suggests attacking her to get some of her XP. However he can’t do that and risk hurting her. How sweet. Here comes another Maya hug. Then he tests out this new skill of teleporting to escape from her clutches. It works! Well, used up all of his MP and now he’s a sitting duck as she gets him once more. He heads to the guild thinking he should find some party members. Tanya gives her opinion and tells of Balmung which is the hero’s party that has ideal members. Siegfried the hero for offensive attacks, Mimosa has all the magic, elven Shuulain covers long distance attacks while Gordon is the tank. However she lets him in on a secret: Balmung almost got wiped out by a mysterious enemy. Later Asahi stumbles into a drunkard being beaten up by punks. He doesn’t want to get involved but seeing they are going to kill him, Asahi jumps in as diversion for him to escape. However the drunkard beats them all up easily. Upon closer look, Asahi realizes he is Siegfried! As they talk, Siegfried explains they went to fight the Demon Lord but got owned by a single enemy (Kilmaria) and she didn’t even lift a finger. That demoralized the party and they disbanded soon after. Asahi thinks he gained valuable friendship but Siegfried tells the horrifying truth: Mimosa loves getting drunk, Shuulain is arrogant and looks down on others while Gordon is too shy to even converse. Have you even seen his real face?! But with Asahi still glad they were party members, this has Siegfried remember he was once like him. An innocent kid who just want to save the world. Maybe he needs to get back on his feet again.

Returning to the guild, Tanya quickly needs Asahi’s help since there are wyverns attacking in the outskirts. He will go back for necessary preparations (to get Maya) but time is of essence so Tanya puts him on a carriage right away. Oh boy. Will Asahi die now before the wyverns? Don’t worry, Kilmaria blasts them all! She wants to see him again to return the guild badge he dropped. But more wyverns show up. This time it is Maya to destroy them. Kilmaria relishes to fight her again but Maya ignores her like she never existed to go tend to her brother. Kilmaria will not have this sh*t so the girls start arguing pettily and if Maya won’t fight her, Kilmaria takes Asahi as hostage! Bad move because she doesn’t see the big sister coming and gets knocked down in an instant. As the ladies continue their quarrel, a wyvern attacks Asahi. They put aside their fight to go save him. There. Nothing like a little teamwork to save the day. Kilmaria wants to continue fighting Maya and once again kidnaps Asahi. However he uses his teleportation to escape. Surprised and amused by this, Kilmaria will let this slide and that will be enough for her today. See you next time. Asahi notices the ladies don’t really hate each other but still thinks Maya is all he needs in his party. Of course she misinterprets that in a pervy way and thinks it is his proposal to her. And it’s not that kind of pervy party he meant either!

Episode 4
Asahi the Ghostbuster? It all began when he was running out of funds to pay for the inn. So Tanya suggested a job that has a house reward. He accepted without knowing the details until Tanya said it is to exorcise a haunted mansion that belonged to some noble. But no worries, Maya will protect him, right? He doesn’t need to put up a fake front because Maya knows he is scared of ghosts. Outside the door, the ghost tells them to leave. But when Asahi tries to open the door, he got his energy zapped. Maya tries next. Because she got so much energy, the ghosts cannot absorb it all and vomits! Inside, Maya thinks now they can do whatever horny things they want! Yeah, which is scarier? The ghost or a pervy sister! Some poltergeist event as the ghost throws furniture at Asahi but each time a concerned Maya heals him up with her potions. So that’s where all the money went. Maya then calls out the ghost to fight. The ghost realizes her body is strong enough like the Demon Lord’s general and then possesses it. Oh dear. Asahi realizes the world will be in trouble with Maya’s incredible strength. He panics as he tries to escape. Luckily here comes Kilmaria looking for the siblings. After Asahi tells what happens, Kilmaria mocks Maya for getting possessed by a weak nobody. She is going to kill her but Asahi won’t allow her. Mainly because she’ll destroy the house! But he accidentally got his hand on her boobs. Well, that sure made Maya mad. With both busty babes all fired up, they’re going to settle this via… Arm wrestling? Damn, they aura is so strong it’s blowing away stuffs in the house! This house is a goner for sure… But in the end, Kilmaria loses. Maya then targets Asahi and pins him down. Asahi mans up as he shows his scary expression to tell the ghost off that nobody will take his precious Maya away. That is when the ghost gets kicked out and purified? Maya still scary, though. Yeah, still harassing Asahi! Turns out she was too strong for the ghost to possess and was just pretending. His statement made her come to her senses. But yeah, at least now they have a place to call their home. With Tanya praising Asahi for his exorcism that no high clerics could even accomplish, here is a heap of unresolved haunted quests for him to take! Feel free to take them all. Damn, see how fast Asahi bolts out!

Episode 5
Tanya tells Asahi a new dungeon popping up due to some mysterious land altering natural disaster. Yeah, Maya and Kilmaria’s fight was enough to do that!!! Of course Asahi’s quest is to explore it and judge if it’s safe for rookie adventurers to explore. Only a hero like him could do the job, RIGHT?! And so Asahi takes the job with Maya of course coming along. Asahi sets up so many traps but don’t worry, Maya is always there to save his ass. And her own. Uh huh. One nearly killed her but no worries. With an undead army, Asahi forbids her to use magic in fear of collapsing everything and get buried alive. Don’t worry. Her martial arts is enough to kick ass! Then they see a few bear cubs and believe they are orphans of that Bear Kaiser. Opening this place up will make them lose their home. As they return, Maya as usual is being promiscuous so Asahi has to tell her off. Then he gets hungry so she rushes off. WTF, without him?! Soon he is surrounded by monsters but manages to escape. In town, a cute girl calls to him and wants his company. However he senses danger and remains cautious. That girl is actually Kilmaria in disguise! After meeting the siblings, she is interested in human civilization. She wants him to show her around town. Imagine the traitorous tag he’ll get as a hero for showing a Demon Lord general around. Since she is putting on her cute face, I guess he relents. So wow, look at all those weak humans and buildings she would love to destroy! At the guild, Kilmaria makes Tanya jealous by clinging onto Asahi and looking like his girlfriend. Obviously she’s not pleased. Just when Asahi thought he got on Tanya’s good side… As they go eat, Kilmaria walks off without paying, almost starting a fight with the owner. Luckily Asahi will pay. There goes all his reward money… On the way back, they meet Siegfried but this guy gets scared upon seeing Kilmaria’s evil aura and takes his leave. Back home, Kilmaria wants to play a prank on Maria by pretending to be his girlfriend. He agrees to see her reaction. When they enter, Maya instantly beats her up! She can tell this imposter is Kilmaria. Can’t miss that aura. Maya has cooked a lot for him but Asahi just ate. How? Kilmaria vanishes all the food in his stomach so he gets to eat her cooking. Kilmaria wants to join in too but Maya forbids her. Throwing a tantrum like a kid, only thanks to Asahi’s grace that she is allowed to stay.

Episode 6
Sophie Peaceful was told by her mom about her destiny to meet the hero. She has been fascinated with this ever since. Meanwhile Asahi almost gets owned by a monster. As usual, Maya takes care of it. Due to that little scratch on his arm, she wants to lick to heal it?! He manages to escape back in town whereby he bumps into Sophie. Because of his kindness and humbleness, she thinks he is the hero before her rude party members call the slowpoke to join them in their dungeon raiding. At the guild, Tanya tells Asahi of an emergency. Due to a newly discovered dungeon, many adventurers have flocked there. But because of strong monsters, they returned. Except for 1 party. Asahi realizes it is Sophie’s party. Better go that quick before she gets eaten by this carnivorous plant! It is Maya who defeats the plants and Asahi saving her. But of course she only sees him and thinks he is truly the hero after checking the final checkmark that he is strong. Later she goes to introduce herself to him and she wants to join his party as his healer. Asahi thinks it’s a good idea. But does he need to have Maya’s permission? Fearing that she will beat up this cutie, surprisingly Maya accepts her since she respects Asahi! Then those party members of hers come by to blame her for everything. You think Sophie will get scared and cry. Surprise motherf*ckers! She shows her true colours and scolds them back for being useless! OMFG! Then she wants Asahi to beat them up! It is then he realizes she is trouble. But how? Maya throws pepper smoke and then beats them up in a flash. Asahi is sad as he thought she would be the modest and comforting type. Oh Maya, she thinks she is already that for him! Soon, Tanya has Asahi take up this quest of collecting killer bee honeys. Too bad Maya is busy fighting with Kilmaria over some green pepper! So Sophie invites herself to join him on this quest. But as she notices him sluggishly taking out the killer bees and not that strong killer hero she thought, he comes up with an excuse he can’t fight thoughtlessly and destroy the ecosystem. Because of that, she brings back the entire swarm including the queen so he can kill them all more efficiently! This girl is sure trouble! How can weakling Asahi protect her now that she is going to be killed?! Suddenly a huge log takes it out. Sophie agrees to take the honeys back to the guild first. Asahi then realizes it is those sisters fighting all the way here and that’s what saved his ass. They go home together. Next day, Asahi goes to the guild and he starts feeling guilty because Sophie has been waiting there the whole night for him!

Episode 7
Flashback shows Maya protected Asahi from a dog despite the dog being quite docile. But even after that, Asahi wept because he felt he was powerless and couldn’t protect Maya. Now we see Maya destroy a monster boss with her fist. So much so other monsters are scared of this monster and run! There is a weak group of monsters that couldn’t run so Asahi thinks of killing it. However they soon start some weird dance. Suddenly… Asahi loves Maya?! Maya would love to reciprocate this wish that has finally come true but then Asahi knocks his head on the ground and the spell wears off. Aww, damn! So close. Asahi then realizes the monsters have some sort of confusion inducing effect so he tries to get rid of them. However Maya stops him and wants the monsters to do the dance again. OR ELSE! Each time Asahi turns into an onee-sama loving boy, Maya gets excited and her blast gives his head a good knock, reverting him back to normal. Maya forces the monsters to dance again. Rinse and repeat. Until one moment whereby Asahi says he wants to marry her, Maya is daydreaming about their wedding day until some Demon Lord general is going to pound them for revenge on his brethren. Surprisingly Asahi goes up to protect Maya despite being weak and scared. The general laughs and before he can kill Asahi, Maya kills him off for laughing at her brother’s bravery! But Asahi continues to cry as he blames himself for being weak. Maya this time says otherwise because he is kind for jumping in to protect others. He hopes to become strong to protect her. A comet smashes onto Asahi’s head. Okay you monsters, time to do your stuff. Too bad Maya’s blast killed them too! So how? Maya tries to copy that cringe dance herself! No effect. I’m sure Asahi has a different confusion now.

When Asahi visits the guild, it seems the other receptionists mention Tanya is on her day off and on a date. Asahi leaves and didn’t recognize this cutie as Tanya until she points out. Turns out her date is accompanying her little brother, Roy. Too bad he is very shy around strangers. The siblings are like day and night. Reminds of another pair too, right? Since Roy likes hearing adventure stories, once he hears this Asahi is THAT Asahi, he gets motivated. Then he suggests Asahi become their escort since they need to get something in the next town. Oh dear. Imagine if Asahi gets exposed as a weakling. Disappointing! Too bad he can’t refuse after seeing Roy’s innocent begging eyes. Along the way, suddenly a wyvern pops up. Don’t worry, Asahi will defeat it, right? Oh sh*t… Seeing Roy is very scared and how Tanya is protecting-cum-assuring him, Asahi does the best he can to protect. Only, his weak ass skills can do no jack sh*! Then as the wyvern is going to throw some breath, he throws a stone into its throat, causing it to choke and explode! OMFG! What a fluke! Roy is still sad because he was useless. Asahi motivates him to work hard so he can become strong to protect Tanya one day. As they walk home, it seems the wyvern is still alive and going to make its kill but it snuffed out by Maya. Don’t you f*cking dare! She notes how Asahi has grown and will celebrate this with her cooking.

Episode 8
As usual, Asahi needs his ass saved by his big sisters. If there’s one good thing, looks like he has levelled up and gained a new light magic. Oh yeah. The symbol of goodness, right? When a bull charges through the streets, Asahi thought of using it to show off. Well, just a light. Curses! But hey, the rampaging stopped, no? Tanya then has Asahi take on a mission to take out criminal guilds. Oh you know, bad people abusing the adventurer system for their own gain. Just like those who fake their ranks. Such scums. Heh. This mission is requested by a famous noble house, Brigande since this is tarnishing the nobles’ image. Asahi takes up the job to eliminate Dark Crisis while another group handles Overdose. And as expected, Maya and Kilmaria eliminate everything and everybody. When Dark Crisis’ leader decides to fight Asahi as he is of the same rank, it couldn’t get any worse as Sophie brings more adventurers to help and also to see Asahi’s greatness! Don’t worry, Maya and Kilmaria assisting him in the back makes it as though Asahi is still the top adventurer. Meanwhile Gloria Brigande and her battle maid, Kuon easily disposes off Overdose. Noting about top dog Asahi, she wants to cross swords with him to verify his skill. You might think the villagers are giving Asahi a huge feast as thanks. That and also they have a favour to ask for him to save their village from being terrorized by orcs. Oh boy, don’t look now because they’re here! Asahi gets owned at first and he is about to watch a few villagers die. Until Kuon kills them all. Gloria eliminates the orc boss and then confronts Asahi and is certain he is a fake. Busted? A young villager girl throws rocks at Gloria for badmouthing her hero. This has Gloria decide to duel him to prove his deceit. Suddenly had not Kuon sense a killing force and shove Gloria out of the way, she could’ve been cut in half like the ground! Obviously Maya assisting from afar.

Because Gloria embarrassingly exposed herself, she now challenges him to an official duel. Yeah, it’s like a big festival where people can buy tickets to go watch a fight in the arena! As expected, Asahi is the favourite since everyone has high hopes he’ll take down this b*tch. Gloria goes on the offensive as Asahi is reduced to dodging. Uhm, where’s the assist from his sisters? Yeah, they’re supposed to do that but Kuon is suspecting them and keeping an eye on them. Kilmaria gets desperate, even risking to reveal her true demon form to save Asahi but Maya calms her down and tells her to believe in him. He can sometimes exceed expectations. As Gloria is still wary of his moves, Asahi uses this to his advantage by using his light magic to blind her and then hold his sword at her throat. Obviously Asahi wins. He bested her without lifting his sword. Why? Because he can’t lift his sword against a girl. Oh dear. Typical cliché fashion Gloria is now in love with him. She admits defeat and runs away flustering, hoping to meet again another day. Later as Maya and Kilmaria congratulate Asahi for winning without their help, Maya is about to reveal Kilmaria’s actions only to be beaten up. Oh no, are the sisters going to have a duel to settle it?!

Episode 9
Asahi and Maya are on a quest to retrieve some flower. Oh, look who wants to join them. Damn, it’s Sophie! Oh dear. She claims she is good in finding things. Turns out she is just guessing them. Feeling insecure with her, he hopes Maya can accompany her but who knows, the girls go away and leave him alone as the big sister would love to tell all about her little brother’s embarrassing stories. Asahi is attacked by goblins but once again saved by Kilmaria. They then stumble upon a village in which the villagers’ souls are being sucked by this necromancer, Malvekanth. Asahi fights him but is going to have his soul sucked too. Of course Kilmaria to the rescue. Malvekanth recognizes Kilmaria as he is one of the Demon Lord’s generals. He thinks with her here, they can go conquer the human cities. Asahi then denies Kilmaria as one who kills indiscriminately because she is a kind person who saved him many times. Malvekanth doesn’t believe but after hearing all that, Kilmaria kills off the necromancer. They reunite with Maya and Sophie and looks like they’ve found the flower. Of course Maya has told lots of embarrassing stories by then… Back at the guild, Tanya congratulates Asahi for killing Malvekanth. He is this close to another promotion! Oh my. Making his way out, obviously Gloria is waiting for him and it is obvious she wants to date him but being the panicky woman, she can’t take this moment with Asahi alone and calls out for Kuon. Despite the many simulations they’ve practiced, Gloria still loses her sh*t in meeting the real deal. Kuon wants to tell the truth but Gloria shuts her up. Maid abuse. Asahi thinks they still suspect him of falsifying his rank so Gloria goes with that and will ascertain this via a quest to find missing adventurers. In the woods, Kuon gives cliché romantic tropes on how to get close to him. Too bad Gloria being the muscle head exerts too much power. Ah, the pain. Then they find the missing adventurers and the culprit is this treant. Gloria in dreamland gets captured. However realizing this exposes and puts her in an embarrassing position, she powers up and cuts down the monster tree. Might the worst date ever for Gloria especially when Asahi saw her pantsu. Definitely a memorable date for the wrong reasons. Back home, Maya loses to Kilmaria in cards. So she gets back at her via wrestling. Nobody beats her in that.

Episode 10
Asahi gets a rude awakening with Kuon in his room. She is here because she needs his help. So, to help Gloria move her things because she wants to live independently from her family? Well, if she can get away from her clingy maids and butler, Sebastian. Eventually she does. And so the place she’ll be living in is her own villa. Yeah, such a huge place. Asahi so weak, he is struggling to lift a single crate and Gloria thinks a man’s help helped alleviate some work?! Isn’t Gloria doing all the work?! Sebastian then hires top adventurer, Tigga Hildebrandt to bring back Gloria as he believes Asahi is deceiving her. But that will be the last of them as they sense Maya’s killing aura. Uhm, gotta go! Panicky Gloria has served too many a tea to Asahi as Kuon gives her ideas in having Asahi to stay. One of them being forming a clan. Asahi then talks to Tanya about it and Sophie heard it and wants to be part of it. Then Gloria sees them close together and gets jealous and storms off. Kuon hints to Asahi that Gloria lacked friends and has nobody to depend on. She hopes he could be that person. But Asahi mentions that Kuon is already that dependable person. Okay then. Care to be the second? Back home, Asahi ponders his clan members and of course Maya knows what is troubling him. So they talk about this clan issue but as Asahi thinks Maya is the main character, she points out that he is the main one. She explains all the instances whereby he saved the rest of the girls. Stats have nothing to do with it and right now he is the strongest. Wow. So strong that he is crying. So while the clan is formed, but soon they hit a problem: Asahi has been petrified by a basilisk! The rest desperate try to find ways to heal him. This means Maya is left alone with him as she tries to flirt with the statue thinking it would heal him! All the while, unknowingly that Asahi is still conscious in this state! Eventually when all options fail, the girls think of getting into a hot bath with him! He is not frozen food! Oh yeah, hot sexy naked girls all around him! Boner is stoner! HAHAHA!!! With that failing, Maya tries to sneakily kiss him as cure. Luckily Kilmaria just arrived to beat up this pervert. Learning what happened, Kilmaria uses her healing magic to easily break Asahi’s spell. Maya then learns about Asahi’s consciousness during his petrification and shows us her feminine blushing side we never see. Asahi registers his clan and as everyone suggests names, Maya then hands it in and makes it official: Super Asahi Legion! WTF…

Episode 11
Tanya wants Asahi to take on this mission to take out sharks terrorizing people at the beach. He is excited for this because well, as a B-grade movie lover, he thinks the sharks here have evolved or something. Whatever. Surely Maya would also love this beach outing but it’s all ruined because his legion and even Tanya herself are here. There goes their private time. However Kuon makes the announcement that Gloria and her have already taken out all the sharks upon arrival. With the mission completed, I guess the rest of the episode is nothing more than a beach episode! Oh yeah! Swimsuit time! Tanya and Sophia wear normal school swimsuit as Maya’s is the same as her usual dress. This is all part of Kuon’s plan as Gloria has the most amazing swimsuit to have Asahi’s eyes on her. Until Kilmaria shows up in her super sexy swimsuit that is close to being a violation. Oh heck, it already is! Then the girls start to compete with each other because whoever wins gets a voucher to do whatever they want with Asahi for a whole day! Oh dear. Look at those scheming eyes… But soon it is all interrupted when 10 shark bosses are here to seek revenge on their fallen brethren. Don’t worry, the ladies power up and pummel them all. But when one of them targets Maya from behind, Asahi tries to save her and gets thrown into the whirlpool. Maya quickly jumps in to save him. When Asahi comes to, Maya is glad he is alright. Looks like the duo have been washed away to another island. No need to worry, the rest will come look for them. So in the meantime, they’ll just hang out and have fun. Yeah, what a fun survival this is. Building their own cabin and having nice food. At the end of the day, the duo reminisce their times together and Asahi is glad she is here. Before she can violate his chastity, the shark king appears. Revenge time. That won’t happen as the other girls pop up to fight it. Then it dawned to Asahi that the girls have been here all along and heard his embarrassing lines. Care to re-enact everything?! In actuality, Maya won the voucher and this was all a setup for them to have the day alone together. Shark king summons his fallen bosses and form a mecha! OMFG! Where are the shark features?! Of course, Maya is mad her time with Asahi is ruined as she puts Moses to shame by splitting the sea and killing off shark king! OMFG! Yeah, the one to be feared is her. Later Kilmaria argues with her about doing this earlier on instead of waiting for the last minute. More fun this way? Yeah, we all had fun.

Episode 12
It rained heavily last night. Maya and Kilmaria thought it was romantic enough to smooch Asahi but he escapes, almost leaving them getting lesbo with each other. Well, good to know they’re not yuri! By morning, they thought the town is slightly flooded. However as Asahi gets attacked by the ‘water’, turns out this is one big slime. Everyone evacuates to higher ground. Asahi stumbles into Tanya who tells about the legendary slime who gets bigger after absorbing water. Since Roy is missing, Asahi offers to go find him. Of course he warns Maya and Kilmaria to not do anything as he knows they’ll take down and burn everything along with the slime. While they obey his words, they know who the perpetrator is and go confront her. Asahi finds Roy as he is trapped after sheltering an injured girl. Asahi helps carry her to run to the safety of the cathedral. The perpetrator also has unleashed monsters from another dimension to attack the people. I guess this is where other characters pop up to prove their worth. From Balmung to Siegfried, it’s time for their moment of redemption. Asahi’s side finds shelter at the cathedral as Sophie works overtime to heal others, even if she is on the verge of collapsing. But with Asahi here, this gives her the strength to continue. Then we see her ex-comrades crying like babies for being injured. She heals and tells them to STFU because it’s just plain demoralizing. That should shut them up.

Meanwhile nobles living at higher grounds refuse to open their gates to the people. The only one left is Gloria’s household. At first Sebastian warns her about bringing in the chaos but she doesn’t care because it is her duty to help the people. Sebastian is happy with her growth and lets the people in. Gloria and Kuon then go to town to find Asahi. Meanwhile Maya and Kilmaria confront the culprit. Kilmaria knows Guriligula as she is one of the Demon Lord’s generals. She thinks they can’t best her. Oh, how wrong she is. Her attacks have no effect on them as Kilmaria sends her flying through several towers. That’s not the worst part. Because Maya is going to finish her off with this whatever Big Sis Forever move. WTF… As Gloria and Kuon rendezvous with Asahi, he has Kuon use her skills to find the core of the slime. She does so and when they try to destroy it, it becomes defensive and moves high up into the air. Asahi then has Gloria toss him high up and that’s where he uses his level 2 stone throwing ability to destroy the core! Don’t worry about him falling to his death because here Maya is to catch him. As for Guriligula, she is thrown into a deep pit with all the slime. Happy swimming. Slime threat zero. Soon, Asahi is promoted to golem class. Back home, everyone celebrates Asahi’s heroics but this party is turning into some rowdy bash. Then the girls fight over whom Asahi should receive a kiss from! He escapes outside to see Maya sitting alone. Giving him time as the star? Asahi thanks her for being his sister. Sorry, he’s not going to kiss you. But everyone now makes a fuss and blames Asahi for making Gloria cry because he won’t kiss her! Even Maya too. So hard being a hero…

One Punch Sisters
Well, not sure if this promotion that Asahi got is actually valid. I mean yes, legally he deserved it for saving the town despite his part feels really minimal but still, it’s an achievement. What I meant is that if this means he won’t need to go round hiding his fake class because now he has been promoted to a higher and legit class. My guess he still needs to do so because imagine being caught red-handed of being weak so I think that will erode the trust in the people faster than the slime got drained into the pit! At least Asahi’s reputation would seem less shady and technically he still needs to hide his weakness if he is going to continue staying in this isekai.

Good thing or bad thing, there is no real story to follow as the episodes are all seemingly standalone and random. I’m not going so far as to say that you could see them in any order because the series still follows some flow, there is no solid plot as far as I can see. Oh you know, isekai world in danger via resurrection of the greatest and evilest Demon Lord. And hence the chosen one must prepare himself and his him on a quest to take down that threat and bring peace to the land once more. Yeah. That kind of typical cliché story. But I suppose I knew such would be a stretch considering I read the synopsis of this anime so this wouldn’t be remotely possible in the first place.

Therefore every episode is mostly about Asahi and Maya as they just, uhm, frolic around? Is that the correct thing to say? Sure, Asahi gets roped in to do big quests against his will but that itself doesn’t say or contribute much to the plot in this context. I’m sure every episode plays out in this similar fashion/pattern: Asahi gets into some sort of trouble/misadventure. Can’t fight his way out because he is too weak. But don’t worry, his sister or stronger female character will be there to save the day and save his ass. That’s the basic gist about it. Having fun are we in this isekai?

Which brings me to talk about the strange isekai situation the siblings are in. Seriously, how were they summoned? It wasn’t some God’s mistake nor some desperate king using his elite mages to do the summoning. Suddenly they just get into this world. Normally one has to be totally killed off in the original world or at least summoned as a whole. However, Asahi and Maya are still living and it boggles my mind how this is even possible that they get transported. Whatever flimsy excuses for them to go to the isekai, however being alive and getting the isekai treatment at the same time is not so alien especially with recent animes I have seen like that retirement savings one as well another one in the same season, Iseleve. But really, I can’t see the need why they didn’t kill off the siblings (too cruel?) or is there some sort of plot twist where they return to their world eventually? That must be it, right? Or worst of all, this is all a figment of imagination of Maya!!! SAY IT ISN’T SO!!! PLEASE, NO!!!!

As for the characters, they’re pretty basic and generic. Like Asahi who is different than many other isekai main characters because of the obvious trait that he is bloody weak. Forget about being overpowered, this guy is not even the decent threshold of being strong. That’s the only thing ‘refreshing’ about this guy because we’re all so bored so overpowered main characters who can just do about anything, right? So yeah, even if Asahi is a weak ass pussy who is even struggling to kill the lowest form of monsters, can’t complain because he’s not overpowered. But damn, lady luck is on his side because he has got several overly strong ladies by his side. As long as he can keep up with his charade, he’ll get to breathe longer. My guess is that at this point even if the rest finds out about Asahi’s bluff, it’s not like they’re going to suddenly have a change in opinion and ditch him, right? Oh wait. It is that kind of anime and they might! So keep putting that sham, Asahi. Your life literally depends on it.

As said, the woman behind Asahi’s ‘success’ is of course no other than his sister, Maya. She’s the one who pulls him through rough and tough situations. Obviously being overpowered also comes with its quirks. Oh heck, it’s just Maya herself. Yes, it would be boring if Maya is overpowered but a normal sister. Hence they turn her into some sort of obsessed buranko and a pervert. This is okay only because Maya as a girl is given a free pass. Imagine if the genders were reversed. That would be so f*cking disturbing! And yes, those sexy boobs and cleavage distracted us too. As a serial Asahi lover, this is both good and bad because as we’ve seen, this obsession of hers is what makes enemies unable to hold a candle to her as she gets to destroy them in just a single blow. Don’t you dare mock or bully her little brother. Otherwise a thousand deaths aren’t enough! And of course for comedic purpose and running joke, we see her try to get a piece of Asahi’s chastity as a reward but thank goodness somehow he is strong in repelling her on that. Or maybe he is just lucky. Because I believe Maya didn’t go all out to rape him. Imagine if Asahi becomes depressed or hate her for life after that. Yes, irreversible damage. So she’s just being pervy enough to take out her horniness on him to ‘replenish’ her vitality. Asahi will always be her baby. To show that she is not some deviant pervy monster, that rare private moment of Maya showing her flustering and feminine side. Never thought you would see this gorilla do that, huh? Well yeah, that is prove that Maya is still a girl underneath that tough exterior. Oh, what if Maya putting up all this act because this has become so ingrained in the family? Nah!

Preventing Maya’s huge monopoly on Asahi is of course the other ‘big sister’ AKA Kilmaria. When you have got one of the strongest generals of the Demon Lord, oh heck, I believe Kilmaria is the strongest of the lot, then it either shows you are a very strong person or in Asahi’s case, a freaking lucky person. Obviously Kilmaria has been drawn to Asahi’s strength and it is not the physical kind but the one in his heart. Ah yes, should’ve mentioned this earlier about Asahi because his biggest strength is his heart. Which makes him as generic as other isekai main characters. Even if he is physically weak, he will still try to protect his loved ones. Thus Kilmaria continues to hang out with Asahi because of the kindness she showed him. I bet she is willing to even betray and kill the Demon Lord himself if it ever gets down to that! So with 2 strong ladies fighting over Asahi, it is classic case of the idiom when the elephants fight, the ants below get trampled. While Maya will always have the slight edge over Kilmaria, having these buxom babes battle it out will be even more terrifying than fighting the Demon Lord. Yeah, their powers can literally change the shape of the land! Oh Asahi, you’re the reason and fault why these ladies are so!

Next in the pecking order of this romance thingy for Asahi is Gloria. Ah yes, the only way to make a strong woman submit to a guy like Asahi is strength. Even if it is fake. Poor girl, under the impression that Asahi is strong as f*ck, now she finds herself falling head over heels over him but has no clue on what to do to get closer. Thank goodness for her maid-cum-confidante Kuon who will be giving her the suggestions and pulling most of the strings. So far not working out… And yes, I believe Kuon too has feelings for Asahi because of his smooth operator comments about her. It’s because of her poker face and her utmost mission to serve and put Gloria first is the reason why we don’t see her proactively enter this rat race. Which is also a good thing so it doesn’t sully her character.

I am not sure if Sophie has romantic interests in Asahi because so far she is shown to just be a person who admires him a lot. However, Sophie is a trouble magnet and often brings lots of misfortune to Asahi whether she realizes it or not. I’m sure Asahi would have been saved from a lot of troubles had Sophie did not go out of her way and make the initiative to make things harder for him! So far so good for Asahi. Last but not least, Tanya the guild receptionist feels like Asahi’s personal secretary. The way she eagerly recommends tough jobs for him since only the hero can handle it, are there no other worthy adventurers to tackle such cases?! Like Sophie, I don’t see her harbouring obvious romantic interests in Asahi but it could be possible since lately she’s hanging out with Super Asahi Legion and she has shown some jealousy when cute women cling too close to him. With Asahi saving Roy recently, this could probably be the clincher that Tanya may not want Asahi to be just Roy’s big brother. Or I might be just overthinking…

I find Siegfried as the most redundant character because why need to show us a washed up hero? Is it to further glorify Asahi as the new hero? So were his band of not so merry party members, each with their own peculiar and not so admirable traits. No wonder they broke up and never regrouped. Yeah, final episode gave these characters and other dickheads a little bit more of redemption and pride back. It tells us that when there’s an occasion that threatens the people, they can still rise up to the occasion.

The action bits if I should say are literally boring because as we all know, Maya is so overpowered and she can literally end the fight in just a single punch. So the most amusing part is to see the enemies talk big and get overly cocky because they don’t know what will literally hit them. Yeah, it will be their last so to speak. So yeah, in that sense, many of such fights felt comical in this nature because you’ve got enemies who are arrogant and think nobody can defeat them until they realized too late who they’re dealing with. At first I wanted to correlate those with big boobs having big powers as seen in Maya and Kilmaria and then Gloria. While Tanya and Sophie are not as powerful because they are flat chest. But then Kuon had to destroy this formula but that’s okay, she’s maid character and I approve of her! Thus it makes me wonder if all those powers are stored in the boobs! HAHAHA! Oh well, if you got it, flaunt it! Maya and Kilmaria walking around showing their dangerous cleavage shows either this world is gay or this is so normalized.

I have to be honest that the art and animation quality look a bit inferior. Like as though after the initial work, nobody did some cleaning up or QC. Hence in many scenes, the visuals may look a bit rough around the edges and thus if I should say, a bit amateurish. I’m not saying the whole thing looks like sh*t but had some QC or improvements being made, it would have at least looked somewhat a bit better. Even the characters looked slightly less detailed and at certain angles, looking a lot simpler. And I’m not talking about those comical moments where for example Maya and Asahi turn into almost chibi versions of themselves when the former starts pounding the latter with her insatiable and unwarranted brotherly love. Yikes.

I have to wonder if Maya’s sexy design if it was taken inspiration from Yoko of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fame. I had to do a double take on Gloria as I thought new character, Hildegard from that Smartphone sequel which was also running in the same season, entered the wrong anime! Same case for Sophie. Did Elaina from Majo No Tabitabi quit being a witch and now she’s a healer? I thought Kuon had an uncanny resemblance to Megumin of KonoSuba fame, Kilmaria a certain dragon girl in Manaria Friends while Tanya a certain annoying healer in Kono Healer Mendokusai. Yeah, anime girls all looking the same to me now. This anime is done by Gekkou, a very new anime studio and this is their debut work.

Voice acting is at least pretty standard. Having heard Ami Koshimizu in a main role for quite a while so it’s nice to hear her again as Kilmaria. Then there’s Kikuko Inoue making her cameo as Sophie’s mom while Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Tomokazu Sugita as short-lived roles of Malvekanth and Tigga respectively. Not forgetting Nobuyuki Hiyama as the shark king. At first I thought it was Yuuichi Nakamura behind Siegfried but sadly I was mistaken. Yuuma Uchida voiced him instead (Musashi in Orient). Aoi Yuuki as Guriligula, despite her short cameo, she was really going crazy with the character. I thought she was going to strain her voice the way she made her character scream with glee like that. The rest of the other casts are Yuki Sakakihara as Asahi (Robota in Lycoris Recoil), Haruka Shiraishi as Maya (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy), Azumi Waki as Sophie (Special Week in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby), Sora Tokui as Gloria (Nero in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), Rio Tsuchiya as Tanya (Ranka in SSSS.Dynazenon) and Konomi Kohara as Kuon (Chika in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai).

The first opening theme is Karei One Turn by Trysail. Truly, this is one of those weird denpa songs. Upbeat, lively and of course weird. However I find it annoying especially with that background sound effect. The whole song has this comical and joke-like feel to it and that kind of sound effect makes it sound even, uhm, jokier? I don’t think there’s such a word but there, I coined it. Thank goodness they changed the opening theme halfway. A rare feat for a single cour anime series but I guess Follow You also by Trysail is less annoying and sounds more like a generic upbeat anime pop. However it seems I find the tune of this song bloody familiar (especially the main verse), although I can’t seem to put my finger on it right now… (Is it Okubyou Emotion from Steam Detectives?).

The weirdest song is of course the ending song. Mukyuu Platonic by Valis has heavy techno dubstep bass, weird robotic-like sound effects and the song is overall dramatic. Topping off the weirdness is the weird tango dance between Asahi and Maya towards the end. And I thought this was Maya’s mind of mental asylum craziness. I mean, the animation starts off with what looks like a tormented Maya and the edgy animation style goes well with it. Then it starts to descend into a weird dance and finally that tango. Yikes. What the hell was that all about? And you thought the small group dance in the second opener was weird enough. I hope this is not the actual state of Maya’s mind!

Overall, just another generic and passable anime series in my books. Main character is a weakling might look like a unique point but eventually is overshadowed by his overpowered female characters. Yes, so this is technically still a typical overpowered isekai genre but the main character is just ‘misplaced’. Also a harem anime because obviously. There are lots of goofiness and cringe (especially the dances in the opening and ending credits) but in its own way I guess if you can look past all that, it is still somewhat fun and enjoyable. Yeah, that coming from me who is so numb after watching such genres every season. All in all, who needs to be overpowered are bequeathed special tools like Smartphone or farming gears when one goes over to the isekai. All you need is the power of family bonds! Your big sister is all that you need to solve your isekai woes. But don’t ask me. I don’t have a big sister to begin with.

Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Bakuen Wo

Explosion! Sorry, this isn’t some animated version of one or any one of those Michael Bay’s explosive movies. But you know a character is famous enough to warrant her own prequel spinoff and that is why fans of a certain explosive chick can rejoice with Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Bakuen Wo. Fancy on seeing the life of Megumin and how she became an infatuated explosion nerd before she joined Kazuma’s bizarre party? Well, wonder no more as we see the rise and (mis)adventures of the one and only Megumin from her sleepy remote village of Crimson Demon mages to, uhm, how we all know her as it is. Life is one heck of an explosive adventure for Megumin. Literally, so to speak. Time to have a blast. But let’s hope it all won’t blow up in her (and our) face.

Episode 1
Long ago, Megumin witnessed some busty babe, Wolbach doing some explosion magic. It gave her the motivation to pursue this field. Not sure what Megumin did to help but she is grateful and will grant her any wish. Uhm, she might want to scale that down a bit because she can’t grant Megumin’s wish of world domination, huge boobs or even becoming a Demon Lord! And so she settles for teaching her magic. But she warns of the many demerits of it. Now we see Megumin catching crayfish with her little sister, Komekko. They return home and to their delight, their parents prepared sukiyaki for dinner! Got some meat! 2 each! Yeah! Such luxury! Thanks to today’s sale of selling an adventurer some magic item. They even have enough money to buy Megumin new clothes. One that she will wear to the local magic school she enrolled: Red Prison. Yeah, not many students this year. Count ‘em. Just 11 of them including Megumin and Yunyun. Not many remember Yunyun who is the village chief’s daughter. Even more so she is quite shy but weird enough to go up to an unimpressed Megumin to proclaim as her rival. Because her reason of enrolment is to defeat her? As the teacher starts class and explains all the magic, Megumin wonders why there is no mention of explosive magic. Because it’s a joke magic! Everyone laughs. During practical, the teacher claims that it is not being calm or power that is the most important thing but to look cool! WTF?! Yeah, see how cool he summons this thunderstorm. Everyone pairs up and Yunyun is unfortunate to be paired with the teacher. Because she is so shy and lacks confidence, Megumin feigns being sick to sit out so Yunyun could partner with her partner, Arue. Then it rains and those naughty tulips start running away? Yeah, got to be barbaric and catch all them the hard way without magic. Getting down and dirty, eh? Later Megumin ponders about explosive magic and knows it’s real and not a joke. Because on that day she saw Wolbach using her explosive magic to seal a demon which is supposed to be her other half. Megumin vows to master it and become like her.

Episode 2
Komekko shows Megumin something she caught: What’s this cute little black cat? After getting permission from her to keep it for herself, Megumin brings it to school where all the girls fawn over its cuteness. Sneaky plan to have its meal covered by them… But will the teacher allow it? Nope! Whatever lies Megumin cooks up from this feline being a fragment of her soul and that being away from her will make it go berserk, the teacher doesn’t buy it and in fact wants to see all that! But today’s lesson is special. Because of some seal weakened, monsters came out. Luckily the villagers took care of it so the weakened remnants are left behind. Hence the girls are to raise their level by defeating those. Oh right, please form groups too. Yunyun too slow to ask Megumin and thus Arue beats her to it. Megumin is going to show her grace and let Yunyun join her but Dodonko and Funifura invite her and she gladly accepts. Oh Megumin, is this how it feels to be cucked?! The teacher demonstrates what the girls need to do. Megumin thinks she can kill this lizard creature mercilessly but it puts up fight until Megumin eventually wins. Tough. Yunyun can’t bring herself to kill this cute rabbit. Oh, Megumin going to help guide her! Have you no compassion?! Suddenly a huge gargoyle pops up. Everyone runs! Until a huge explosion kills it. Turns out it is from Bukkorori. In short, he is an idiot. How did he get trapped in this pit? His love for the town’s most beautiful girl, Soketto. Yeah, stalker material. His logic of digging a hole so she could fall in and then he’ll come help her out. Good thing the girls leave this wacko in the hole. The girls are shocked to see gargoyles attacking their town. But don’t worry, the teacher, the principal and a few other guys show off their light magic to destroy them. While it all looks cool, Megumin realizes this is not the kind of magic she wants. The explosive kind where heat burns your skin, the painful smoke and glaring light that pains your eyes, the shockwave that leaves you trembling. That’s the kind of explosion magic she wants! These guys went overboard and as they destroy the entire village! WTF?! Then they make some great speech that their fight continues, blah, blah, blah… Felt like an excuse to cover up their mistake. But don’t worry, the next day, the village is fixed back to normal! The power of working overtime? To Megumin’s dismay, everyone decides to call her familiar as Megumin. It’s part of her soul, right? Well, Megumin will not take any of this sh*t!

Episode 3
Yes, everyone still calling the cat Megumin so the girl herself wants them (especially Yunyun) to name it. Kuro because it’s black? Yeah, Megumin finding it lame! The teacher then tells everyone to self-study because with monsters getting active, all the adults need to go stop them. Usually rivalry between Megumin and Yunyun at the library. So when Dodonko and Funifura invite Yunyun to be their friend, oh yeah, that’s the buzzword for Yunyun. They happily make her hair until Megumin ruins it all by stealing her hair bands just to shoot some pesky little spider! Obviously Yunyun chews her out for her immaturity. It’s the first time her friends did her hair and she was not going to change it for the rest of her life! But look who’s back? Yeah. Bukkorori managed to get out of the hole with his teleport as he proclaims his love with Soketto. Everyone not impressed with this stalker and buries him with books?! But soon Bukkorori ropes in Megumin and Yunyun for his devious scheme. As they stalk Soketto training alone in the forest, he wants them to ask her what kind of guy she likes. Wouldn’t it easier to ask her directly since she is a fortune teller? Oh well, if Bukkorori is going to treat them lunch, Megumin is on the plan. That includes making Yunyun the baddie and threatening Soketto with her ornamental dagger before Bukkorori swoops in to save the day. Yes, this method is way cooler than Bukkorori killing monsters to earn a living. Must be done flashily! He turns himself invisible and gets too close so Soketto beats him up. That is when she reveals she thinks he hates her so please stop stalking her! Suddenly macho bears attack! Bukkorori mans up and uses his flames to get them. Too bad Soketto gets dragged into the flaming mess. Oh dear. Beat down time. But after she learns his intentions, she’ll give him a free fortune reading. So who is his future lover? That person will pop up in her crystal ball. Any time now… None! Oh dear. Doomed to be alone? Poor Bukkorori thinks this is worse than being rejected. Poor guy runs away crying. Yeah, even the girls feel bad for him. They ask Soketto if she ever takes her own reading. Apparently fortune tellers can’t read their own fortunes. With some low level monsters wandering into the vicinity, the teacher wants the students to walk home in pairs. So, Yunyun hinting Megumin? She is about to agree but Dodonko and Funifura usurp her. Surprisingly, Yunyun decides to go with Megumin. So are they rivals or friends? Okay, friends for today and they can resume rivalry tomorrow. Frenemies maybe…

Episode 4
Megumin is top of the class and gets a potion to level up as reward. But to her surprise, Yunyun is not even in the top 3 and there is definitely something wrong with her as she doesn’t feel like challenging her today. Later Yunyun privately talks to Megumin about the meaning of friends. And money. Basically Funifura’s brother got sick and since the family has no money, the friends thought of raising some money to buy medicine. Personally, Yunyun thought doing so would be rude. Of course Megumin has a quirky ideas so Yunyun believes she’s trying to subtly help her. Then there’s the case of the seal of some Dark God weakening. Megumin thought instead of having everyone reseal it, why not just break it and defeat it? The idea did come up but I guess the village wanted to sound cool for having sealed the Dark God right underneath their village. After Megumin sees Yunyun gives the money to her friends, she confronts them and mocks them for using her. Is this what friends are for? Heck, why didn’t they ask Megumin for money? Because she’s poor! They go ahead and ask out of courtesy and of course, she can’t lend because she has no money! This girl… But she can help out in other ways. Hence she brutally kills some innocent looking onion duck before Yunyun’s eyes just to create some potion and then give it to her friends. Now give back the money. She warns them she doesn’t care about Funifura’s brother but don’t they dare exploit a lonely girl who is desperate to have friends. This is when they tease Megumin for wanting to be friends so badly with Yunyun. Though, Megumin denies and claims some rivalry thingy. She’s not going to let that slide and ‘attacks’ them.

Megumin returns the money to Yunyun who is grateful and will treat her. Uhm, she might regret that because Megumin eats her heart out with all those tasty treats! This girl has no shame! Then as they talk, Megumin gets mad upon learning Yunyun purposely didn’t do well in her test so as to give her the top spot. After all, she’s always being smug being better than her so she thought of just giving her the points she wanted so much. Megumin makes it clear that she will always be better than her and will achieve her dream of learning explosion magic. Yunyun still thinks it is a joke magic like many. They start fighting and although we don’t get to see how physical they got, Yunyun wins for the first time. Megumin then explains why she is so bent in learning that magic as she tells of her origins of meeting that wandering mage. After she has learnt explosion magic, she’ll find and ask her opinion of that magic she taught her. This means after graduating, she’ll be leaving the village. But for now, she’ll be staying on and working around. She can’t leave her sister alone. When everything seems to be going fine, Megumin kills a passing onion duck for her dinner. You bet Yunyun is once again traumatized! But soon they see demons approaching from the horizon. Looks like the resealing failed. They rush back to Megumin’s house. Partly destroyed and Komekko is missing.

Episode 5
Previously, Komekko saw a high level demon, Host dabbling something at a seal. Komekko is impressed and with a few praises, uhm, they’re like friends? Komekko then easily fixes this miniature Death Star puzzle. To complete whatever unsealing, Host then goes in search for some sacrifice. It is then Kuro popped up before Komekko and she brought it home. Now Megumin is panicking because her sister is smarter and stronger, she can’t be dead yet, right? Then they see monsters trying to kidnap Kuro. Megumin places priority in finding her sister but Yunyun is begging her to save kitty. Yeah, she missed throwing the dagger and the monsters take off with Kuro. That sucks. Save Kuro for later, they have to go find Komekko. It won’t take long as she is seen trying to confront those monsters to release Kuro. Uhm, the monsters are scared of Komekko? Yunyun for once becomes cool as she uses her lightning to blast the monsters so the sister can escape. But this doesn’t sit well with Megumin. In short, she is jealous her rival has learnt intermediary magic and she’ll need to fight monsters to further level up her advanced magic. The sisters can’t let her be so they return. Komekko announcing herself to ruin Megumin’s cool appearance. Well, Yunyun manages to take care of the monsters herself and save Kuro. But with more monsters popping up, this is when Megumin realizes it may be all related to Kuro. She noticed monsters only attacked while Kuro was with her and their appearance came about after Kuro came about. At this rate, they are doomed. Megumin is going to have to do what it takes since Yunyun is all out of magic. Then as she looks at what magic she has, she sees a new skill and laughs like a maniac. Utilizing all skill points for it, Megumin unleashes the greatest explosion to wipe out the horde. She is so satisfied this is the explosion she always yearned for. In the aftermath, Yunyun is panicking to Megumin as she notes the seal of whatever Dark God has been destroyed in Megumin’s explosion. But Megumin is unfazed seeing no adults believed it was Komekko who completed that seal and that they do not believe Megumin has mastered the explosion magic. Then they go see Soketto about their future. She predicts she will meet some capable adventurers in Axel. Oops, she takes back the part on being capable. Megumin and Yunyun then graduate in a low key ceremony (damn Yunyun getting emotional). Yunyun suggests Megumin form a pact with Kuro to make it her official familiar. Megumin then believes it needs a name. So Kuro wasn’t the official one? And that is how Chomusuke came to be!

Episode 6
Too bad nobody wants Megumin’s explosion. This means no job, no money. And she doesn’t like it as Bukkorori views her the same as him. A NEET! Job hunter, she thinks is more accurate! Every night, Megumin releases her explosion in the forest. People thinks it’s some Mad Exploder trying to attack. Of course Yunyun confronts Megumin about this but she gives her excuses. Yunyun advises her to work and save instead of trying to get rich quick. And so Yunyun has Megumin help her in various jobs. That does not use explosion! Obviously Megumin can’t take this anymore as she is supposed to go on a worldly adventure. So she as Yunyun accompany her as she witnesses first-hand how she blows up the forest just to let out some steam! Megumin now wants her to carry her back since she used up all her power. Bukkorori is here thinking Mad Exploder is at it again so Megumin lies through her teeth about that. Back home, a girl named Arnes finds Megumin and claims has been searching for her since the sealed has been broken. She will serve her from now on. Turns out she is referring to Chomusuke whom she addresses as Wolbach. The cat doesn’t want to leave and Megumin can’t be bothered. Until Arnes offers her a large sum of money! She’ll give back Chomusuke right now! But the kitty still won’t leave so Arnes will come back tomorrow.

Next day, Yunyun is appalled to learn what Megumin tried to do. Arnes is here to collect the cat but Chomusuke still won’t go. During the struggle, Arnes’ horns are revealed. She is a high level demon. They don’t believe she is here only to get her master. When she claims demons keep their promises, suddenly she goes into seizure? After regaining composure, turns out she got some trauma from sleazy and trashy men who failed to keep their promises. Bukkorori is here since he senses something powerful. Megumin lies again to point out Arnes as the Mad Exploder. Bukkorori then summons all the village adults to get her. A traumatized Arnes can’t help run away because an aura of trashy men!!! Well, at least she didn’t take Chomusuke along and with the money reward, Megumin is now ready to go on a journey. She wants Yunyun to take care of Chomusuke while she’s gone. Of course Yunyun is feeling sad about it since this is all too sudden. Even more so when Megumin claims she won’t be coming back and she’ll be aiming to ascend the throne of the Demon Lord? So she wants to conquer the world, huh? We see a few scenes of Megumin spending time with Komekko. Telling her who to see in case of emergencies. Yeah, probably Yunyun will be feeling lonely so do go check on her once in a while. Next day, Megumin is at the teleport station as some of her academy friends are here to see her off. Funifura gives her a staff that her dad made while Arue gives her eye-patch since her goal is to be a writer and write happy stories. She would love to write about Megumin’s adventures one day. And off Megumin teleports on her big adventure.

Episode 7
Megumin arrives in the hotspring city of Arcanretia. Her new adventure begins, right? Well, only she hasn’t been able to land a decent job and gets fired. Yeah, stupid adults treating her like a child so what’s the deal if she beats them up?! She then sees a couple of girls trying to solicit new members for the Axis church. She ignores them but soon sees an Axis priestess, Cecily accusing a couple of priests from Eris faith about sexually harassing her. When Megumin goes to stop them, Cecily escapes so the priests blame her for letting the criminal who defaced their religious portrait and stole goods for the needy, away! But Cecily returns with a police officer to interrogate them. Cecily then takes Megumin and run while leaving the officer with the priests. To thank Megumin for her effort, Cecily takes her back to her church for some food whereby she meets Father Zesta. I’m starting to believe this is some deviant pedo cult since their faith doesn’t allow them near children?! Yeah, look at how they desire so much to do those sickly stuffs! Learning that the church wants to recruit members, Megumin is willing to help out. WTF this genius plan of hers to accidentally drop apples, pretend to help and pick them up and then this leads to Zesta giving them a sermon to convince them to join. Well, I didn’t think I t would work but it would have if Zesta’s horny face didn’t scare off that lady!!! Next, Megumin tries herself but this time it is an undercover police! Care to explain this at the station? Oh, Zesta abandoning her…

Later they talk and it seems Zesta may have met the person Megumin who is looking for. Megumin agrees to help him one more time to recruit. As Megumin pretends to trip over nothing and in pain, guess who this girl not impressed with her acting? YUNYUN!!! What the f*ck you doing, Megumin? AWKWARD! WTF Yunyun rolling Megumin down the street?! After Yunyun learns what happened, she is also taken back to Axis church although she warns Megumin to not trust these guys so much. Upon returning, a group of knights is here to arrest Zesta. Megumin will not stand for baseless accusations but when his followers think Zesta did some lewd deviant stuff, okay, ARREST THIS DEVIANT! Actually they are going to arrest him for treason and conspiracy. They received a letter warning about a threat descending on Arcanretia. As already predicted, something has happened to the hotsprings and they have received many complaints about its quality. Since the Axis sect is responsible in water control, it is no surprise they think they are working with the demons for this. WTF Zesta makes it worse by trying to attack and sexually harass the knight lady?! TRYING TO SMOOCH HER AS REVENGE?! TAKE HIM AWAY! With him gone, Cecily isn’t worried. Yeah, the church will still be alright without him. Megumin notices Yunyun has been uneasy ever since so the latter reveals that letter is from Soketto. This is the reason she left the village so as to deliver this letter to the city as she has foresaw something. So basically, this letter is the cause of all this mess.

Episode 8
Megumin and Cecily are pretty chill, not doing anything about Zesta’s arrest. In fact, there are a bunch of Axis priests trying to canvass for votes from the people to be the next head! As they investigate, they find that the hotspring water has been replaced with jelly slime mix, which is also the town’s delicacy. Yeah, trying to get the easy way out by blaming Zesta, eh? Even the knights gathering the evidence believes Zesta is guilty seeing there is evidence that he was holding a bag filled with such slime. When they head to the station, there is a commotion of Zesta accusing everyone of falsely accusing him of being in cohorts with the demons. Apparently some prosecutor with a magic lie detector that exonerated him. The knight lady has no choice but to reluctantly declare his innocence. This makes Zesta all so high and mighty and he is making sexual harassing comments about her boobs?! On the way back, they stumble into Arnes. They believe it is her behind this incident although she isn’t sure what they’re talking about and is here to get her master back. Zesta seems pretty interested in her boobs. Of course she doesn’t appreciate this lecher and fires her magic. Once realizing she is a demon, he easily deflects it! OMFG! This old geezer is actually powerful?! With other villagers gathering and Zesta continue to pound her with powerful magic, déjà vu for Arnes as she is forced to flee again. In tears! Later Zesta gives Megumin some funds for her trip to Axel. Yes, her recruitment methods she taught came in handy. Megumin would love to go there right now and this worries Yunyun. Can she be honest to say she wants to stick around with her? Since it is late, Zesta invites her to stay. In this small cramped hotspring with Cecily, she reveals that the jelly slime incident was indeed Zesta’s fault. He mixed up the baking soda with slime mix while cleaning up. She doesn’t want Megumin to reveal this as she wants to use this as blackmail. Megumin gets an idea to increase the size of the hotspring. That’s right. Explosion magic! Now everyone can fit in spaciously! Next day, Zesta and Cecily see off Megumin and Yunyun. Zesta blesses Megumin with Aqua’s divine protection. None for Yunyun as they all think it was her fault! He hopes Megumin will come back here. She will for vacation once she gets a bunch of friends. Cecily then hands her parting gift: A stack of recruitment forms! Megumin throws it back in her face! Then it’s off to Axel for a brand new adventure!

Episode 9
Yunyun arguing with Megumin to swap her window seat as promised and the latter gives excuses. So much so the mother and daughter pair in the coach offers theirs. Yeah. Let’s stop this embarrassment, shall we? As the pair learn they are going to be adventurers and Megumin bragging she can handle any monsters, looks like she jinxed it as monsters are now attacking! The caravan guards need their help and seeing Megumin likes to be called a sensei, let’s get to it. Well, they have to fight weak but numerous giant worms. Megumin wants to use her explosion but Yunyun forbids her as she will engulf everyone too. Are you done arguing because the worm is going to eat you! Eventually Yunyun’s fireball did the trick. One down, how many more to go? In the end, Yunyun did all the work as everyone praises her and criticizes Megumin for not doing anything. But the daughter knows Megumin is stronger and is assured they’ll be safe if stronger ones pop up. That night as Yunyun tries to recruit Megumin to join the same party, giant bats attack! Oh well, Yunyun again did everything and now she’s quite exhausted. Next day as the journey continues, goblins turn! Oh my. You know the drill. Yeah, Yunyun is all out of magic and very tired. That is when Arnes shows up. Yes, all the monsters were sent by her to exhaust their magic and see their despaired faces as part of her revenge. Arnes wants Chomusuke or her money back. I’m sure Megumin won’t want the latter. Megumin then dares Arnes, if she wants Chomusuke so badly, go and get her. Megumin throws the cat away!!! Arnes flies to grab the kitty as Megumin starts chanting her explosion magic only to be stopped by Yunyun because it’ll also hit Chomusuke. Not that Megumin cares. Their argument has bought enough time for Arnes to cast her magic spell. When Megumin notices her bracelet she bought from her father and thanks her, this only riles Arnes up because it brought her nothing but misery. Yunyun panics and prays to Aqua for help and suddenly some divine light is seen covering Axel. This distraction allows Chomusuke to escape and Megumin to chant her explosion. Both ladies fire all they’ve got but Megumin is stronger and blasts away Arnes. Hopefully that would be the last of her. In the aftermath, everyone praises Megumin while Yunyun rethinks about her question of letting Megumin join her group. It’s not that she doesn’t want to, she realizes she’ll be only in the way. Hence she wants to train and become stronger so they can settle things. Finally they reach Axel.

Episode 10
Megumin makes her grand entrance before the adventurer’s guild. Too bad, nobody is in. How embarrassing. Oh well, at least the receptionist, Luna is there to register them. After Megumin gets her licence, many adventurers want her to join their group. So I guess she goes with this pair of rookie siblings. Unfortunately in her first quest, she blows up the entire forest of chestnut trees just to fight this little critter. Yeah, the amount of compensation she has to pay… Plus, the siblings think she is too great for their party. Read: You’re fired. She goes back to see a request on the bulletin by Yunyun seeking for party members. Oh well, I guess Megumin is going to let her continue waiting. Then she sees one who needs a spell caster. She takes up this one and joins this group to take out some slime monster. While her explosion is effective, she got slimed. Her comrades praise her awesome magic but that is when Megumin comes clean with the flaws of it. It’s the only magic she could do and only once per day. She has no intention to master or level up any other magic. Well then, hope you find yourself a new party. Nearly broke Megumin returns home and talks to Yunyun. Looks like she too is having a hard time. Yeah, some old man wanted her as company. Seems nice, bought her lunch but oh yeah, you bet all the signs there are ringing like hell for Megumin. For a week, Megumin joins a party but after her explosive stint, they changed their mind and cancel her contract. Starting to feel sad nobody wants a child prodigy like her? Are we supposed to sympathize with her?! Soon, Megumin hears clues about the whereabouts of Wolbach. She now knows how to find her but will only do so when she’s ready. When she returns to the guild, everyone is seen taking down their requests. So when she manages to read one that needs spell casters but others claimed it is already filled, this makes Megumin enraged like as though there is some sort of prejudice against explosion mages! She gets lectured by Luna for such outburst. But soon, that old man begging Yunyun for company. She would’ve accepted it had not Megumin beat him up. She chides her friend for being gullible. I mean, this dude is now asking her to pretend to be his girlfriend. He offered her money but the best part, she gave him some allowance instead out of pity! WTF?! Megumin then suggests they form a temporary alliance until they find their own party members. But this makes Yunyun sad and mad. Had she forgotten about that promise? Has too much explosion ruined her brain?! But they need the money or they’ll be sleeping in the stables tonight. Please, any job will do!

Episode 11
Megumin and Yunyun are being chased by horny rabbits! Oops sorry! Phrasing! Horned rabbits! Stop blaming each other and do something! Explosion! But right after that, Host swoops down and says he is looking for a black creature. The girls won’t stay to hear him elaborate and make a run for it. Back at the guild, they report this to Luna and she believes he is looking for a monster nicknamed Rookie Slayer. After another mission, when the hero gets gravely injured, this causes the rest of the adventurers to lose morale and retreat. They think they have no chance. So as everybody is depressed at the guild, Luna tries to give some hope because there is a newly registered arch priest who can fight the powerful creatures. However she has not been showing her face around lately. From the way she describes her, it must be Aqua, right?! Yeah, all the men leave to look for this beauty. Heh. Megumin on her way back sees a shoddy worker (definitely Aqua!) trying to scam an adventurer. This can’t be that said arch priest, no? Megumin is not pleased that Cecily is in her room. It seems Zesta received an oracle from Aqua and hence she was dispatched to Axel to investigate it. As far as she interpreted the oracle, it’s like they want her to hire people to kill the demon whatever. Megumin wants to kick her out because who would want a pervert who blatantly sniffs and covers her face with Megumin related stuffs! But Cecily is willing to pay her 5 million to find the arch priest and then another 10 million if they slay the demon. Just like that, Megumin is in! Money talks!

So they walk around trying to find this elusive arch priest. To a point Megumin visits the rival Eris faith and what do you know? Cecily starts acting like a gangster and even throws rocks into their window! Then at the graveyard they thought they stumbled into a ghost and ran for their lives. Well, it could be just Wiz. Megumin and Yunyun are depressed as things aren’t going their way. Until Rex of the hero’s party invites them to join in on a mission as they require powerful spell casters. After impressively taking down this beast, suddenly Host shows up and whacks Rex and his fellow party away into the sky! Now, Host is looking for Wolbach but this beast whom they caught is only Rookie Slayer. Host then smells scent of Wolbach over Megumin and Yunyun and he believes they know about this. Megumin can tell he is after Chomusuke. She tries to tell him to get another black kitten of his own and stop harassing her Chomusuke. Host keeps his word that if Wolbach is handed over, nobody will be harmed. Not even this town. A demon always keeps his word. I wonder if Host gave them some time because the girls head back to Axel as they ponder about this deal. Megumin thinks if handing over Chomusuke resolves everything, it might be a good idea…

Episode 12
The guild is in panic after Megumin tells what happened. Yunyun will not allow her to give away Chomusuke. She’s grown too attached to the kitty for that. And then Megumin says the buzzword that should tug her hug: Aren’t we friends? Oh boy. Playing the friendship card of all times now, eh? And so this is Megumin’s plan. Using Cecily’s funds, she buys a doll that resembles Chomusuke and soaks it with that kitty scent. Is she confident she can fool Host? Got to give her points for that. That night as Megumin is about to sleep, Yunyun comes in to praise everything about her friend from their days back in the village. Obviously Megumin is pretending to be asleep as she gets embarrassed hearing Yunyun spouting all that. In short, she knows this plan won’t work so she puts Megumin to sleep and will do this herself. Megumin wakes up late the next day and makes her rush to find Yunyun. What now Cecily? No time to entertain your shenanigans. However Cecily knows all about Rex and his group because she was the one who healed them. Basically, the source of the annoying turn of events. Yeah, she felt good showing off to the Eris sect. Cecily then blesses Megumin before she heads on her way.

Meanwhile Yunyun has joined Rex’s group as they fight Host. Too bad they have thrown everything they’ve got and the demon still has the upper hand. Eventually Yunyun does a risky gamble to paralyze Host temporarily. Host suggests calling a truce. He promises not to hurt anyone for today if she lets him go. Well, she would love to consider it but the thing is, she too got paralyzed from her own magic! Damn Wiz sold her a super cheap potion whatever. Host can’t stop laughing. But here comes Megumin. A fate worse than death as Megumin reiterates all that Yunyun said last night. Yup, Yunyun so embarrassed, she wants to die! Megumin then uses her same epic explosion that killed Arnes to do the same on Host. Host knows he is done for and could’ve survived this had he had full magic. If not for certain weirdoes he bumped into yesterday that drained most of them. What a wasted life. BOOM! In the aftermath, Cecily goes on a journey to improve her skills. She hints she wants to take over this town. Sneaky. Yunyun then does some cringe proclamation to renew her rivalry and friendship with Megumin. Is this supposed to cover for that embarrassment? Yunyun hates to admit it that it was Megumin who defeated Host. If she stays the same, shell never beat her. Yeah, for the record Megumin still has 100% record in owning her. Well, almost. So the girls part ways and Megumin would’ve had a better time had she not given most of her funds to Yunyun! Now nobody wants to take her as a party member for jobs. Until this strange recruitment poster claiming this is a happy party. Suspicious… But Megumin notices it is looking for an advanced job class. Obviously the poster is written by Aqua and Kazuma is telling this depressed goddess to reduce the hurdle. But don’t fear, Megumin shows up and claims she is that arch wizard fit for that job. We all know what comes after, right? Yeah, the rest as we already know is history.

Boom Chicka Boom: You Put The Boom-Boom Into My Heart!
Boom! At this point it’s not even a secret anymore. Not even a dropping of a bombshell. Oh, Megumin is not going to get another sequel but the main KonoSuba series will be getting a third season! Oh yeah. So could this spinoff serve as some sort of an appetizer before that third season arrives? Seems like it. Hope you like your Megumin and her explosions because now we can move on to the main course. Heh.

Is it me or do I feel that the story for this spinoff series is a little bit underwhelming? Oh heck, what was I expecting? Something grand like, uhm, huge explosions or something?! Yeah. Maybe. Well, even if this spinoff didn’t turn out as super awesome as I hoped it would be, that is only because Megumin in the proper main series is just a supporting character. Imagine if she had such an awesome back story before she joined Kazuma’s group and then after joining, it’s like she would have gotten the biggest downgrade in her adventuring life ever. So I think it’s only right that well, her origins aren’t as super exciting as I thought it would be so as not to overshadow the main series itself. Yeah, I know it’s a dumb theory but whatever. Imagine if many people start preferring and wanting to see more of Megumin than the rest of the other casts in KonoSuba. That will be so weird.

Hence the story just feels quiet basic as we see Megumin scrapping by in trying to become the best explosion mage. And of course, lots of misadventures in between. Perhaps it is because I don’t remember much of the original 2 seasons of KonoSuba so I’m wondering if I am missing a heck lot of Easter eggs or other stuffs that I’m supposed to know and hence can’t see the connection. Otherwise, the series starts off with Megumin and her seemingly uneventful life in her small sleepy remote Crimson Demon village before graduating and making her way to Axel to become an adventurer. To me, it feels a bit like random stories or at least the spinoff divided into small mini arcs. So yeah, nothing really explosive to it. Furthermore, questions about the demons and that puzzle box in Komekko’s hands were never really answered. Thus some wasted potential which makes me feel all that was much ado about nothing. Like as though this spinoff is just a linear story telling the events that led up to Megumin joining Kazuma’s party.

Obviously Megumin as the main star of this spinoff and she is as quirky, snarky and eccentric as the character I remember her in KonoSuba. That’s our Megumin for you. Of course that would only be half of the fun because the other half who also made this spinoff worked is Yunyun. Yup, have got to admit that she has more screen time here than in the KonoSuba seasons combined! Obviously! We get a glimpse on how far back the duo go back to the days of their village. So certainly it is amusing to see the weird kind of banter and interaction the duo have. Are they friends? Are they rivals? Are they frenemies? Yeah, more like a bit of everything. But I would definitely say that it is because of their friendship that takes them this far even though they might not want to admit to that. When the series started off, we see them putting up haughty acts with each other but eventually they end up having the care and be concern for each other. Because they’re friends, no? Not that their pride would admit it. They become more reliant on each other ever since entering Axel most probably because of that promise they made. Inseparable as I can see it. As always, Yunyun remains the panicky one and the one with more heart compared to the reckless Megumin. This is why Megumin is always on top when it comes to teasing Yunyun, a great feature of their relationship we see in the main series.

Then there is the curious case of Chomusuke. I don’t remember much if there was any explanation about this pet mascot in the main series so I was hoping it would shed some sort of light. Well, not much either except that we have hints that it could be that Wolbach lady herself whom Megumin drew inspiration to go into explosion magic. That could be it since we have powerful demons who are trying to find her and of course, how much do we know about that Wolbach lady. Note, her name was not mentioned or referred to in the first episode and I am only assuming it because of my Google search in wanting to pin a name on that character. Yeah. So that’s how I came up with that theory that Chomusuke is that busty explosive master. After all, why is it sticking around Megumin like a leech and not wanting to go back to the demons. Could it be that Megumin’s explosion holds a key in freeing her from some trapped spell?

Unfortunately, the rest of the other characters feel very limited. I don’t know but I felt disappointed about Megumin and Yunyun’s fellow classmates because despite only a handful of them, I thought they were going to play some sort of important role whatsoever. None really. So the only prominent ones were stoic Arue as well as Dodonko and Funifura who were, well, Yunyun’s friends? But even so, they didn’t anything much. Perhaps they don’t want to usurp the Megumin-Yunyun banter. I wonder what happened to them after Megumin left. Then there is Komekko who feels like there was like some lost opportunities. This curious girl displayed herself to be smart and even getting a demon to become a familiar. But unfortunately she is just a side character and fell into more obscurity after her big sister left the village. We are sometimes shown short clips of her frolicking back in the village but it’s nothing much. Other underwhelming characters in the village include Soketto and of course the village idiot, Bukkorori. I believe his character is to be a punching bag and even his name is so freaking suspicious. Uh huh. With this idiot around, Megumin would look like a baby in terms of idiocy when standing next to him. Thank goodness he doesn’t have much screen time.

If you think Zesta is weird and a pervert, then you haven’t known Cecily. Oh yeah. Makes me wonder if the entire Axis faith are just degenerates. Maybe. Religion makes you do weird sh*t stuffs and make it look normal. Anyway, to further make Megumin look like an angel, that’s why this weird character who is obsessed with her so that Megumin can make her unimpressive smug face whenever she starts breathing hard into her perversion. Viewers would definitely haven taken notice of the presence of Kazuma and the rest of the other characters of KonoSuba once Megumin reaches Axel. Obviously those characters are confined in the background (why faces not shown clearly?) and mostly we hear are Kazuma chastising Aqua on her stupidity or inefficiency. Oh yeah. Fate is going to have Megumin join this weird group one day soon… My guess is that this teaser of such characters is also not to usurp the spinoff. Megumin is in charge and the main character here!

Art and animation are pretty standard. Despite Drive (Vlad Love, Teppen) a new studio animating this spinoff and taking over from Studio Deen, it is good to know that the art style and the character designs of the series remains largely the same. At least I can see no obvious difference. The background sceneries look good and of course some nice special effects when magic gets used. Though, I think there is very minimal CGI used and I noticed they are done for the horses and carriages. In other words, they should have done a freaking better job on this! Well, thankfully they are only confined to such minimal and seemingly unimportant scenes but yeah, I can’t believe they didn’t give us better CGI quality. I’m not saying it looks like sh*t but they should’ve made it less obvious.

For the voice acting, our lovely Rie Takahashi and Aki Toyosaki play their recurring roles to perfection as Megumin and Yunyun respectively. I only recognized Yuko Kaida as Wolbach but holy sh*t, did I just see Mamiko Noto’s name somewhere in the credits???!!! OMFG!!!! WHO???!!! WHERE???!!! Who the f*ck this Yuiyui character?! Oh, it’s Megumin’s mom! OMG. How the f*ck could I miss her?! Even if she has very limited lines, I should have been able to pick her out???!!! WHY DID I NOT???!! I AM SO ASHAMED OF MYSELF!!! I still can’t believe I missed it… Or maybe I did recognize her but forgot all about it since her character was quite insignificant and Megumin’s explosions bombed my memory. WTF… Why… Oh why?! Sob, sob…

Anyway I’m so unmotivated now so let me just get the rest of the casts out of the way… Ai Fairouz as Cecily (Power in Chainsaw Man), Maria Naganawa as Komekko (Kanna in Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon), Itaru Yamato as Host (Haran in Fire Force), Kaori Nazuka as Arue (Nunnally in Code Geass), Sayumi Suzushiro as Dodonko (Takemoto in Bokutachi Wa Benkyou Ga Dekinai), Miyu Tomita as Funifura (titular character in Gabriel Dropout), Miki Hase as Soketto (Sayo in Boku No Kanojo Ga Majime Sugiru Shobitch Na Ken), Yoshiki Nakajima as Bukkorori (Serge in Fairy Gone), Sachiko Kojima as Arnes (Monad in Ergo Proxy), Takeo Ootsuka as Rex (Leon in Otome Game Sekai Wa Mob Ni Kibishii Sekai Desu) and Yasunori Masutani as Zesta (Gazelleman in Kinnikuman Nisei).

Stay Free by Machico as the opener is your typical upbeat rock music that fits the pace of the series. The more amusing one is the ending theme, Jump in by the duet of Megumin and Yunyun. Singing in their character voice, they make this easy hip hop piece sound a lot cute. Not sure if I should consider this song as calming but in some ways it does have that sort of effect especially Yunyun singing in her dreamy voice, making the song sounding somewhat breathy too. There is an insert song (not sure its name) that is played sparingly throughout the series (it was also used in the trailer). The one with some creepy solo choir voice. It can either sound eerily unsettling or harmonically beautiful depending on the circumstances you’re listening to.

Overall, the spinoff may not be as explosive as one can come to expect but in its own right, it is still enjoyable and entertaining. The only thing ‘explosive’ is perhaps the banter between Megumin and Yunyun as personally, their interactions were the most amusing parts of the series. We’ll see how they carry over their strange friendship over to the third season of KonoSuba. Hopefully it will be something even more explosive than this. It would be an irony if that season has more explosions than this one… But still better than any Bayplosions anytime, anywhere. Ready to let the explosions flow through you? Let’s hear it one more time, EXPLOSION!

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch

Oh well. I guess we still have to BEAR with it! That’s right. If you think the first season wasn’t enough and was just BEARABLE, then there is the second season that we all still have to BEAR with. Uh huh. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch is that sequel about a girl who gets stuck playing a game but given all the cool and overpowered power ups at her disposal with the only downside of having to wear this embarrassing bear suit 24/7. Yup. That. So while she BEARS with this embarrassment and gets along with her virtual life, we too have to BEAR with all the cute shenanigans that will come along in this sequel. Sighs… Kuma…

Episode 1
Yuna is eating her favourite honey pancakes when Mirein notes an impending problem. Honey prices are going up because there are orcs hogging the bee tree (you heard that right, not a beehive!) and this prevents the gatherers from getting it. Well, like as though it was all part of Mirein’s plan to have Yuna do something about it. So Yuna goes talk to Helen about taking up that quest and as she arrives at the bee tree, not only she sees orcs but real bears too! Yes. Real bears! This wasn’t in the description so she is in a dilemma whether to attack them because they too might attack humans. The orcs defeat the bear parents and they’re about to do the same to their cubs. So no more deliberating from Yuna as she goes to own those orcs’ asses. To her confusion, the bear gives her some of the honey. As she reports this to Helen, the caretaker of the bee tree, Rem explains that the bears are somewhat his. He closes an eye for them taking honey in exchange they ward off other monsters. It’s a symbiotic relationship. With this new info, Yuna can request Cliff to let those bears live in peace. Now that prices of honey has returned to normal, Cliff sees Yuna again for another official meeting. Seems Ellalaura has written to Yuna to have her formally visit the royal palace again. He also notes the tunnel will soon be completed and things will get busy again. Yuna visits the royal palace and Flora is glad to see her again. He lets her eat the honey pancakes and the king hints he could make it every day if only he had the recipe. Yuna is going to give it to him, right? Yuna has also completed her picture book for Flora as she becomes excited for its continuation. Apparently Flora has been reading those books to the staffs of the palace so you bet Yuna’s works is famous around here too. Later Ellalaura has a request of Yuna and wants her to be the bodyguards of students of the royal academy who are going outside for some training. Yeah, Yuna trying to make excuse why she can’t but apparently there’s nobody else who are willing to put up to those snobbish spoilt brats, right? Don’t worry, Shia will come along with her. Plus, Ellalaura will be in her debt so this is a fair deal.

Episode 2
Yuna feeling so lazy, she doesn’t want to do her job! Not if mama Fina tells her to be responsible! So as Yuna goes to meet Ellalaura and Shia to be briefed about this job, she is dismayed the students are not told about her. Yeah, trying to see their reactions like how Shia was? As expected, the students whom Yuna will be escorting other than Shia are Marix, Timol and Cattleya. Obviously they are shocked to see this bear girl and can’t believe she is their bodyguard. Even if Yuna shows her adventurer card, they think she bought it with money. It’s pretty common for nobles to do so. Yuna begins her journey with the students although they don’t really place much hopes on her. They take shifts while camping out and nothing untoward happens. Until the last stretch of the journey, Kumayuru and Kumakyu detect a small pack of goblins waiting to ambush. Shia thinks Yuna should reveal this ability to the students to help increase her reputation. Thanks to the warning, the students are able to fight back the goblins and defeat them. Marix being a tsundere as he tries to apologize to Yuna for being a dick but changes his mind to thank her bears instead. As they depart, Yuna thought the goblins were acting strange. Like as though they were desperate for something. They arrive at the village where the students will be staying. Of course the villagers are bemused with Yuna’s outfit. As the girls prepare for the night in their room, it seems observant Cattleya knows that Shia is quite close to Yuna and knows her for some time due to the way they interact with each other. So they don’t want the boys to find out? Yuna then calls Fina to update and assure her everything is okay. Thanks to Shia around, she managed to pull through as there were many times she just wanted to quit and go home.

Episode 3
While helping around the silkworm workshop, a resident reports that goblins have attacked one of the sheds near the silkworm nest. Some workers are trapped there. Marix and the rest offer to go help as Yuna tags along. The goblins are easily defeated and the trapped ones safe. However they realize something strange because the goblins weren’t trying to attack them but instead trying to get into the shed. Then it all makes senses because a black tiger was chasing them. Oh damn, so you kids killed a bunch of innocent goblins?! Anyway, the students are scared and think they’ll die. Marix offers to be decoy to let the rest run away. With Shia pleading Yuna’s turn for help, I guess she has to. Because their surrounding is also surrounded by black tigers. Yuna shows off her overpowered moves as she easily defeats all the black tigers. Marix especially in shock and awe as Shia explains that Yuna didn’t buy her licence and obtained it through hard work. So don’t judge a book by its cover next time. If you think nothing scares Yuna, maybe those giant silkworms will. Big bugs looking pretty scary. Later the students apologize to Yuna for their arrogance and thank her for her huge help. With the training over, the students return to their academy. Jiguldo who is another fellow student but of another batch is seeing off his adventurer escorts, Mel and Jaden. They both know who Yuna is. Jiguldo has no ill intentions although he quips Yuna’s weird outfit so the rest come to Yuna’s defence and warn there’ll be hell to pay if he bothers her! Later Ellalaura talks to Yuna as she describes those students’ good and bad points. Asking if Yuna would take up this job again, NO! The students treat Yuna to meal as thanks.

Episode 4
With the tunnel opened, Yuna is glad she is able to savour seafood dishes from Ans again. Right timing because Ans and her friends are visiting Crimonia, she suggests to them helping out the orphanage too. At the same time, Sherry gives Yuna an embroidered cushion. Ans and friends are shown around town before they are put in Telmina’s care since they will be helping to run her shop. With Mirein having bear outfits at uniforms, definitely it will be embarrassing to wear those, right? Hence Yuna suggests Sherry’s design on the apron and of course everybody approves of it. Hence Yuna goes to see Sherry to see if she can make a few more. Of course. But since she lacks the finer skills, Yuna takes her to a tailor shop where the couple can help guide and provide the materials for it. Sherry’s hard work pays off and the tailors are so impressed with her handy work that they suggest taking her on as an apprentice. After handing over the aprons to Ans and co, Yuna notices Sherry a little down. She goes to talk to her and learns about the apprenticeship offer. You see, Sherry is in a dilemma whether to accept it. Most probably she will turn it down as she fears doing so will burden the rest with more work at the orphanage. She also thinks her fellow orphans will get mad. Yuna suggests to talk to them to ask for their opinion. Long story short, sorry Sherry they didn’t get mad but happily accept her decision. Whatever extra tasks they have to do are no biggies and in fact, some of them are actually holding second part time jobs elsewhere. Thus the most important thing is for Ans not to have regrets. It is her life after all. With all doubts blown away, Sherry accepts the offer. All is well and fine. The orphanage and even Ans and pals helping out at the restaurant.

Episode 5
Yuna wants Fina to use her knife to cut this black tiger but she claims she can’t. Believing her knife is not strong enough, she’ll take her to the dwarven shop to get better equipment. Yuna gets all excited hearing the ultimate mithril knife and needs to have it for Yuna no matter how expensive. Sure, but there’s a problem: There’s no mithril stock right now. Furthermore, there are not many blacksmiths here who can work on it. They will send a recommendation to a dwarven blacksmith in the royal capital, Ghazal so they can get one. Arriving there, despite the letter, unfortunately Ghazal can’t make one for them because he too has no mithril stock. Apparently the mine is having some trouble with the golems. For more details, head down to the adventurer guild. Too bad some punks look down on a bear girl and a loli. WTF they try to get rough? Enough for Yuna to put them down, though. This farce is ended when Sanya tells them off. Learning they are here for the mines, she tells about the problem it is facing. Right now golems are inhabiting it and they are unsure how many there are. Right now only 2 adventurer parties are taking on this job to clear the golem threat as the rest aren’t interested. You bet Yuna is going to accept this job. Arriving there, she sees the people lifeless. Probably affected by this golem thingy. She meets Mel and Jaden who are here to tackle the golem issue. They share info that their number seems endless and the deeper you go, the stronger they become. Yuna also meets the other adventurer party on this mission. Led by Barbould, they mock Yuna as some pet mascot. Though, they are more interested in a competition to see which party eliminates all the golems first. Yuna thinks at least Fina is safe but looks like she is being ‘traumatized’ by Ellalaura and Shia as they want to put expensive clothes on her! Scared she’ll never pay if she rips them?!

Episode 6
Yuna thinks of going to fight the golems herself. Too bad Mel’s party wants to come along. Actually they think Yuna should come with them to fight golems. There goes her solo adventuring. Meanwhile Fina must be panicking like hell, wondering if she’ll offend the king in any way. Death sentence! Then she meets the king and Flora. The king notes Fina is way more polite than Yuna. Yeah, that bear girl never bothered to even come see him and when he sees her (usually in Flora’s room), she gives him that look! I guess only those like God can do such disrespect to a king! As Yuna and co easily take out the golems as they proceed deeper, eventually they meet their match with the toughest golem of all, the mithril golem. Its body is so hard that no physical attack or magic penetrates. Barbould’s party is handling it and is telling the rest to stay away. If that’s the case, Jaden will let them handle it as he tells his party to return. Eventually they fail to kill it. The adventurers think there is no hope in taking it out so they all just drink to it? Of course for Yuna, she believes if she can defeat it, she’ll get her hands on some mithril. Meanwhile Fina thought she is doomed when she accidentally breaks a glass and spills the drink on her clothes. Compensation! Thank goodness Ellalaura and Shia aren’t even mad as this happens very often with Noire. The servants clean it up and they even have a new dress for Fina prepared. F*cking rich people! Yuna goes solo to fight the mithril golem. But she transports it to the seaside where she can go all out. She lifts it high in the air to drop and break it. Once it is immobilize, she goes for the core. Easy. Returning to the cave, her bears found a pair of black balls buried nearby. Then a message from God saying she left presents for her from time to time to find. This means the infinite spawning of golems is caused by these balls and so it’s Yuna’s fault somehow? Yuna returns to the adventurers to tell them she has singlehandedly taken out all the golems including the mithril one. She just wants them to go check and confirm tomorrow if they will respawn. Of course everyone is in shock especially Barbould cannot believe this pet did it by herself. Yuna zaps him out. That’s for all the insults. Next mission: Time to head back and rescue a certain princess.

Episode 7
The adventurers confirm Yuna’s words. Barbould even trying to make Yuna join his party but obviously she turns him down. And he wonders why… Then she goes to pick up Fina. Wow. Like as though she just rescued her from some dangerous exploit. Definitely. After all the sweet goodness she has been through, any commoner would be close to heart attack death. As they leave, Ellalaura gives Yuna a knife with their family crest. It signifies that she is under their protection so if there is any trouble, be sure to contact them. I’m sure Yuna can pretty much handle any trouble by herself… Then she goes give the mithril golem to Ghazal. Yuna also requests to make another mithril knife for her own usage. When she asks about this black ball, he is unsure of what rock it is. He recommends seeing his master at the dwarven city. It’s quite far and they only let you in via recommendations. Of course Yuna won’t miss this chance to visit. They pass by Morin’s ex-shop and see a sad girl waiting outside. She is Nerin, Morin’s niece and she thought Morin has gone bankrupt and on the run. Yuna tells her that she is now doing business in Crimonia and no need to worry. As she has no money to travel there, Yuna gives some of hers. Back home, when Shuri desires to be a carver like her sister, Yuna thinks of giving her a mithril knife too. But suddenly… Fina gets mad?! WTF?! She lectures Yuna on how expensive such mithril is and their parents will have to work a long time just to save up for that. In that case, Yuna will loan hers. This makes Fina even madder! In order to repent her actions, Yuna makes strawberry shortcake for the sisters. Of course Fina feels sorry for her outburst. As requested, Fina will carve the black tiger with her mithril knife at the guild so the staff can study the process more. With everyone’s support, Fina starts carving it up. Back home, it is déjà vu because Telmina is lecturing Yuna about giving a mithril knife. Yeah, heard that before. Yuna promises to keep it stored nicely and will only use with proper supervision. Yet another déjà vu as Telmina is soothed by Yuna’s strawberry shortcake. Should add this to the menu. Yay, we can eat this again!

Episode 8
Nerin finally meets Morin and wonders why she never let her know that they have moved. Well, Morin did send a letter to her father and perhaps he forgot all about it. Yuna just arrived at the shop and Nerin is glad to see her. Too bad Yuna doesn’t remember her! Eventually she does as she learns Nerin’s wish to work here since it is her dream to be a baker. But Morin asks Yuna for permission since she is the owner of this shop. Of course, is there a reason not to? Yuna is also here to introduce this shortcake. Delicious of course but Morin finds it hard to make since they have their hands full at other types of bread. Nerin then offers to learn how to do it so Yuna starts teaching her. Yuna and Fina go visit Noire to introduce this shortcake. After that duo go learn from her maid, Lala on how to brew tea. Cliff is free enough to review their tea and of course they pass. Obviously they are using not high quality tea leaves since it would be a waste to use them for practice. So imagine if they were high quality… Yeah. I bet this guy would start to go into exaggerated reaction mode. Soon, Yuna returns to the capital to see Ghazal to get her twin mithril knives. She tests it out by easily carving the iron golem corpse. We can attribute half to the knives’ awesomeness and the other half to Yuna’s exceptional skill. Busy day for Yuna as she continues to be the marketing team for the shortcake as she know introduces it to Flora and the royal family. We know the answer, right? Then the palace’s head chef, Zelef comes to personally thank Yuna for the pudding recipe. Behold and be enthralled further as he tastes the shortcake. Yeah, see those tears! This makes Zelef want to travel the world and learn different types of foods. This makes the king sad as he won’t be able to eat his cooking anymore. That is when the queen gets an idea to have chefs from other countries to see Zelef. Well, look whose diplomatic work will be piling up? That’s you, Ellalaura. As thanks Zelef will cook anything for Yuna. And so Yuna returns with her stomach very full and satisfied. It’s a good thing she won’t put on any weight, right?

Episode 9
Yuna and Fina get a birthday invitation from Misa. So why is Fina panicking? Oh, never attended a noble’s birthday party, huh? Wow, after that stint, she really must be worried about offending nobles, eh? Since Yuna herself doesn’t know much about nobles, they go visit and talk to Cliff and Noire. They too have been invited and rest assured this is a private party with only a selected few and close ones invited. Fina feeling the pressure when Noire explains how sad she’ll be if she didn’t turn up to a party she was invited. Yeah, so I guess they’ll be going rather than declining it. Whatever nobles complicated stuffs, Cliff will handle. Also, good to know that there is no death penalty if you decline one. To make preparations for the party, Yuna goes to see Ans to get some tailor made dresses. Then they discuss on what kind of gifts to prepare so they make lots of cakes and sweets. Yuna and Fina then meet up with Cliff and Noire to depart to the next town of Sheelin where Misa lives. OMFG, the bears run faster than the horses! And even tire them out! Now I’ve seen everything! The journey is far so they camp with Yuna’s convenient makeshift bear house in the forest when night falls. Yuna asking Cliff for more details about Sheelin and nobles but he assures her there is nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the party. Next day as they continue, Yuna spots goblin riders attacking a family merchant. Of course she easily takes them out. Déjà vu? The merchants know all about Yuna because of her bear suit and rumours of her has spread wide. It seems they are on their way to another city to start anew after their business failed in Sheelin. They part ways as Yuna and co finally reach Sheelin. Everyone looking at them. Obviously they’re staring at Yuna but she can’t accept reality and thinks they’re staring at Cliff the noble instead! Finally they arrive at Misa’s castle mansion. Meishun her maid greets them before Misa herself comes to greet them. Yuna is glad she didn’t turn down the invitation.

Episode 10
Yuna and co meet the rest of Misa’s family. Misa introduces the head chef, Botts who will be cooking dishes for the birthday party. So while they let the adults handle all the preparations, the kids go hang out in town. Yeah, getting more stares from the public. But soon the fun is ruined when this snobbish noble, Randle Salbard starts to mock Misa of being a poor noble and that her family will soon be going under. He tries to arrogantly invite himself to her party but she turns him down. Before things get ugly, Yuna intervenes. She would love to keep the commotion to a minimum but Randle calls his bodyguard, Brad (some Dracula overlord?) to take her on. However this only makes a fool out of Randle and Brad tells him to call it off before they attract unwanted attention. Later as Misa apologizes for all this, she tells a little history of Sheelin that this history is ruled by 2 lords. Her family rules the eastern side while the Salbard on the western side. Yuna then talks to Cliff and Gran about this as they explain more about Sheelin’s peculiar history on why the royal let 2 nobles rule it. But that was when both sides got along and now that they don’t, things only got more hostile. Because tax revenue for the eastern side has dropped, the king threatened to dismiss their noble status and this would leave Salbard as the only rulers of Sheelin. Therefore Misa’s party is to show that the Farrengram family is still strong as well as the Foscurose family is standing strong with them. But more bad news as Botts is injured in an attack. They believe it is Salbard but they have no proof. Cliff will send his bodyguards back to get replacements but soon, they too get attacked and are now immobile. Once more, the highly suspected Salbard monitoring their moves but no proof. Cliff is forced to ask Yuna for help when he promised her to leave this to the adults. Hence Yuna goes to the royal capital to seek an audience with the king. Apparently he too knows about the politics happening at Sheelin. However Yuna is not here to bring up a complaint about them but to request Zelef as the replacement chef. Yeah, that chef is eager to go and show his skills! So, they’re not teleporting back there but riding the bears? Oh well, they’re faster than horses. Better get a move on before Zelef describes the delicious parts of her bears that can be used for meat and delicacy… Are you curious on how bear meat tastes like?!

Episode 11
Everyone is shocked when Yuna brings Zelef. He is glad to work with his comrade Botts again. Meanwhile Randle and his father, Gajurdo are also one of the many attending the party. Gajurdo is happy his plans are going well but WTF Randle’s answer is to eliminate everything?! Even at least Gajurdo has the decency not to resort to that. During the party, Gajurdo and his men cause a scene that the food tastes bad despite it tastes freaking good. Gran tries to appease them but they continue to call it pig slop and even trample on them. All those spineless guests have no balls to oppose him. But this is all part of Yuna’s foresight because now Zelef turns up as he tries to ascertain what is wrong with the food so he could make it better. That is because he needs to improve it for the king to eat. That is when everybody realizes who this chef is. Oh boy. Gajurdo’s men start to panic as they feign they were sick so they couldn’t taste properly. Gajurdo wonders how he got here so fast seeing Botts was injured. How does he know Botts is injured? Oops. When all avenues are exhausted, Gajurdo also feign sickness. Take care. Back home, Gajurdo curses his luck. Randle’s answer? Kill everybody! Of course Gajurdo isn’t so stupid to stoop to that and tells his idiot son to STFU. You think Randle will take this? Next day, Ellalaura visits. Not only is she here to help celebrate Misa’s birthday but to personally inspect this city after the king spoken out on this issue. Before Misa’s birthday party begins, Noire and Fina gang up to force Yuna to wear this lovely dress. Can she take off her bear suit?! APPARENTLY YES!!! HOW?! Oh well, as long as those bear gloves and boots stay on. And of course, Yuna is looking so stunning with this beautiful dress. A different side to her other than her bear suit. Oh wow. But don’t steal the limelight. It’s Misa’s birthday party, you know. Yuna then gives teddy bear presents to her. This sends Noire reeling because she didn’t get one and ‘blames’ her parents for not giving birth to her on today. WTF… Don’t worry, Yuna promises to get her a set next time.

Episode 12
When Yuna is in town, suddenly she gets a distress call for help from Fina. She rushes back to see everyone being taken out! Misa is missing. After healing an injured Fina, she is told that somebody came to kidnap Misa. Alright. That does it. No more Ms Nice Bear. She has an idea who did this and has her bears lead her there. As we all also know, it is stupid Randle who kidnapped Misa. But in her cell there are also other kidnapped kids whose families do not listen to them. Randle goes to brag about this to his dad to use Misa to get Gran to bow to their demands and of course he blows his top over his stupidity and stubbornness. Too late about thinking Randle will take him down along with him because here Yuna is at the doorstep. She’s not in the mood for playing so if you don’t answer her questions, you get taken out. Brad then attacks her and of course she avoids. He is impressed with her skills and starts blabbing that he was the one who kidnapped Misa. Yuna couldn’t be ‘happier’ since now she gets to beat his ass. They start fighting and while Brad enjoys it, he’ll soon learn that Yuna is in a league of her own. She doesn’t use up all her raging power until Brad spills that he loves beating up the weak, include Fina and Noire who tried to futilely protect Misa. Yup, that sealed his doom. Yuna takes him out and panicky Randle takes Misa out as hostage. Dumb move because she punches him out cold. Gajurdo pleads his innocence that he has nothing to do with it all. It was all Randle’s doing. Ellalaura is here with the guards to arrest them as Misa claims there are other abducted kids in the cell. Because Gajurdo is willing to cooperate and bring down his own son just to save his own skin, Ellalaura then has her guards search his whole mansion. Maybe they’ll stumble upon proof of his wrongdoings. And that’s the end of these arrogant nobles. Misa now can cry her heart out in Yuna’s arms. They are then reunited with the rest who are glad everything turned out well. In the aftermath, Gajurdo, Randle and Brad are imprisoned. With the ton of evidence of Gajurdo’s wrongdoing, he was given the death penalty. Randle was stripped of his title and exiled from Sheelin. Gran and his family inherited the sole position of Sheelin’s mayor and the town soon prospered. Everyone praising Yuna as a goddess who brings more luck to good people and bad luck to the bad ones. Yeah, how does the title of goddess of bears sound! Unbearable! HAHAHA!

Bare Necessities: Can’t Bear Punch This One Out Of A Paper Bag!
I guess we needed some sort of circumstances for Yuna to unleash her rage as well as the full extent of her bear powers. Yeah. Dumb noble dick scumbags are the only way to go but as I have seen, all that isn’t even half of Yuna’s true power. I mean, the girl who can easily take down monsters and beasts, if she unleashed all that on these bad people, they’ll be dead! And Yuna will be tainted as a murderer! And that will make all the lolis lose their smiles and thus failed to protect those cute little smiles she promised to do so. Can’t have that, can we? So yeah, just rough them up a little bit and now she’s the goddess of this world. Oh wow. I can’t believe we BEAR through all that! Thank goodness it is now over!

Honestly, this season felt boring and very forgettable. I don’t see what this season is about except more of Yuna and friends cute and kawaii shenanigans. Oh wait. Does this series have a serious plot to begin with? After all, with all the sugar coated niceness, it seems that we have all but forgotten that this whole world is actually a game that Yuna is trapped inside! Do we still remember that?! What was the game’s name again? Oh right. World Fantasy Online AKA WFO! Yeah, don’t even remember it all had I not do some referring to my previous blog! Yikes. Really and truly have forgotten about it all, no? Or is that a forgone conclusion because Yuna has now adapted herself pretty well into this world and can consider herself a true citizen and inhabitant of Crimonia. Whatever the case may be, this season still sucks. To put it in the crudest of ways, that is. Remember, Yuna has no family or friends back in her own world so there’s no reason for her to go back there, right? And what’s this about making money via stocks?! Yeah, screw that. Adventuring and eating good food here is much better. So uhm, can Yuna hand me those stocks because it’s not like she’s needing the money, no?

I mean really, what else can we expect from the second season? There’s no nefarious plot to overthrow the kingdom or some sort of Demon Lord trying to take over the world or heck, destroy it. It’s such a nice world to live in except for a few stupid and arrogant nobles (aside the pesky monsters). Otherwise, this is very much a very peaceful life in this kingdom. At least for Yuna who is so freaking overpowered so there is nothing, literally nothing in this world that can best her. Therefore we can be rest assured and not worry if Yuna is going to die or seriously get injured because it’s part of the script that would not allow such drama to befall on our main beary character. Yeah. As long as this bear suit girl is around, the peace is safely kept. Everyone’s smile is protected. Everybody lives happily ever after.

Just like the plot for this season, the characters are also forgettable. We all know Yuna from last season so she’s not going to go through any major changes here. After all, she’s already so powerful how much more powerful can you make her? Just short of becoming God, that is. And so Yuna has learnt to BEAR with wearing the silly suit but it gives her all the powers she needs to kick ass and show those idiots their places. Good enough. Though the biggest surprise is that she can actually take the whole bear suit that covers her entire body and head off. I don’t know, is there a loophole somewhere because as far as I know, she couldn’t take it off anyhow and is stuck with this. Because if that is the case, why not just leave those gloves and boots and then go wear something else less embarrassing? Did she not figure this out or is this an oversight by everybody? Or is Yuna loving this bear suit actually… Mind boggling…

Even all the lolis this season feel as forgettable and boring. By the time I am typing this sentence, I can’t even remember a single memorable thing about them. Maybe a few stuffs. Like Fina on the verge of having some sort of anxiety attack for fear of offending the royalty since she was left alone in their care while Yuna is away. Don’t laugh, it could be very traumatic for an ordinary young commoner girl. But sadly, that is all I remember her for this season. Even Noire is pretty forgettable too except to ramp up the loli cuteness of everything. Just like every other lolis here. Just there to be cute so that we can fawn at how cute these young girls are. Are you sure this isn’t a show for lolicons? Even Shia only had her moment of shine in the early episodes and after that, she went MIA. Even that, she didn’t really do much since Yuna is the reluctant star. But better than never appearing at all, right? Because looking back at my previous blog, I noticed that there are a handful of characters that didn’t show up in this season like Atla. Not that I remember them in the first place but going through my blog and stumbling upon names I already forgotten, oh well, that’s how I ‘remembered’ them. And with a few new ones, I guess that only adds to the forgettable mess which of course my brain can’t handle and don’t care at this point.

EMT Squared was retained to handle this sequel so it’s great to see some consistency in the art and animation. Of course just like the first season, everything here is bright and colourful and your character designs especially the girls even the adults have this cute loli looks. Sure this is not a series for lolicons? Although some of the backgrounds and sceneries are still nice and high quality, but sometimes some of them look like filters. Did somebody forget to take out those dots in the background? Oh right, it’s this series’ trademark visuals. Oh well, when you’re paying attention to the cute lolis… Azumi Waki who sang the first season’s opener, also sings this season opening theme. Kimi To No Mirai sounds almost similar to Itsuka No Kioku, like as though it is its spiritual successor. This upbeat anime piece has all the liveliness and sparkling cuteness that makes it, uhm, lively and sparkling with cuteness. Just like last season too, Maki Kawase is also retained to sing the ending theme. However Zutto sounds more dramatic, a little dark and mature, rather than all that cuteness that was Ano Ne.

Oh wow. Look how short my end blog for this season has been! A testament that I was really bored in watching this sequel and there was nothing much to write and even sh*t on. Good for you if you love all those sparkling cute loli goodness. I’m done with this. I got sucker (bear) punched. But oh well, to be fair, it was not entirely a bad series and to say that I have wasted my time watching this isn’t fair either. Because there was some sort of hope (no matter how faint it is) that somewhere in this season, things might pick up and get better. But it did not. I was just bored all the way. That’s right. Unfortunately I grit my teeth and BEAR with all the boredom until I’m so numb at this point. Thank goodness it has ended. No more another season, please! That would definitely by utmost unbearable!

Isekai Wa Smartphone To Tomo Ni S2

OH MY GOD!!! OH NO!!! HOW COULD THIS BE?! One of the worst isekai series is back and has a sequel???!!! Did my ears hear wrongly?! Are my eyes playing tricks on me?! Is my brain deceiving me?! Apparently not. It’s true. Because yeah, Isekai Wa Smartphone To Tomo Ni S2 just dropped. That’s right. You know that anime whereby reincarnated main character was allowed to bring his handphone to his new world and create anything, and I mean ANYTHING from that damn Smartphone of his. And don’t forget his harem too. Yes. That. Oh brother. I never thought a series like this would ever get a sequel, especially when its first season was released back in 2017. That’s about 6 years ago! Of all the isekai animes out there, this is one that got another season after a long time? Oh well, Smartphones are getting more and more intrusive in our lives and now we are just so freaking dependant on it. So what a way to remind us all about that indispensable tool that makes us all dependent tools on it with this heinous second season. I made that up but yeah, Smartphones are here to stay…

Episode 1
We see Touya and his girls fighting a pair of mythril golems. Skin too hard to cut? Why, Touya using his Smartphone to send them plunging from the sky! That did the f*cking trick!!! Back home, Leen talks to him about finding the remaining Babylon teleportation gates but Touya doesn’t seem interested in it. After all, it’s not like Leen has any lead on it right now. Touya gets a call from God so a timely visit to assure his second life is so much more fun. Definitely they have so much time on their hands, they really want to see where he goes with his fiancée. Speaking of which, Yumina talks to the other girls about this ‘engagement ring’ Touya gave them all as it also serves as some power ups. You know what they say about less (wo)men more share? They think in the future there will be many other girls who will try to snag Touya and knowing he is the weak guy who can’t say no, he’ll end up with more fiancées. So it’s up to them to get stronger and be enough to support him. So yeah, Yae may be the first as she goes around town with Touya as she manages to get him hold her hand. Normal for fiancées to do that, right? Then Touya and Yumina visit the latter’s parents. The king really wants some grandchildren but Yumina isn’t ready to go that far yet. The queen warns Touya that there might be some nobles especially those who were engaged to Yumina may not accept Touya and may grow hostile towards him. Hence he needs to have some accomplishments to prove himself. Later in town, he learns the inn is not having many customers these days. Touya thinks on how to make the customers stay for the long term. Aha! He creates a hotspring! FROM HIS HANDPHONE!!! OMFG!!! WTF???!!! A few people are called over to test it. Why only old men on his side? Anyway, Yumina wonders if the rest are half-heartedly in love with Touya since they are too shy to admit his love for him. Yeah, it’s bait to get them to reveal why they love him. In short, it’s like this: Elze: He makes me feel like a real woman; Linze: He paid attention to her and solved her anxiety around men; Yae: He has a true heart and stands up for others; Yumina: Love at first sight. Enough said. Meanwhile Francesca tries to be cheeky and climb over to Touya’s side. Thank goodness he laced the fence with some paralysis. Just when he is about to return enjoying his bath, Leen barges in to announce she found a ruin of Babylon!

Episode 2
As the gang heads out to the desert where the next ruin is, they stumble into a group of refugees led by Rebecca running away from an attacking Fraze. However as they attack, it has no effect. Suddenly Ende pops up before Touya. He easily destroys it! He explains about using the same vibrations and frequency to destroy it. Also noting about the cracks in the barrier of the world and that’s why these creatures are coming in. It seems Fraze’s goal is to look for a sleeping king. As in Ende too. Then he leaves. Tending to the refugees, Rebecca and her men are helping these slaves escape the cruelty of their kingdom. But as their master has died, their slave collars cannot be taken off. Oh my, just leave it to Touya to easily take them off! But since they have their slave status, they cannot return to their kingdom. Yumina offers to take them all in. Later Leen questions him about Ende. Who the f*ck that guy? He explains how they met and especially this strange coin he paid him with. Francesca recognizes this coin minted more than 5,000 years ago! Then they also ask him about Fraze so he tells them what he knows as told from Regina. Not that he wanted to keep it a secret, just never found the right time to tell them. Anyway, it was predicted the world would be destroyed by Fraze but then they suddenly disappeared. Back then as the people fought back, by the time the ultimate weapon known as Frame Gear was created, Fraze disappeared. Touya is excited to hear Frame Gear is a mecha and wants to ride it. It is probably in Babylon’s hangar so they head to this ruin as Touya gets transported inside to another garden. Another weird android girl, Rosetta. She wants him to guess her underwear colour! Wouldn’t Touya love to play this game? WTF colourless?! Anyway, this proves Touya to be the new master of this hangar. To his disappointment, it’s just a workshop. Even if Touya can use his skill to duplicate, this one can at least mass produce as long as he has the materials. Unfortunately Rosetta can’t make Frame Gear as she doesn’t have the blueprint and the workshop can only make accessories. Rosetta is introduced to the other girls. Is there some rivalry or bad blood with Francesca? Anyway, Touya wants to merge both gardens since he is control. But back home, a new problem arises as Rebecca and the slaves can’t find proper work. As they don’t have any skills, they can’t join any guild. So live here until something is done? Touya is fine with that but he can’t have them work at Babylon’s workshop since he needs to keep it as a secret

Episode 3
Touya is now the manager of this library café and has employed several staffs to help run it. One day with Yumina as they are at the guild to take on a quest to take down some bloody crab, the receptionist, Prim asks Touya if he has this book series called The Order Of The Rose. She would like him to order a complete set. He sees no biggies in that until Yumina explains about the story about that book. Basically, gay romance happening between the knights! She knows about it because the author is a friend. Under the penname Riel Rifrese, she is actually Reliel Rehn Refreese, the princess of the Refreese kingdom. Yes, she writes such weird stories. Touya gets more orders from Prim as she has her fellow receptionists write down what books they want. From those shady titles, I can guess their rotten fetishes… Boy In A Cage, Sweet And Dangerous Embrace, The Mage And The Sweet Trap… Yeah… As Touya looks for those books in the store, he notices a lady being depressed as she learns the last copy of a book she wants has been sold out. Yes, Touya bought it. Learning what kind of books he is buying, she wants to trade. That volume in exchange for her signature. Yes, this girl is Riel. Touya shocks her by revealing her true name so she panics and starts thinking his intention is to steal the chastity of the next king and take over the nation! WTF?! Head chop! When Touya introduces himself as Yumina’s unofficial fiancé, once more her imaginations run wild. Yumina getting married?! Is it a sham marriage and Touya’s target is the king! WTF?! Head chop! Thankfully Yumina explains everything so Riel better keep her mouth shut if she doesn’t want another Touya’s punishment. Touya gets all the books as Prim and her friends happily indulge in their reading. Time for Elze to have some screen time with Touya as he gives her this Chinese dress as present. Stunning. Soon, Linze shows Touya a new series by Riel. It’s about an overpowered man who gets the nation’s knight, beautiful princess, her brother and prince as he climbs up the ladder. Wow. Doesn’t this protagonist sound and look familiar? Looks like Touya’s going to need to practice that head chop. Don’t look now because Riel is on a roll with more inspirations! Next volume coming out next month!

Episode 4
When Touya visits the empire’s capital, holy f*ck it’s under attack! That escalated quickly! After helping a soldier, healing him and bringing him to safety, he learns the military is rebelling against the kingdom. Inside the palace, Touya saves Princess Lucia Rea Regulus from being assassinated. Her knight aide, Carol Rillettes wants Touya to teleport her to safety. However Lucia won’t leave till her father and brother are safe. They find Emperor Zephyr unconscious and of course the perpetrator is the military guy, General Bazoar. He thinks the emperor has gone senile as he refuses to break the nonaggression pact allowing him to invade Belfast. Bazoar thinks he can do it because he has summoned the Demon Lord as his subordinate after sacrificing criminals. Also, he has a few bracelets that nullify as well as absorb magic. Touya knows he can’t win for now and teleports the rest to safety. Also, he toys with Bazoar’s pride by making him slip?! And some illusion magic to make him scared while he escapes. Back at his mansion, obviously Lucia has fallen for him but Yumina has to put her foot down and mention Touya is her fiancé. Bummer, right? But knowing she likes Touya a lot, why not incorporate him into his harem?! Sorry, that’s just me saying that. But I get what’s going on. Touya confirms with Rosetta that Bazoar’s artefacts were leaked from the store. Yeah, looks like we have a clumsy garden admin on our hands. With Zephyr awake and safe, Lucia wants Touya to find her brother. This guy looks familiar? Yeah, it’s that soldier he saved. Touya and his harem soon storm the capital and take down the military. Easy. Heck, Touya even easily defeating the Demon Lord! THE FREAKING DEMON LORD! I guess this proves he is more overpowered. To face Bazoar, he locks him in a barrier with some stinky slime. Enough for him to pass out and end the coup. Wow. It’s already over?! Using Touya’s Smartphone as projection, Zephyr apologizes to his people about the coup and credits Touya’s bravery. Touya returns to his harem but for once they stay away from him because he stinks of that slime!

Episode 5
To thank Touya for saving his kingdom, Zephyr hopes he can wed Lucia. SAY WHAT?! That’s right. Marry him as his wife! Heck, even Yumina agrees to that and has already made arrangements! SAY WHAT?! Why does Touya not get a say in this?! With Lucia happily accepting, now both nations are on good terms. That’s not the end of it, though. Both kings have also agreed to cede some portions of their land at the border so that Touya can have a small kingdom to rule! They’re serious in that seeing they need Touya to have some sort of status if they’re going to marry their daughters. Well, it’s a good offer and not like Touya can refuse, right? So as Touya discuss this with his girls, first he names his new kingdom as the Duchy of Brunhild. After his gun? It is suggested they build a new home there and move in as soon as possible as occupying this place would look like they are favouring Belfast. Also, this mansion could now be serve as an embassy for Belfast. So how to build a new castle? Just ask Rosetta. Yeah, her workshop is bloody convenient in replicating materials so there you have it. All the construction materials needed to make the castle go up in just 3 days! Damn, this is better than his Smartphone! Leen pays a visit to also inform Touya that she is no longer an ambassador of Belfast but Mismede. She got bored and switched?

Touya then gets a letter from the king. This time the emperor of Refreese is here to see him. They also want to have good relations with Belfast so, oh no, not marry his daughter?! You mean that crazy princess! Touya would love to decline but thank goodness the emperor says she is already engaged. Phew. Touya learns that more rulers want to see him. I’m sure there’s more to it than building friendly relations. True enough, the monarchs just want to hang out with each other! So Touya and his girls get working on the entertainment room and prepares lots of gaming facilities and amenities. Touya is soon visited by Tsubaki who relays the bad news that their new lord mismanaged the land and in the end, got it confiscated. Now with no place, she hopes he can take in the Takeda clan. Can he say no? With his duchy growing in population, Touya discusses with Kousaka on how the people can secure their livelihood. Yeah, build more roads and shops! Brunhild is booming in no time. Lucia comes over to hand Touya her bento. Delicious. Did he call her cute too?! Touya you smooth operator! Touya then entertains the royals, monarchs and his people in his entertainment room before ending it with a nice fireworks show. He gives Lucia a ring. Now that makes it official. He notes they look like siblings but in no time they’ll look like lovers and then a married couple. I don’t know, they look like one to me right now!

Episode 6
Touya and co find another teleportation gate in the frozen wastelands. Touya teleports in to meet its admin, Bell Flora. So he has to pass an acceptance test which is groping her boobs?! Because he didn’t do anything more, she passes him and proceeds to register him as her master via kiss. I swear, this registering thingy is getting weirder and weirder. Touya learns that this is an alchemy ward. Basically it houses all sorts of medicine. Mostly lust based ones… Flora is then introduced to the rest and since her huge racks stand out, cheeky Leen wants to know if Touya fondled them. Flora spills everything to the kissing and makes him sound like a lecher. These girls should’ve seen this coming, right? Touya goes to research on how to fly. Yeah, he manages to do so but goes overboard and gets a bit dizzy. Talking to Elze, some technicality that he can’t cast this fly spell on her. But if he combines it with levitation, there you go. Now they’re both flying. WTF loophole?! With the God of Love calling Touya about some of his harem wanting to meet their parents, Touya goes to see Yae’s parents. Surprisingly, father agrees to their engagement. So, no duel? Father changes his mind and wants to how strong he is. But it is Yae who will fight on Touya’s behalf since she doesn’t want him to get hurt. Noting how much she loves him, they let this pass. Next, Touya sees Linze and Elze’s parents. No problems here but one of the kids note about some thunder bears causing trouble in the vicinity.

Touya easily takes care of them and while the guild confirms all his kills, he waits and what do you know? Ende shows up. Time to let us in a bit on what’s going on. He explains more about Fraze who are from another world, trying to look for the king’s core. It is however residing in someone’s body. Because the human heartbeat drowns out the sound, they cannot hear and that’s why they kill to eliminate the noise. This was why the world was almost destroyed 5,000 years ago. As looking for their king is just instinctual, they aren’t even aware of being invaders. Ende admits he was also there to help exterminate the Fraze until some barrier got repaired and they left. As the barrier is weakening, there is no telling when they will return. Especially the advanced ones. As for Ende’s mission, although he is also seeking the core, he isn’t killing anybody. Killing Fraze is just to buy time until the core is transferred to the next world. He is just a traveller. Touya is worried history might repeat itself so he sees Rosetta if she can create Frame Gears. Long story short, no. The most they could do now is gather materials and they need tons of need just to make one. Touya then confides in his familiars so they think he needs something that can fly. In that case why not summon the Flaming Emperor? And so they summon this phoenix who agrees to form a pact with Touya because he has already formed so with her pals, thus she trusts him. With Touya naming her Kougyoku, he has her release and scatter numerous birds all over. They are to track anything suspicious and let him know. He hopes to find the remaining Babylon ruins.

Episode 7
Wow. We’re moving on fast! Yumina sleeping with Touya! Only makes sense because they’re married, right? Oh wait. They’re not! Not just yet! With Kougyoku reporting another Babylon, Touya and his girls head there. But first, time to show his wives’ chops as they all take down the monsters. Yeah, Touya not even needed! Touya enters the teleportation circle and this feisty petite girl attacks him with a wrench! But this Shana rip-off AKA Fredmonica AKA Monica is easy to deal with. She slips up, unwittingly showing her pantsu many times. She even throws a tantrum after admits losing. But soon registers Touya as her master via kiss. Touya is relieved that he hit the jackpot as this a hangar where Frame Gear is stored. But here’s the bad news: No fuel to run them. Runs on ether liquid. Maybe Flora can help make some? Yes she can. But she needs ether ore. Uhm, what’s that again? The girls show this little crystal which Flora confirms it is so. However they need big chunks to make a decent one. Don’t worry, use the Smartphone to find its location. How convenient! There’s some in Brunhild! Touya tests out piloting a Frame Gear and then creates a few simulation cockpit so his wives can train in them. Production of the real Frame Gear is slow but at this rate they’ll soon have enough for everyone to pilot them.

Suddenly Sue comes running to Touya and desperately wants to marry him! He likes young girls, right?! Woah, woah! Hold on! Reim explains that Prince Zabune of Linhea Kingdom wants to marry Sue right now after seeing her at a social party. Like Sue, he is against the marriage because Zabune has reputation for being a womanizer (and Touya is not?), mistreats others and is already over 30 years old. No wonder Sue is so desperate to marry Touya even if she will be at the bottom of the pecking order. Discussing with the rest, his harem of course agrees to this. The more the merrier! Heh. Only for Touya’s case, RIGHT?! But the problem now is trying to refuse the marriage because this will lead to Linhea severing relations. Well, got to give Francesca points for suggesting to just kill that useless bastard! Of course Touya wants diplomacy so he goes to talk to Sue’s father first. This won’t be easy dealing with Zabune as he has the prime minister’s backing, Wardack. This is why he isn’t expelled from the royal family as he is the one holding real power while its king is just a figurehead. Plus, Wardack is the same family of Queen Dacia, Zabune’s mother. He uses that status to get things his way. The only decent royalty is the second prince but his mother is a concubine. Unfortunately his mother is kept isolated due to an illness and he is forced to live away with her. Linhea’s emissary is here to talk things out. The king pointing out Touya will be Sue’s husband. When the emissary learns who Touya is and that he can do teleportation, he begs him to save his mother. He is Cloud Zeph Linhea, the second prince!

Episode 8
Further revelation reveals that Cloud’s mom, Erya is actually imprisoned and his father the king cannot do anything because Wardack is holding all the power and might kill him. Hence Zabune’s engagement to Sue is only because he wants to ascend the throne. Touya and the other kings hold a summit to discuss this. They all agree to do something about Linhea but dump all the responsibilities to Touya! Touya using his invisibility mode, goes with Cloud back to his kingdom. Cloud talks to Zabune about his failure to get Sue because he is already engaged to Touya. Zabune mercilessly beats him up and then says he should’ve kidnapped Sue because it won’t matter after he enslaves her. Furthermore, he wants Cloud to start rumours that Touya is a womanizer and since he won’t, more beating up. Later, they rescue Zabune’s slave and disables the slave collar. Just in time because they see Zabune talking to Wardack about his missing slave. Wardack suggests killing her since he doesn’t need that slave. Good thing they saved her because the collar just got crushed! Wardack then continues to tell his plan to Zabune. Obviously send Cloud to some northern kingdom to declare war. They will then kill Cloud on the spot for that. First step to prevent all that, Touya teleports Cloud to where Erya is held captive to rescue her. Now that nothing is holding back Cloud, they can go on the offensive. They also meet Marquis Koupe who is a good man who helps Cloud as they plan their next move.

Touya in invisible mode uses his Smartphone to record the devious dealings behind closed doors of Wardack. Basically Wardack knows Erya has escaped and this puts a damper on his next plan. So before Erya’s escape reaches the king’s ears, they plan to make him renounce his throne to Zabune who is revealed to be the child of Dacia and Zabune! Now you know where the fatty genes come from, right?! Touya conveniently replays this footage to the rest who are shocked of this plan to oust the royal family. Soon the king of Linhea makes his announcement to step down and pass on the throne to… Cloud! Why? He summons Touya to play that footage in front of everyone. Now that the king knows everything, he is no longer scared of Wardack and strips him of his title and everything. Zabune continues to blame others and this isn’t all his fault. But the king won’t turn a blind eye to his evil deeds and passes on the death sentence! He gets scared and then blames Touya, even threatening to ruin his women and nation?! Oh yeah, Touya doesn’t hold back to shoot a few warning shots at him! Try it, buster! Scaredy cat got so scared he fainted! With Cloud the next king and Koupe the next prime minister, although officially Zabune, Wardack and Dacia have been officially given the death sentence, they are actually now slaves in some other kingdom to atone their crimes. Sue is happy with all this good news. What is he going to say to his future wife? Oh Touya, don’t make her cry… Since the others already gave their blessing, Touya will wait till she is 18 to marry her. Everybody happy and wins in the end.

Episode 9
After witnessing a marriage between the royals of different nations, Touya’s girls also dream of theirs. Oh damn, he has to hold 6 weddings?! Count ‘em! Assuming he doesn’t get more! Hence as Yumina suggests, they should all go on a date with him to improve their intimacy and relationship. After all, Touya has been so busy working in his duchy that he lacks spending time with them! Oh my! I wonder if that’s a blessing. And so we see them going out on a date with him and taking turns to hold his hand. When jealous punks try to rob them, his girls easily beat the sh*t out of those losers. No need for Touya to even raise a hand. When they return, Sue is mad because she was left out of this date. Therefore she gets to date him all by herself the next day. Rosetta then contacts Touya that a Frame Gear is ready. Happily he and his girls go to check on it. Since Yae has the least magic proficiency, she is given the honours to ride it first. Works like a charm. Yeah, now everybody takes turns to pilot it. So sad Touya is last in line… Rosetta then hands him a sword made out of Fraze’s crystals. She also has made some bullets out of it but since she is out of orichalcum material, she hopes he can get some. Using his Smartphone to look for orichalcum golems, he notes there are some at the kingdom of Lestia. He flies three to see a village under attacked by Fraze. The knights are on the verge of defeat when Touya swoops down to save them. Time to test his new sword. Cuts like knife through hot butter. Once the threat is gone, Touya talks to the knight leader who is also the kingdom’s princess, Hildegard Minas Lestia. She is grateful for his help and notes his specialized sword to fight Fraze. Noting that her gaze is hinting she really wants such sword, Touya thinks of building good relations with Lestia, he gives her a few of his swords to commemorate their meeting. Touya then leaves to get some orichalcum. When that is done and about to go home, he sees a strange deer who then leads him to a very badly wounded girl. He tries to heal her but she passes out.

Episode 10
Flora tells Touya that this girl is amnesiac. Although it is mostly about herself as she is still able to speak, write, etc. Better not insult it is a result of Flora’s treatment because she threatens to chop of his dick and regrow it! OMFG!!! Touya talks to her and obviously she remembers nothing. Finding it hard for her to be nameless, he calls her Sakura because of her beautiful hair colour and eye. Wow. He sure knows how to charm, eh? But sorry, still amnesiac. As Sakura wanders around his territory, Touya notices she has a beautiful voice. Great singer. Even greater as he plays the piano and she accompanies it. But soon Touya is given an important quest from the guild. Apparently this Catoblepas creatures can petrify you when you look into its eyes as well as emit poisonous gas. 13 adventurers have fallen victim and nobody is as strong as Touya to stop it. Guess he has got to do it. He lets his wives know so they’re eager to help him too. Before that, Touya gives Yae a special sword created to fight Fraze, making other girls jealous. Then the gang goes to tackle a Catoblepas and after a hard fought battle, manages to decapitate it. Though, Touya almost got his feet petrified but thanks to the recovery spell, it saved his skin. Though, his affected clothes can’t be saved. The Catoblepas’ petrification is still in effect even when it’s dead so Lucia almost fell victim to it. This part is cue for some trolling fanservice because her pantsu got petrified! Touya is forced to look away while the girls handle this. Uhm, should Touya cover his ears too?! Then another Catoblepas but this time Touya hits an idea. Use some mosaic spell to cover its eyes! Why didn’t we all think of that?! Touya is rewarded after taking down the rest of those beasts. He recovers the petrified adventurers too soon because what happens when a group of naked men are within visual distance of hot chicks? I guess they’re not as hot as Touya… The kings are having mecha fun battling each other in the Frame Gears! Touya agrees to lend them each since he believes Brunhild can’t handle all of Fraze and it’s best to have everyone prepare for it.

Episode 11
Look who is visiting Touya? Why, it’s the God of Love! Posing as his sister, Karen, she meets his future wives and they’re ecstatic to meet her as well. So apparently watching all the love flocking by Touya isn’t enough and thus she has to come down herself to soak in all that love power. WTF. Soon, Hildegard and her grandpa who is the previous king, Galen visit. Galen heard about the machines he has to fight Fraze so Touya shows them. Galen wants to borrow them and Touya agrees if he doesn’t misuse it. Of course this means Galen’s purpose of visit is also to build relationships and become his ally. Hildegard then requests to fight Touya’s strongest. After sparring with Yae, she soon learns that Touya has not one, not two, not three but 6 fiancees! OMFG. Oh, look at the despair on her face. Karen then jumps in to push things forward to claim Hildegard is in love with Touya and wants to marry him. No use hiding now. She admits it and his wives approve of her becoming Touya’s seventh! Oh my. Seventh heaven. Because Galen won’t allow his granddaughter to get married without resolve, Touya fears he must fight him… But now we see Hildegard talking with the council of Touya’s wives as they approve of her. Karen then eggs Hildegard to describe the coolness of Touya and how he looks in her eyes. Yeah, Hildegard spilling all the romantic stuffs that sends other girls squealing. That’s what you call love at first sight. And now it’s time to prove herself as Hildegard fights Galen to prove herself to marry Touya. At first she looks like she is losing ground so Touya does a sneaky move by using his Smartphone to project a sexy bikini babe to distract that pervy old man. This allows Hildegard to come back and win. Now Touya’s wives are jealous. Because who that busty babe! GRRR!!! Oh… Uhm… Gotta tend to the winner and injured. And now Hildegard is official as all the wives gather because Karen is going to spill more juicy stuffs on Touya like his first love as a child! Aren’t we all eager to hear such stories!

Episode 12
All the girls are dressed in sailor uniform because well, Karen said that is Touya’s fetish! WTF?! Oh Touya, are you going to deny them?! Yeah, you girls look cute. See how happy they are? Soon Touya finds himself in another Babylon ruin. However this is both the tower and rampart together as both found each other a long time ago and docked. He meets Preliora AKA Liora who is the admin for the rampart who surprisingly sounds very normal and accepts him as her master without any testing shenanigans. She then brings him to Pamela Noel, the admin for the tower. How to wake up this sleepyhead? Give food! She too doesn’t have him go through all those weird tests. As long as he can feed her with lots of food and provide a good place to sleep, she’ll register him as his master. Okay. What more can he ask, right? And here comes the kisses as registration… Soon Touya gets word that Belfast’s king now has a healthy born son. Finally he has an heir to his nation. He gives Touya the honour to name him. Yamato. Need to inject some Japan spirit into this prince?! But soon the Babylon androids confront Touya because they saw through the clairvoyance gem that he will have 9 wives and each bore a child for him! OH WAIT! WHAT?! Reminder, currently he has 7… This is so because there are 9 ruins and hence that magic number. So, he gonna give each his wife a Babylon garden to administer? The other girls heard about this and wants an explanation. No use hiding, Touya. The cat is out. Wow. For them to look so disappointed at him for having more wives… Are you girls sure not treating him as your property?! Then they decided it can’t be helped so they still charge him guilty. WTF?! The only way out is to kiss each one of them. Touya ‘escapes’ for now by claiming to go celebrate Yamato’s birth. During the fireworks, Touya claims he wants to live with all of them forever despite not having children yet. Oh, you don’t know… Cue for each of them trying to kiss him. While Yumina and Linze got a normal kiss, Sue gets a little peck. Lucia runs away after being too embarrassed and Hildegard passes out. Yae and Elze beat him up after he kisses them. WTF?! You girls wanted this, right?! Then they all continue to watch the fireworks as the androids get even more curious as they peek into the crystal ball to see all his wives. Yup, count them. 9 beautiful wives in their wedding dress.

First Wives Club: The Real (Royal) Housewives Of Brunhild
Can the ending get any cheesier than this?! Yeah, got to remind us all the wives that Touya will soon be marrying and f*cking so as to give him a child! I can’t imagine they will all grow up and fight a battle royale to succeed Touya’s throne! HAHA! Made that one up but I guess that bloody succession thing is for another delusion story another time. For now, everybody just happy to live their peaceful lives as it is. Assuming Fraze doesn’t come burn down everything. Oh heck, the battle for attention among his future wives will be the greatest battle Touya will ever face like no other! Better appreciate the good times right now.

If there is one thing that I want to point out about this season’s plot, it is for Touya to amass his wives! I am sure that there are other plots about this series but as far as I can see for this second season, it is all about Touya getting more wives! Like having his usual quartet from the last season wasn’t enough, because I suppose the more the merrier and now how many does he have? Spoiler alert, ending credits animation should give a good idea on how many wives he will supposedly have by the end of the season. Yeah it’s no joke. Are they trying to make Francesca’s predictions come true? She predicted he’ll have 9 wives. Oh heck, it will come true! But that is so only so far… If it’s not fiancees and future wives that Touya is getting, there’s be a bunch of other girls who are interested in him or least stay a close acquaintance or ally like those garden androids. So in order to hide the fact that he has too many girls around him, hence he is given his own mini kingdom with his own subjects so it won’t be looking so obvious that Touya collects and keeps girls. HOLY SH*T! WHAT AM I SAYING?! Oh wait, with his own kingdom to rule, this means he now has a place where his girls can run around scot free under his supervision!

The only interesting plot that interests me is the Fraze (respelled as Phrase officially but I’m keeping my old spelling for consistency purposes). Once again, Ende pops up mysteriously to drop more bits and pieces about this very strange phenomenon. And then off he goes and disappears like the wind again. So aside from the cringey wife amassing shenanigans which is actually my favourite subject of such anime series (that I shamefully admit to), I was hoping to see some sort of development regarding this Fraze thingy and the strange thing that these creatures are looking forward. Oh well, are they trying to say to wait for another season to find out more?! Oh dear. In the meantime, we’ll get back to more of Touya’s wife amassing antics. After all, not all the gardens have been found and it’ll be some time before Touya finds and merges all of them. Only then I am guessing he and his wives, girls and allies will be ready to take on the full onslaught of Fraze. Too bad it’s not in this season. Time to for me to go think up some crazy Fraze conspiracies like the sleeping king they’re looking for is Touya because the core they want is the heart filled with love, something Touya has after amassing his wives! Oh yeah. Somebody stop me.

Is it me or do I feel that this season it seems Touya has relied a lot less on his Smartphone. Sure, he does use it from time to time but I don’t see him spamming it all the time in utilizing it. Perhaps whatever needs to be created has already been done and there is no need for him to overwork the app whatever. Also, Touya’s girls are strong enough and a bunch of savages especially when they work in a group to take down monsters. Ah yes, Touya not really needed so he doesn’t need to get his hands dirty or even whip up his Smartphone to do something because his wives already got it all covered. So yeah, in a way it feels like a shame that his Smartphone has been relegated to a secondary tool. But in other ways, it feels a lot better since he doesn’t need to rely on that thing that we have becomes so attached and relied upon in our daily lives. Remember, despite the title of this anime, the main star is Touya, not his Smartphone. Hell yeah, on a trivial note, Touya sure didn’t need that Tinder app, the way he is amassing his wives naturally! HAHAHA!!!

As for the Frame Gears that Touya is slowly manufacturing, how come I feel that this is going to be like China’s panda diplomacy policy? Oh you know, Touya is willing to lend his mecha to them if they are allies to fight off Fraze. Yeah. That. So if you’re not an ally and want to have your hands piloting this big boys’ toy, you better get on the good side of Touya. And with all the allied kings hanging out at Touya’s place, they must be having the time of their life with Touya’s hospitality as well as the Frame Gears. It’s like Touya is the scapegoat to provide them with all sorts of entertainment. Oh well, only he could create and come up with such, right? Just like dumping all their responsibilities on him because no matter what, Touya will still get it done. Somehow. We are so assured.

As for the characters, what else can I say about them this season? Touya as the main character trying to live his second life and now he has to juggle with more responsibilities as he got his own mini kingdom. The land and his wives, that is. From the looks of it, he is handling it all fine and he’s not getting a mental breakdown because you know, so many wives! I’m sure I want to make some cringey joke about one wife is enough to drive a man crazy and freaking Touya has how many of them?! Yeah. But I guess that is why we’re all so jealous of him.

As for his harem, the more officially gets inducted, obviously the more of the pie they have to share. Get what I mean? But I guess it is alright for them because Touya’s coolness and awesomeness is to be shared by everyone! Touya belongs to everybody! Anyway, the original wife quartet has been given their dues last season so they don’t make much of an impact as the newly inducted ones. After all, there needs to be some sort of excuse why Touya takes them on. Like in Sue’s case, it’s to save her from a bad marriage and what a way to kill 2 birds with 1 stone because he also helped to kick out a dictator in that kingdom and bring justice back to it. Wow. You could also earn yourself a cute wife if you save an entire kingdom from terrorists and rebels. That’s how he got Lucia. And then the classic case of love at first sight for Hildegard. There is no stopping to Touya. In time too, Sakura will be official because with no memories, might as well make new ones and the best way is to marry him! By right Leen should be his wife too but I’m sure she is playing hard to get. It is a good thing the ruler of Linhea is a prince because if it was a princess, oh my goodness, another marriage at hand! Yikes! Overall, these Touya’s wife council might approve of each other and they’re all so friendly with each other. But they get jealous when he looks at outside women… Imagine a wallpaper hologram was enough to send some suspicions. How to solve this? Make her part of the wives pact! I can’t imagine Touya married to every single girl in this world. This is too much!

Thankfully not every girl he meets becomes his wife. In the case of Riel, I’m sure it would have been chaotic had she been that but thankfully and oh God thank goodness she is engaged to someone else. Someone else’s crazy wife problem… Heh. But you’ll never know. In time this may change and Riel may even join the party and write books for Touya’s harem that would open and awaken hem to a whole new world. Uh huh. More like a can of worms + Pandora’s box! As for the garden androids, each have their own quirky personality and although most of them are perverted in nature in one way or another. I think Monica is just being tsundere. And who could forget about Flora threatening to cut off Touya’s dick! That sure woke him up.

Although J.C. Staff took over from Production Reed in doing this sequel, thankfully there isn’t any obvious difference in the quality. The character designs and the art style mostly remain the same unlike certain sequels that somehow downgraded their visuals when they changed their studios (looking at you, a certain part timer devil series). While last season’s seiyuu’s are retained, new ones include Miyu Takagi as Lucia (Miyu in Wake Up Girls), Miyu Kubota as Sakura (Medusa in Jashin-chan Dropkick), Yuu Seizawa as Hildegard (Yumemi in Kakegurui), Madoka Asahina as Rosetta (Kominami in Bokutachi Wa Benkyou Ga Dekinai), Hisako Kamemoto as Flora (titular character in Shinryaku! Ika Musume), Miharu Hanai as Monica (Sassa in Busou Shoujo Machiavellism), Moe Kahara as Liora (Akari in Shokei Shoujo No virgin Road), Misaki Watada as Noel (Yaeka in Kumichou Musume To Sewagakari), Kenichi Ogata as Galen (Santori in Radiant) and Shunichi Toki as Cloud (Fukuma in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu).

The one catching me by surprise is Misaki Kuno as Riel. I didn’t know it was her before I saw the credits. She wasn’t putting on her squeaky high pitch trademark voice as her character sounded a bit lower. This season’s opening theme is Real Diamond by Gemstone7. Not only it sounds generic a manufactured pop song, but it is quite heavy on the techno and synthesizer effects, making the song generally one huge noisy dubstep mess. The ending theme isn’t so bad but still not really to my liking. All of Touya’s 9 wives sing Isekai Jewelry. Still a generic anime rock pop but with the girls singing in their cute squeaky voices.

Last time I checked my blog on this series, it seems I didn’t really dislike it as I thought I would. My, how things changed throughout the years. Yeah, the first season was mediocre but enjoyable. I can’t believe I wrote that and I don’t even remember it! Must be all the disappointments of isekai tropes throughout the years that had me believe deeply that this Smartphone series had to be one of the worst isekai series out there. Good thing or not, I don’t find this sequel that terrible too. Maybe I put my hopes very low, so low that the limbo rock champion can’t even pass! Yeah. That and that’s why I don’t find this second season of this dreaded series to be that awful in the end. Can’t believe I’m saying this but it’s true. But this season still sucks, by the way. The sequel might not bring anything much save for Touya, wait for it, amassing his wives and the interesting potential of Fraze once again remains elusive. Wait a few more years down the road and with more disappointing isekai animes, I’ll probably forget all this and start believing the Smartphone isekai series as one the worst in the genre again. Who needs a Smartphone and all its app when you have great gorgeous wives by your side who can do much more than any Smartphone could! They should rename this series as, In Another World With My Wives…

Tensei Kizoku No Isekai Boukenroku: Jichou Wo Shiranai Kamigami No Shito

Oh, you know the drill by now. Yet another one of those ubiquitous isekai themes. Why do I even bother? It’s like I’m attracted to this crap ever season in, season out. Yeah. And so, Tensei Kizoku No Isekai Boukenroku: Jichou Wo Shiranai Kamigami No Shito is yet another basic formula of a kid dying in our world, reincarnated in a fantasy world retaining his memories but also gets to max out his stats AKA being f*cking overpowered and all. And yes, he is born to a family of nobles so you could say he has got his life made already in this second chance. If that isn’t enough to get you seething your teeth, wait till you learn that there are a few girls who are out for his heart. This guy got everything!!!! I want to be this guy!!! Can somebody or fate give me the best isekai treatment now???!!! Where’s that God when you need Him???!!!

Episode 1
Kazuya Shiina dies protecting a couple of girls at a convenience store from a lone knife wielding robber. To his surprise, he wakes up as a toddler in another world! Obviously, he is shocked with his surroundings but his mom and maid are glad he has awakened. He was asleep for a week for unknown reasons. He is happy to be reincarnated as Cain Von Silford. He learns much about this magic fantasy world especially about his family. Garm his father, Sarah his mother who is Garm’s second wife, Reine his older sister by a year, maid Silvia. Garm’s first wife is Maria and has borne 2 sons, Djinn and Alec. The family act as a protector of the southern part of the Kingdom of Esfort where it is located close to the forest of monsters. But take relief that there are adventurers who help in dealing with monsters so the burden doesn’t fall solely on them. Obviously when Cain retains his past memories, it means he can read, write, etc. To his family, he is a genius! As for magic, he must undergo a baptism ritual when he turns 5. But unknown to them, Cain can actually use magic already. He is eager to study more about this world. Yup, his previous life all his relatives died. Alone. Your typical excuse not to look back!

When Cain turns 5, he is taken to the priest for baptism. Suddenly a great light emits from the statues. Cain finds himself among the gods of this world! Is this some cosplay convention?! Zenom the God of Creation introduces himself and will explain everything. Rime the God of Reincarnation and Birth further adds that he wasn’t meant to die on that day. The robber was supposed to trip and everyone else jumped on him. And now the robber is charged with murder. Hence Kazuya’s heroics weren’t needed! To atone for that mistake, he is reincarnated into this world. Cain is happy for this second chance so all the gods grant him their blessing and that obviously increases his stats to way above his max! Don’t worry, Zenom lets him conceal it. When he returns to his family, they ponder that great light as it has never happened before. Then they check his status and are shocked to see he is blessed with everything! Oops, some stats he forgot to conceal. Garm warns him not to tell others and everyone in this room must keep it a secret for he will be targeted. One night, Cain tries to test his magic and summons a monster. It is about to attack Reine so this time he thinks he has magic and can be brave enough to stop it. Well, he gets owned although the monster is defeated. Oh dear. Going to die again? Well, he gets backs up like nothing has happened. As everybody celebrates Cain’s 5th birthday, Garm says he cannot inherit his estate but may wish for something else. He wants to be an adventurer to travel and learn lots of things. Meanwhile the gods deliberate in giving Cain over the maximum stats. Zenom says that Cain needs to be very strong by 16, if not the continent’s strongest denizen as they require his strength.

Episode 2
In order to help Cain gain some knowledge before he goes out into the world, Garm hires a couple of personal tutors, Millie and Nina. They will teach him for 3 years. Well, Cain already excels in swordsmanship and is way better than Nina! The same with magic too! So the teachers get permission from Garm to train Cain outside the mansion for intermediary lessons or else he’ll destroy the mansion! As expected, Cain’s magic is so huge that it leaves behind a crater! Even destroying a pack of attacking killer rabbits. The teachers forbid him to continue chasing the rest into the forest since there are deadlier monsters in there. Back home, Cain is further dismayed because he levelled up so much! The gods must be laughing… Nina and Millie bring Cain to the guild to see what quests they can take. Of course some punks try to force themselves on the ladies. Cain fights back to show who’s boss. Damn, this kid is so fast and can even stop a sword with his fingers! Kung fu Cain! OMFG! God level indeed! Safe to say, those punks got their asses handed to them. What a good spanking. 3 years later, Cain goes out at night to hunt monsters for their skin to craft them into magic boxes for his tutors. So great his attack that the town thought a monster invasion is going to happen and sound the alarm. Garm leads his men to a frantic charge into the forest but find nothing. Just a crater. And Garm thinks it’s his son because that handkerchief Cain left accidentally behind. As Millie and Nina graduate Cain, he gives them the magic boxes as thanks. They are surprised it can hold items as big as a mansion! National level items! Before they part ways, the ladies give him a kiss on his cheek each. Should he need their help in the future, feel free to call them. When he gets back, Cain gets lectured by Garm about his recklessness.

Episode 3
2 years later, Cain and his family are on their way to the royal capital. Cain senses orcs attacking a carriage in front. So he rushes ahead to defeat them all singlehandedly! Wow! That’s not all, he heals the injured! Too bad he could’ve been Jesus had he resurrected the dead ones! Inside the carriage carries Princess Telestia Terra Esfort and Silk Von Santana (baron’s daughter). After he uses magic to ease their anxiety, they’re both smitten by him and that’s when the cheesy harem begins! They can’t let go of him as they ride together towards the capital. Even when they stop to rest, they want him to sleep with them! YES YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT!!! Giving dumb excuses that monsters might attack and they feel safe with his presence, you think Cain has a say in this? See how close they cuddle next to him… Remember Cain is only 10 years old and so are those lolis! No surprise Cain didn’t get any rest. Upon arriving, Cain hands over the bodies of the knights to Daim Von Gazard, the vice captain of the royal knights. Then he is suddenly made to have an audience with the king. Expressing his gratitude, the king promotes him to the title of baron and he will have his own land and mansion. The crowd is abuzz and some protests. However the king shuts them up asking if they could do what Cain did and it is pointless to keep such talented young man in a powerless position. After the audience, the king as well as Silk’s father, Eric personally meet Cain behind closed doors to personally thank him. They also discuss about Cain’s future: He wants Cain to marry both Telestia and Silk! Of course they will get officially married when they are of age and now are only engaged. After all, Cain slept with them, RIGHT???!!! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!!! What choice does Cain have? Not even Garm can help him out on this one. And just like that, Cain sealed his doom as he accepts the engagement!

Episode 4
Just like any normal guys, Cain can’t sit by and watch his sister go shopping for clothes. Luckily he stumbles upon an old friend nearby, Parma who is undergoing training in her uncle’s shop. Cain remembers the gods want him to create some recreational stuffs from his old world here. Hence Cain has Tamanis help create a prototype board game we all know as Reversi. He accepts the task and a few days later finishes the prototype. They test play and of course it’s a wonderful and simple game. Not sure about this trademarking thing because they offer it to the gods by drawing up some contract to them. Wonder why the gods are so fascinated. Should they not know about this game from Cain’s old world? Strange. Cain also wants to present this game to the royal family. Tamanis is troubled at first but once again accepts the task to produce the goods. Now it is time for Cain to attend his debut ceremony. He meets Eric and Silk as they officially introduce each other. Cain and his family then have an audience with the king and his daughter. With Telestia all over him, the king is starting to call Cain a philanderer. Cain then introduces Reversi. The king would like to talk more about this as well as his treatment over his daughter behind closed doors. So be there! Cain then rejoins Silk but several snobbish noble kids led by Habit come to confront Cain, thinking he would be some easy meat to bully as well as impressed Silk at the same time. They have Cain step out for a duel. Not sure what it is but those jerks are trying to show off their magic which all comes off as just freaking weak. Silk then puts her foot down and tells them Cain is not a son of a baron but a baron himself! The bullies get scared for their disrespect and get out of his sight. Silk ‘blackmails’ Cain to keep this a secret as long as he dates her. Has he got a choice? Great timing as Telestia is here and wants in on this secret. Learning they’re going on a date, now she too wants a date. Yeah, make it a double date. Just great, the king is here and heard this so he really needs to talk to Cain privately! The girls don’t give a f*ck and continue to snuggle close to him. Philanderer indeed! Back in the private room, the king and Eric allow Cain the philanderer to date their daughters. Just don’t let anybody know, okay? Damn, the pressure must be so intense…

Episode 5
Wow. Everybody wants to play Reversi with Cain! For now, Cain checks out the mansion the king has given him. Damn, so abandoned and dirty! Nothing like magic to clean everything up in a second. Heck, he even has all the furniture placed all over too. How f*cking convenient magic! Sylvia has brought a few maids who will be permanently stationed here. Cain will also have a new butler, Colan. Cain then returns to Garm’s residence to meet his other brothers who have returned. Then he gives the family a tour of his new house and they are particularly very impressed with this revolutionary toilet. It spouts water! To everyone’s shock, there’s a huge taxidermy of a rare red dragon Cain defeated some time ago in the hall. Cain now has headache because he has to invite nobles for housewarming. As he stresses on how to go about this, Sylvia advises him to give his guests his own style of hospitality. When everything is done and all the invitations sent out, suddenly Cain gets summoned by the king. Apparently he is envious he didn’t get an invitation! Eric was freaking boasting about getting his! Luckily Cain has brought one for him (see how the king becomes so happy like a kid) and was planning for the right moment to give him. The party starts as everyone is treated to this fizzy drink as well as Hamburg steak. You bet the king is also amazed by this and even more so the toilet. He must have this in his palace by tomorrow! Everybody applauses when the king gives Cain his highest praise. Of course now Marquis Corgino is here. He is one of the few who hates Cain and you can obviously tell this fatty is still not impressed. Cain treats him kindly and with utmost hospitality but he continues to be a dick. Not until the king shows up to tell him off about his attitude did that guy panic and eat humble pie. That should show him. When Silk notes Cain being a sneaky boy for planning all this, Cain admits to it but didn’t realize he just admitted using the king for this. The king is not impressed of being used as his tool and enjoyed every second of it. 2 hour lecturing sounds like forever…

Episode 6
Needing space to put all his monsters, this storage room won’t be enough. Yeah, it’ll take the entire arena! Daim is so impressed he wants Cain to meet his captain and spar with the guards. He shows his stuffs and when the whole army is about to take on him, Tijuana Von Liebert thinks they’re picking on a poor kid. But when she learns who Cain is, she gets all excited to fight him. As the best soldier in the kingdom, she is given a run for her money until she loses. With that, Tijuana wants to marry Cain! Don’t worry about the age gap. As an elf race, she is at least 300 years old! Cain gives excuses and since it’s come to this, Tijuana wants to speak to the king! Worst possible scenario! So the king and his subjects hear about this as they tell Cain a bit of history on the elf nation of Liebert. So basically she’s a princess of that nation although the land is under Esfort’s protection. The king then tells the confidential info of Cain’s engagement. Not that she is fazed. She is told she needs to get a written permission from her father and so she’ll promptly do that. As they suspect Cain is not what he is, they think of putting him to a test. After Cain’s many ‘dates’ (mock fights) with Tijuana, he is once more called by the king. He is given a book written by the first king, Yuuya Terra Hirasawa Esfort and contains very high level magic. Cain is amazed as he reads some of the magic not found in libraries. But that is where they catch him. You see, it is written in Japanese and none of them could read it. So who is Cain? Cain realizes the first king is also reincarnated from another world. No use keeping a secret, he tells the truth that shocks all of them. Yeah, see his stats to confirm. The king wants to have his citizens bow at him but Cain refuses because he prefers the life the way it is now. He is blessed with wonderful family and friends and there is nothing more in this life that he wants than this. Everyone agrees. But one last thing: The king offers him to be king instead! No way! Now it gets complicated as Tijuana returns with a written permission. Now we can get married! Oh dear. Cain being dragged into more ‘dates’ against his will. Later he has to answer to unimpressed Telestia and Silk about getting more wives!

Episode 7
Cain reads more about Yuuya and learns he was summoned and retained his physical form rather than being reborn. This is interrupted when his loli fiancées want to study together. Luckily he gives excuses he can’t. Out of the pan and into the fire because now his elf fiancée wants to ‘date’. Luckily he manages to give her the slip too. Because now that he has reached 12 years old, he can register at the adventurer guild. He does so under the guidance of receptionist, Retia. But when unruly punks want to teach Cain a lesson, he dodges and makes a fool out of them. This farce is stopped when Claude comes into the picture. The punks leave as Cain meets his acquaintance with this A-rank adventurer. Too bad his wife, Lina comes to take him away for a quest. Uhm, is this a premonition of what it’s like to be married?! Cain decides to take on this quest of defeating goblins. Tijuana invites herself to join him. In the forest, Tijuana shows off her strength in defeating the horde. Then it’s Cain’s turn and then subsequently vanquishing a pack of green lizards. Back at the guild as Cain reports this to Retia, she is shocked he managed to kill tough green lizards and has her chief, Cedric ascertain this. However Cedric is hell bent Cain cheated because there is no way for a rookie for him who registered today to defeat a bunch of green lizards on his own. Heck, he revokes his licence! But luckily the guild master, Eden shows other proof like how this kid is engaged to his sister Tijuana and that he is of the baron title and son of Garm. Cedric realizes he is in deep sh*t so he apologizes. You know, it’s death to those who insult nobles! Luckily Cain won’t do that. Seeing Cain’s achievements, Eden would love to raise him to C-rank. But since he already defeated a red dragon before, how does A-rank sound? Yeah, first he must defeat some bandits. Yeah, soon enough Cain gets his A-rank gold card. As all the gods are watching Cain’s great achievements, Zenom reveals that the seal on Aaron is weakening. That was like 300 years ago they sealed him so who knows what will happen now. That’s why they are thinking of making Cain even stronger by training under this guy. Meanwhile Cain needs to explain to Telestia and Silk about his ‘date’ with Tijuana in the forest. So he rejected them to be with this elf, HUH?!

Episode 8
Cain goes to take the entrance exam at the royal academy. He breezes through the written test in 30 minutes and for the magic test, not only he blows away the wall but destroys the forest behind it?! I guess the barrier wasn’t strong enough. The teachers should’ve taken him off but I guess he continues his test with the swordsmanship. The students are to spar with skilled adventurers. One of them is Claude so he spars with Cain. Oh wow, their epic sparring is scaring off the kids! Later he is summoned by the king for that ruckus during the magic test. Cain wants a place to test this emperor-level magic but obviously they’re not going to allow it. Please be more careful with your magic. Then as pointed out, Cain has taken the wrong entrance to the exam and went to do his with commoners instead of nobles. That is why Silk and Telestia were nowhere to be found. When the principal told Eric about that exceptional kid, he couldn’t laugh his ass off knowing it is Cain. The results are out and of course Cain is top of the class. Sylvia so happy Cain is admitted that she is going to cook a feast for him. Yeah, the maid is more anxious than the kid himself. The entrance ceremony begins and as the top student, Cain is chosen to give his speech. After that, the king personally comes to address everyone. Sounds like a subtle warning to Cain, huh? Note how many times he keeps patting Cain’s back! Cain is in the same class with Silk and Telestia as they discuss what course to major in. Later, Cain sees those bullies trying to bully Parma. If Cain pointing equality in this school is not enough, here comes Silk and Telestia to render those bullies scared, apologize and run away with their tails between their legs. As the girls become friends, Cain hears a voice. He follows it to a library and this guy knows about Cain’s previous life.

Episode 9
This guy is actually Yuuya. So how is he actually still alive after 300 years? Well, he become the god of this world that he created. As for why Cain is brought here, Zenom asked him to train him because they are short on time. He lets Cain know about the evil god known as Aaron who made people fight and kill each other. The seal has weakened and he might be resurrected. So why not Yuuya do the job? Well, as a god like the rest, they can’t interfere. Ah yes, putting all the responsibility on Cain again. Cain is then whisked to another dimension where he has to fight his way through monsters to level up. It might take years but don’t worry, a year here is only a day in his world. Yeah, looks like Sylvia, Silk and Telestia are worried he is missing and could be kidnapped! The only way is to believe in him and wait at his mansion until he returns! For 4 years, Cain fights his way through the forest and even gains a wolf familiar, Haku. Finally he reaches the mansion at the top of the hill where Yuuya is waiting. As promised, he will tell more about his previous life. Since his training hasn’t ended, Cain now trains under Derain. So as he undergoes the training, Cain remembers all that Yuuya has said to him. Aaron used to be the God of Amusement in the previous world. Yeah, he created games and amusement. The previous one was the killer. He made the people have a death game with each other. Because of that, he was banished. If he returns, you bet he is going to make everyone he cares enter this death game again. So how is Cain linked to Aaron? Well you see, Kazuya’s parents were killed and given the isekai treatment too! They joined Yuuya in bringing down Aaron. Unfortunately Aaron was too powerful and they had to sacrifice themselves to give Yuuya the chance to seal him. After a year, Cain finally beats Derain. He pays respects to his parents’ grave at Yuuya’s place. Cain thanks Yuuya for taking care of them. Now that he can go back to his world, I’m sure he is going to surprise everyone with his adult looks, right? Oh well, Yuuya reverts him back to a child! Before he leaves, Derain also gives him his dragon familiar, Gin. The guys believe Cain can grow stronger than them since he has something much greater to protect. Cain returns home, much to the relief of his girls. They baked him cookies and he is so happy chowing them down. Welcome back. Though, he is still gonna get lectured for his disappearance… Cut this kid some slack!

Episode 10
Cain reports to the king about his absence and proves with this sword he was training with Yuuya for 5 years! But soon he is reminded to head over to the guild immediately or his adventurer licence will be cancelled! That is because he hasn’t taken up a quest within a specific period of time and of course the deadline is closing in. Cain will accept whatever quest that will also fast track him to A-rank. That quest seems to be defeating bandits who are harassing Millie and Nina’s carriage. Dumb guys of course look down at this kid and got their asses handed to them. Millie and Nina are surprised to learn all about Cain’s achievements. Then they also stumble into Claude and Lina. Apparently Claude is Millie’s older brother. They have a drink and talk all about Cain’s achievements. When Lina finds out about the super bag he created for Millie and Nina, she hopes Cain will also make one for her. She sounds pretty desperate. And drunk. Cain then remembers he has school to attend so he rushes his way back. Soon Retia is trying to look for a teacher substitute to replace an injured one as Claude gets an idea. At school, Cain is bummed out that he is forbidden to use any magic since all the teachers note how powerful he is. His class gets a shock when Claude and co are here to be their substitute teachers. Claude trying to expose Cain’s A-rank as he makes the students show their adventurer card. Obviously Cain can’t freak them out so he says he forgot to bring it. During practical, Cain is itching to fight them but it seems Claude and co fight other students first with the intention of showing their greatness before Cain displays his awesomeness. Too bad there is a long queue for it and by the time Cain gets to fight Claude, class is over! There won’t be a next time like this until a long time. Cain so frustrated he is taking out by killing monsters and burning down the forest?! WTF?! So much so the town guards think some prince of darkness has revived and all of them led by Garm go all out to subjugate this threat. Seems like déjà vu. Large crater and the handkerchief left behind. Oh Cain is going to get more lecture from papa… Meanwhile Aaron is close to resurrection.

Episode 11
Today’s class teaches students on how to summon a familiar and possibly make a contract with them. And look who Cain summons?! OMFG!!! IT’S THE DEMON LORD HIMSELF?! OH NO!!! Cain thought Seth is going to kill him but then he prostrates himself and is willing to form a contract with him! When are we going to destroy the world? Okay, call me if you change your mind! Oh boy. This gets known by the king and his subjects so they have Cain show his ridiculous status once more. Oh my, off the charts, immeasurable now?! Cain is like a demigod now! The king then says he will have an audience soon. He will make Cain a viscount with his own town to rule. He is to prove that if he can protect a town, he is worthy to protect a kingdom. If he is successful, he will make their engagement official. He will accept no objections. Soon Cain gets called by Djinn because monsters in the nearby forest of his domain is running amok. Djinn needs his help so as Cain goes down to do recon, he also meets Nina and Millie who have been called to help with the case. As they have already been into the forest, they have found very strong monsters. Cain then goes to investigate himself, this time calling Seth. Sorry, not yet time to take over the world. Seth then summons one of his generals, Dalmatia to conduct further investigations. Cain slays more monsters and brings them back to the guild as everyone confirms these are very strong monsters that no ordinary adventurers can handle. They need to strengthen the watch. Meanwhile Dalmatia detects the source of the monsters running amok. Some are even being drawn to it. Obviously it is Aaron so he thinks it is game time as he sets more monsters to rampage and devour the humans. Sensing this, Seth returns to report to Cain. So I guess everybody is not as strong and Cain and relegated to protect the town. Yup, our demigod and Demon Lord go on to fight the monsters and confront Aaron.

Episode 12
Since Cain has no time to deal with the monsters, he leaves it Seth while he goes face Aaron. Seth summons his 4 generals who are in shock to hear how he contracted to a chosen one. Can we leave the explanations for later and go kick the monsters’ ass? At the same time, Claude’s side can’t be satisfied in just evacuating everyone so they head to the forest to kill some monsters. However their numbers are too overwhelming and they are tiring out. At this rate they might die. Thank goodness Tijuana and her cavalry arrive for reinforcements. Now we see the epic power battle between Cain and Aaron. As Aaron is not fully awakened, he has to borrow this dragon’s body. Despite his powers too aren’t back to 100%, they still pack a punch. Cain has a hard time fighting him. Until Haku and Gin get injured in an attack and Aaron mocks Cain as the dog of the gods. Cain refutes this has anything to do with them and he is doing this to protect the smiles of those he loves. And that is the cue needed for him to go Super Saiyan?! OMG! That bright pillar of light! Blasts away everything! This kid is so focused in defeating Aaron, his pets as well as Seth have to stop him before he blows further a huge crater in the landscape. Aaron has escaped but Cain is happy to be reunited with his friends. In the aftermath, Cain gets lectured by the king who for the umpteenth time is hearing all the overboard things he died. So that pillar of light? Yeah, everyone so it and thought God has descended! Is that the Demon Lord he summoned for help? Yup, the king wants to resign and just let him marry Telestia but I guess his subjects can’t allow that. And soon an audience in which the king officially grants Cain his own domain to rule. However when his girls learn it is Dorinthol, they want to protest since that town is lawless. However Cain remains positive that they can build it back better. More heart attack surprises for the king as he learns Cain picked a fight with the ruffians upon entering Dorinthol, destroyed an area, got arrested, stormed into the church when they taxed too much and even built a wall, no, a castle that is far greater than his! OMFG! Nothing can stop Cain! Even Seth is running to Cain for help because his wife, Lefahne kicked him out for his infidelity. Cain and his girls blame Seth for this as the ladies continue to chew out the Demon Lord about cheating. But you know, why does Cain feel that this is going to apply to him as well! He better not cheat! Then everybody has a field day chastising Cain! Can anybody give this kid a break?!

Aristo-crap: “Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing!”
So well, we all don’t know how long Aaron will return because it’s like they give no hints about that. Not even a cliff-hanger to show if he is actually dead or licking his wounds and biding his time for another return. But it all doesn’t matter because as long Cain is happily reunited with the people he loves and protecting their smiles, bring on the next evil god or something because he’ll make sure no one disrupts this peaceful life of his. I am thinking Cain must love getting chastised by everyone seeing how they love to just tell him off about overdoing things. What to do when all you folks are just so freaking ordinary!

I don’t see any kind of story here save for the most part, Cain trying to live a normal life in the new world but because his overpowered features always get in the way, he gets into more trouble. Actually, to be more accurate, things become more troublesome for him. So it feels like the whole season is about that as the thin plot meanders about here and there until the final stretch whereby he has to take on the resurrection of an evil god. Otherwise, seeing Cain getting into harem hijinks and shenanigans, that occupies the other half of the series’ ‘story’. Can’t say I’m pretty impressed either way. After all, I’ve seen such animes throughout my years so something of this sort doesn’t really surprise or even excite me anymore. Sure, it was amusing at first to see Cain getting smothered by girls (a basic harem formula) but that soon gets a bit old. Thank goodness the final stretch deviates to him making his debut battle with Aaron and this harem thingy takes a back seat.

The characters are a dime a dozen as seen in similar genres across the industry. Therefore, Cain is no different and has checked all the basic ingredients needed for him to become the main character of an isekai anime. From being killed in his original world and being resurrected as a might overpowered kid in his second life, it all reeks too familiar of that basic isekai formula. Not surprisingly too, like many other such characters, he is very accommodating because there is no reason for him to say no otherwise. In that context, he gets into more troublesome situations, something he would have wanted to avoid but eventually he’ll get around it or deal with it somehow. That’s one of the perks of being overpowered but I guess a powerless armchair critic wouldn’t know anything about it, would I? For Cain to even subjugate a Demon Lord who feels like a lonely guy who just needed a buddy, OMG what are they thinking? Just asking when he gonna make those gods and Zenom himself submit to him too.

The other characters too are as generic as an isekai genre can be. Let’s take a look at Cain’s supposed lovers. Or future wives. Might scream loli fest at first because of Telestia and Silk shamelessly trying to flirt with Cain but I guess that’s alright since they rank up there in the royalty and noble so it gives them a free pass to do this. I don’t know, can’t seem to look at it as innocent kids’ friendship somehow… My guess is that they get their kicks when they corner Cain during their courtship because is Cain going to be a dick and reject them? What did I say about his accommodating ways already? Try not to offend anybody… Before you can think Cain is a lolicon, then here comes Tijuana to the fray because, damn she’s several hundred years old but looks as young as f*ck. F*cking elven tribes… Age is no barrier when it comes to love and so Tijuana becomes even more annoying and retarded compared to Telestia and Silk because of her obsession to just fling herself into her future husband’s arms like as though the shame of PDA doesn’t even bother her one bit. Oh yeah, what are you going to do? Challenge the strongest royal knight captain? Good luck.

Then there is his sister too, Reine. Another girl obsessed with him but it is a good thing she doesn’t have much of a screen time here and only very limited. Imagine how annoying it would be if she had more and if she actually turned into that buranko in another anime in the same season, Isekai One Turn Kill Neesan. Yeah. Ugh. Then there’s his ex-mentors, Millie and Nina. While Millie doesn’t obviously show any romantic interest, poker face Nina is more straightforward and even admitting he is his lover on her own accord. We’re not sure if it’s a joke but my guts for this kind of series says it is not. So there you have it, Cain having lovers, girlfriends, fiancées and future wives of all ages and relationships. Young or old, blood related or not, Cain has got his hands full! I’m sure all this is also allowed not only because Cain is such a badass kid but also polygamy is allowed in this world. Otherwise, you’d think a king would allow his daughter to have another wife, especially one whose rank is of a noble despite he is his best friend?

Imagine the most powerful person in this world seems to be the weakest in the sense that Cain is often seen prostrating and apologizing madly to others when they tell him off about overdoing it. I wonder if this is some sort of running joke. And now he has to take into account his harem and it is hinted they won’t stand any infidelity and cheating, let me suggest the greatest idea that will help solve this problem and prevent Cain from ever being chewed out: Make every girl in this world his wife!!! Can’t be mad at someone who is Cain’s wife, right? Seeing that polygamy is applicable to him, might as well Cain marry every damn woman in this country and save being the pathetic future henpecked husband. There. Solved it for ‘ya. I’m so smart. Though, this would leave every other guy without a woman… Oops. Okay then Cain, enjoy your chastising moments.

Other characters feel insignificant and not really memorable. Like Daim, Claude, etc, it just feels like the need to show that Cain has a few strong and reliable adults he can be friends with. Funnily, the interesting back is the king and his subjects himself. Because each time when Cain gets privately summoned by them, it never ceases to amaze that they will be surprised with whatever news Cain breaks to them about his secret. He will always be putting on that flabbergasted looks. OMG, Cain you overdid what again?! Be it when Cain breaks it to them with his ridiculously overpowered stats and to the time he went away to train with Yuuya for 5 years, it’s amazing none especially the king himself has died from the shock and heart attack. I can understand why the king is so tempted to relinquish his post and kingdom to this little demigod. So if there was a reaction video in this world, I guess this bunch would definitely have the best reaction award. Yeah.

I want to bring attention to Zenom and the other gods. Basically I find them all useless and it is puzzling to note that they don’t have the brains for entertainment. I don’t know if the concept for entertainment is different for gods but I thought it was a no brainer for them to not even have such concept themselves so much so that they even have a maleficent god for this?! At first it was weird to even have Cain created that Reversi for them and I thought perhaps this dumb thing was just one off. And then when the plot thickens about Aaron, now I believe that these gods are just dumb. When Aaron massacred the previous world, I’m sure it’s because they reap what the sew and deserved it. You gods can’t even create your own entertainment and had to rely on this? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! Really, it just feels so flimsy so that we can have some sort of a plot in the end and showcase Cain’s goodness and power to further alleviate him to sainthood. No, make that godhood! So when Cain will become one and create his own world like Yuuya? I guess when everyone else dies of old age… And if the gods weren’t powerful enough to face Aaron combined and put all their faith in a single reincarnated kid, that even tells you a lot on these useless deities. And to see them being so amused watching Cain’s second life, really these gods have no sense of entertainment!

While the art and animation are pretty standard, the main art style of the characters lean slightly towards the chibi style. This is why many of the characters especially the females have this loli looks and you might be forgiven to think that this show is created for and by lolicons. Yeah. I mean, the characters have this cuteness like their round faces and big sparkling bright eyes. And the colouring and hues of the series is quite vivid and bright, save for a few dark scenes like the ones in the final stretch whereby Aaron is awakening. So at first glance, it might look like a series for younger audiences which I assure it is not. Nothing that explicit here but when you have young Cain being smothered young loli chicks, it says a lot. Of course bad people don’t look as good as the rest so you can tell if that particular baddie or arrogant noble is a bad apple simply by that typical looks. Yeah. This anime is jointly done by Magic Bus (you mean that studio that specializes in short pseudo hentai anime?! Yup, that one) and EMT Squared (Yuusha Yamemasu, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Beast Tamer, Nyanko Days, Cheat Kusushi No Slow Life). So if you’re wondering why the chibi loli looks are so familiar, now you know why.

Voice acting feels standard too as I only recognized Jouji Nakata making his cameo as Dalmatia. I blame not enough lines that’s why I couldn’t for Aki Toyosaki as Sarah and Marina Inoue as Aaron. Heh. Other casts are Yoshino Nanjou as Cain (Kokoro in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), Manaka Iwami as Telestia (Teresa in Tada-kun Koi Wo Shinai), Aya Uchida as Silk (Kotori in Love Live), Sora Tokui as Tijuana (Nero in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), Hibiku Yamamura as Nina (Claudia in Senyoku No Sigrdrifa), Saori Oonishi as Millie (Kaori in Arifureta), Miharu Hanai as Reine (Twin Turbo in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby), Kousuke Toriumi as Garm (Nozel in Black Clover), Ryota Ohsaka as Yuuya (Marco in Shingeki No Kyojin), Tomoaki Maeno as Seth (Schubert in ClassicaLoid), Tomomichi Nishimura as Zenom (Kuroboshi in Kyoukai No Rinne) and Hidenari Ugaki as the king.

The opening theme, Preview by Aya Uchida is rock music. I don’t know, feels too noisy for my liking and if you see Cain having a blast and troubles in the opening credits animation here, yeah, it feels like a preview of what mainly the series is going to be. Another rock outfit for the ending theme, Nanairo No E No Gu De by 7land. Not really my cup of tea either. And can’t Cain catch a break seeing him getting chased by not only girls but adults as well?! Everybody really wants a piece of him.

Overall, another blatant isekai trash. Sure, it’s not the worst there is out there but having watched too many of such in every season, it is more like the genre is getting really numbing. Now I’ve turned into a zombie following so many isekai series season in, season out. They’ve probably milked the whole isekai tropes dry and at this point there seems to be no stopping. I mean, for this one whereby the main character is a reincarnated aristocrat, there was previously one series that was also a reincarnated aristocrat but instead of being a noble, he was an assassin. That one was slightly darker. But if you like all the bright and colourful kiddie stuffs, this series should better suit your taste. After all, not every kid gets to live out his dreams of being super powered and all. It’s like chuunibyou but only for real.

Itai No Wa Iya Nano De Bougyoryoku Ni Kyokufuri Shitai To Omoimasu S2

I thought they might forget about it but oh well, who am I kidding? It has been 3 years since the first season aired and at the end of it they hinted a sequel. And that sequel, Itai No Wa Iya Nano De Bougyoryoku Ni Kyokufuri Shitai To Omoimasu S2 (or Bofuri S2 if that title is still too f*cking long and a mouthful for you to pronounce) has come and gone. Not that I’m a big fan of this series anyway but what to do? Stupid ‘law’ needs me to follow up and hope the sequel would be something better than the first. Sighs. So here am I watching this. But how much better could it get? The main heroine already has maxed out her defence so much that she is basically so overpowered in her offense as well. Technically like cheating but it’s not because she legitimately maxed them out. She’s having such a blast but more headaches for the admin who try to nerf her without breaking the game and also try to be fair but we all know nothing is going to stop her and her friends. Now we wait for her to complete the game, upgrade and get everything she can get her hands on and become a 100% completionist. Best game ever.

Episode 1
An event coming up in NWO? Let’s login and play! So we see Maple and co defeating some level boss (more like Maple doing the overkill) and their reward is being transported to this very Japanese-like town. So while they wait for the event to start, everyone goes their separate ways and do what they need to do. Like Sally having to once again tend to Frederica’s challenges. Frederica thinks she got her this time but once again, falls to her trap and loses. Maybe next time. Maple then sees Mii secretly entering an establishment. Turns out she is enjoying cuddling cute cats? Don’t worry about Maple busting this secret because she too enjoys all the cuddling. Then there’s Kasumi buying all her favourite Japanese stuffs. Realizing she’ll run out of money, she takes on a quest to earn some. She tests her special sword. Specialty includes a revealing cleavage but it’s damn powerful. Unfortunately the side effect is her body turned into of that of a child for a few minutes. Soon the next event starts as the admin explains about rare and exclusive Christmas items hidden across the field. Everyone is then teleported to random starting points. Tree monsters descend on Maple. Don’t worry. Time to show off how overpowered she is. Easy. Then she stumbles into Payne as he suggests they pair up for this mission. This sets the admins into panicking mode again. Yup. Not Maple again. Pairing with NWO’s greatest player will jeopardize all their hard work. So are they going to change the game’s rules and specs just to nerf her?! Well, thank goodness no. That’ll wreck the game’s balance. For now, they’ll just observe and collect data. I wonder if this is to show that Maple isn’t 100% the best so she got covered in some weird honey that indicates she might die in just 1 hit! So now it’s Payne’s turn to step up to his game and show us why he’s the greatest. Kasumi is forced to use her special sword. Hoping no one would see her but damn, Shin’s here. As the event nears its end, Maple holds a Christmas party for her guild and also invites others. Everyone opens their mysterious present and now they all have Santa outfits and Christmas-like accessories. Only Maple is a reindeer. Are you sure this is random? Then they drink to more adventures ahead.

Episode 2
Time to see what Maple Tree can do without having to always rely on their leader, eh? Yeah. Taking out this floor boss is so easy. See? They can do it. Of all days Maple had to be sick, no? When she is well, she goes to fight the floor boss to advance to the next level to join her friends. She fights this old dude and you know they’re trolling us when whatever Maple throws at him doesn’t work. Because time to use some overpowered move for ultimate victory. She doesn’t do this move because it also hurts the wielder. Thank goodness for her maxed defence, right? What was the name of this anime again? Unfortunately this is not the correct floor boss so all her actions were for nothing. Then she meets with Frederica and her party members. They are here instead of the next level is to help some of their guys level up. Yeah, those nameless background characters that we’ll never know. Maple easily pounds the floor boss and the rest must be horrified to see this, huh? Now that Maple can access the next level, she stumbles into May and Yui. They just lost to some lightning monster. But knowing Maple is here, they know they can defeat it. Always feels good to rely on your trump card, eh? And yes, it is that easy now to defeat the lightning monster with Maple around. And with the rest of Maple Tree, defeating this jellyfish monster to advance to the next level. Wow. Such progress. However this level is a horror zone and this does not sit well with Sally. She’ll find other ways to get to the next level so she’s sitting this one out. But what made her change her mind? There’s this special item or skill boosting thingy… Yeah, better sum up your courage. With Maple, they head to the graveyards as Sally begins the fright of her life. Hey, you want it so badly, right? Entering the mansion, Sally continues to be a scaredy cat and even more so, ghost hands! But after Maple eliminates them, a spell activates and separates them! Oh dear. Real horror AKA fun time begins now! Can’t logout too! Imagine, Sally is so fast and she can’t even outrun ghosts… Ironically all the jump scares did not cause her to have heart attack as soon Maple the saviour is here. The ghosts then go away because they go haunt new visitors. The girls use this chance to escape and since spending so much time in this mansion, looks like Sally got some goodies. Wow. That easy, huh? Back in reality, looks like her parents are working late and won’t come home early. Oh dear. Home alone. The horror movie continues? Luckily Risa calls Kaede for some company at least until her parents return.

Episode 3
Maple defeats a couple of naughty loli ghosts to get whatever items Sally wanted. This makes the admins frustrated again because of whatever bug there was. Time to get fixing again. Soon, Maple meets up with Mii to go help her fight a monster. As expected, easy peasy. Then the duo chat about teaming up before being joined by Kasumi and Frederica. The latter was trying to find Sally for another challenge but she’s not around so Kasumi fought her instead. Yeah, Frederica lost. Can she actually fight Sally if she keeps losing to Maple Tree members? They talk about some guild competition as well as Frederica wanting to get a ghostly familiar in her bid to take down Sally. An announcement for the next event where parties can choose what level they want based on difficulty. Each party will also have their own level so they won’t clash with others so feel free to let loose as much as they want. Maple and Sally team up for this next event as they begin to climb the tower. First, they fight a dragon with a powerful breath weapon. Easy, just go inside it where it’s weak and attack! Apparently the admins didn’t think they would do it but yeah, looks like another plan to stop Maple foiled. In the next level, monster books steal Maple’s techniques. This means Maple is now a sitting duck as Sally is left to do all the fighting. Too bad she knows Maple’s abilities and uses it against the monster. In no time it is defeated and Maple got all her skills back. Yeah, another foiled plot. Maybe the next one… Fighting a lava monster that soon turns into an ice monster but Maple uses her monster form to easily defeat. I swear, the admins must be f*cking frustrated now. They’re at their wits’ end to stop her so much so they think having done some terrain damage to her is already a huge achievement?!

Episode 4
In the next level, Maple and Sally are so cool that they’re riding and enjoying themselves on the back of this giant turtle which is supposed to be the floor boss! Once they’re done, instant death for the turtle! They’re gonna further frustrated the admins… We see the other guilds making their own progress throughout the tower. Of course a big bulk is focused on Maple and Sally as they traverse to higher floors. So how does Sally handle the one with ghosts? Why, hide in Maple’s Godzilla mouth! Oh well, the lesser of 2 evils… Other than that, it’s pretty much predictable as the duo fight on. Not even some huge freaking tower boss could even stop them. In the final level, they are already up facing the supposed strongest boss. Of course we got the entire second half for this and hence need to add some drama like Maple getting knocked back and her defence isn’t as strong as before. Yeah. Knight boss is really fast and strong. Gonna make us sweat a bit… In the end, the duo pull off whatever epic moves to finally defeat it. Crazy hard but it was worth the effort. With many other guilds also conquering the tower, the admins are celebrating with happiness. Their goal is for others to defeat their tower they created and have fun. They want people to beat their game. With Maple Tree happy that all of them pass this event, they decide to fight the next boss to head to the next level. Nothing this is going to be a scary one, they wonder how Sally will fare. It is then they show how it is done. No shame. Just get it done like this. Wow. Are we so speechless and dumbfounded?

Episode 5
In this next level, players are allowed to tame monsters. Like Pokemon?! However not all can be tamed and there are certain rules on how to tame those who can. Since a player is only limited to a single monster, this means Maple and Sally who already have their own familiars cannot get another one. Hence they will help other members to get theirs. This is vital since for the next event, a familiar will be most helpful. Maple accompanies May and Yui to find one. They stumble upon a pair of cute bears that leave behind coloured footprints?! Too bad they’re too fast. They head back so Iz can make them some gear. Uhm, rabbit outfits? Now we see snippets of 3 different adventures here. Maple getting kidnapped by a tentacle monster and taken to some underwater cave in which she gets eaten and more tentacle stranglehold. Sorry folks, nothing racy here. The sisters continue to hunt the bears and when they find them, the bears get kidnapped by this evil tentacle tree! Oh dear. But sorry, nothing spicy too. Lastly, Kasumi. Following the words of some NPC, she fights through several enemies and levels before facing a seemingly unbeatable giant snake. May, Yui and Kasumi keep losing and hence their quest keeps restarting but they won’t give up. Maple fights back by, uhm, eating the monster?! Tastes delicious! Are you f*cking serious?! Now the monster is scared of her but Maple eats too much of it until it dies. Wow! Seriously?! Kasumi defeats the snake and this leads her to a smaller but cute white snake that will become her familiar, Haku. The sisters too end up victorious. The bears are theirs as they name them Tsukimi and Yukimi (better than Bukimi HAHA!!!). Maple returns to her party and everyone is shocked she now can produce tentacle arms!

Episode 6
Now we focus on the remaining Maple Tree members in getting their familiars. First up is Kanade. Walking through the familiar town, she knows every NPC until she stumbles one that is never seen before. Uhm, could it be a player? Anyway, following him leads to some house in which it activates a quest for her to defeat some mirror slime. Basically, fighting herself in a mirror battle and winning it. Obviously. Can’t lose to yourself because who knows yourself better than your own self, right? Now she has a slime familiar named Sou. Next is Iz as she is interested in this spirit based familiar. However it seems to unlock it, lots of quests to retrieve items is needed. So she seeks Maple and Mii’s help as the first place they go is to defeat the lava dragon at its volcano home. I’m sure this is for Maple to show off her tentacle skills. One down and many more quests to go. Yeah, we’re not going through that so we’re focusing on Kuromu on his long quest now. 10 spots he went and they’re all a miss. Hopefully this cave with zombies and ghosts that is like some Pirates of the Caribbean spoof would be the one. Indeed. After defeating the skeleton captain, his box of treasure includes this ghostly armour familiar whom he names Necro. Iz has got all the ingredients and finally makes a pact with this spirit, Fay. Maple Tree congratulates them for getting their familiars as Kuromu shows off that he can combine with Necro for an even more durable armour. Like putting on another set of armour? Hope Sally won’t get scared with a ghost familiar in their group.

Episode 7
Frederica challenges Sally again. This time to show off her new familiar. However Sally doesn’t give her any openings and quickly owns her. So you thought Frederica is being mean to have a ghost familiar but it’s a cute little chick named Notes. The admins then announce some details for the next event. Basically individuals will be competing with each other for survival, earning points on how long they survive and monsters they defeat. The higher their rank, the better the rewards. To prepare for the next event, Maple and Sally adventure around the area. Then they notice this crystal and as it turns out, it is one of the few keys needed to trigger something. As they look around, Sally finds an underwater map of what is supposed to be of the level. Is this where the missing Poneglyph of One Piece is?! They return to ask Kanade for advice and she has some answers since she read all the books in the library! The duo then head off to several spots to fight monster bosses to get those crystal keys. Once they have collected them all, it unlocks this beautiful colourful ruin. Lots of weird critters around. Are these Ghibli’s rejected designs?! When they reach a seemingly important spot, this levels up Syrup and Oboro. Now in their newly evolved forms, they have a new set of skills too. Maple hopes the rest can also help evolve their familiars but they are stumped since they have encountered nothing of that sort. The rest deduce that perhaps their bonds with their familiar could only trigger it. After all, Maple and Sally have been with their familiars for a long time. Meanwhile the admins are griping about more bugs and all. Well, if these are creating monsters, then it’s only right to throw monsters at them. But some caution doing so exceeds their processing capabilities. Oh well, got to try something.

Episode 8
Maple practising her skills with Syrup. Mii’s pals stumble into this and note how much they’ve grown. They also show their familiars since they’ve seen hers. Uhm, didn’t she have Syrup all along? The next event is here as the admin relays more details about it like getting points for monsters they kill and surviving till the end. After more training, everyone gets transported to the battlefield. We see Maple making a killing until a point where monsters start running away from her! Then she realizes several new skills she got, one of them causes lower level monsters to run away! How can she kill monsters for points now? Don’t worry, this flower trap she accidentally sets off attracts monsters. Time for total annihilation. Now we see how the rest of Maple Tree are doing. May and Yui easily defeating a bunch of losers from another guild. Then they want to go help Maple thinking she will have too many enemies to handle. Seeing she is trampling all over them, they believe it is best they leave her alone. Kanade has her back against the wall with Dread and Drag. She gets killed off but obviously she was just using a shadow clone and got some useful info about their familiars. Then we see Iz setting bomb traps and bombing the forest while Kasumi slices anyone, monsters or players who enter her territory. Sally is wandering around but stumbles into an epic fight between Payne and Mii. This great battle is ‘ruined’ when joker Maple comes by inside an alligator’s mouth, running about and having fun?! Yeah, they lost interest and will resume their fight another day. So apparently Maple got eaten by this monster but since she didn’t enter its stomach, she used a skill to control it. Now she’s having fun riding and shooting beams to hunt monsters! WTF?! The preliminaries end and Maple Tree members all score high points and rank highly. Can’t wait for the next round of main event.

Episode 9
More details about the next main event. Basically if you survive, you get silver medals in which you can trade for skills and other stuffs. So the higher the difficulty, the more medals you get. There are also events in which strong monsters will pop out so keep an eye on the timer. As they get transported over to the next event, they are immediately thrown into battle with some of the most ferocious monsters. Since they didn’t drop medals, it’s safe to say that these are just warm ups and the toughest are coming. The decision now is to either search for medals together or split up. Eventually they form 2 groups to look for the medals. Maple’s team will have Sally, May and Yui. We see them fight mud zombies whatever and thanks to Maple’s ability of not taking damage, this is going to be easy win. And yeah, first medal obtained. On Kasumi’s side, they fight a sneaky and invisible enemy. But when they put their teamwork together, the sniff out the enemy and get another medal. Not a bad start as they regroup. They see this dummy cave labyrinth and think of making this their base to rest. Yes, having time to decorate their base and even putting traps all over. When they wait for the timer to reach zero, here comes the horde… Only… None came. Did the traps take them all out? Maple and Sally check it out and it seems with all the loots they dropped, the traps did their job. Then they beef up their defence and put more traps. Yeah, so much time on their hands they start playing cards. And all the silly monsters activating the trap and go boom. Is this a tower defence game now?! Even the admins are shocked to see them create a dungeon even deadlier than the ones they made. So they think the monsters will only get tougher now, eh? They should well know who they’re dealing with…

Episode 10
When Maple Tree exit their base, suddenly they got teleported and scattered. We see Sally fighting monsters alongside Frederica. Nothing that they can’t handle. With the monsters done, Frederica suggests a duel to kill time. Well, we all know how this will turn out, right? Maple is also fighting monsters but Mii comes to her aid. She then tells Maple that the world is somehow collapsing from inside out and that many of her comrades got scattered to. Is this event going to be like Fortnite? This means we see other Maple Tree members ending up with other guilds like Iz with Markus, Kuromu with Misery, Kasumi with Shin and finally Kanade, May and Yui with Drag. Teamwork allows them to easily defeat their foes as they all reunite. Because Flame Emperor and Order of the Holy Sword have lost their bases, it is suggested they temporary make base with Maple Tree. It’s going to be the big and most powerful alliance ever. Meanwhile we see those admins talking about this forced relocation and minimizing the map size was all part of the strategy to trim down the players for the event’s finale. Strong monsters were also sent as part of it because it wouldn’t be fun if the most difficult difficulty is easy to beat. But looks like they’ll be eating their words as they learn Maple Tree has formed an alliance with the 2 other powerful guilds. Oh dang, they’re going to feel pity for the monsters! They worry more people will complete this event now. Are they saying they short sell and don’t have enough prizes? Oh well, time to make more adjustments… With strong monsters entering the base and the traps have no effect, Payne and Mii decide to fight them off as repayment for the shelter. While they easily complete the task, soon the gang wonders if this is an efficient strategy. They think it would be better to go out and fight more monsters to earn medals instead of sitting and waiting here. After all, something may happen tomorrow like the forced teleportation today. Hence we see our heroes split themselves into 4 groups to conquer everything in all cardinal directions. And the weak ones stay behind to hold the fort, right?!

Episode 11
Those who stay back at the base try to do something to repay Maple Tree’s kindness by going out of their cave to fight monsters. Too bad they have to come running back to their safe zone after getting their asses handed to them! We focus on May and Yui’s side (that includes Markus and Dread) as they head into some underwater cave to fight some catfish boss. They beat it and earn a medal. Next up is Kanade and Iz who has Payne and Misery in their group. In this cathedral dungeon, they fight their way through magic enemies. We all know how it will end, right? Then in the desert zone, Kuromu, Kasumi, Shin and Drag fight scorpion and snake bosses. You know the drill. Finally, Maple, Sally, Mii and Frederica barge through a forest full of batty monsters and into a portal to another dimension to face off with this Maple’s Godzilla clone. No prizes to guess what happens in the end. Everyone regroups back at the base and you bet everyone has done well enough to earn lots of medals. Now the admins are worried because they’ve gotten so many medals and if they make the monsters harder, other players won’t be able to even beat them. Heh. Are there even other players at this point?! Worse, if they get even more medals, the admins have to work overtime! But don’t worry, they’re betting on this next monster… How many times were we fooled already? The final day is here and while it seems like a good strategy for the alliance to just sit back and survive till the day is over as they already have more than enough medals, suddenly loads of those Godzilla monster clones pop up. They deduce there will be even tougher monsters than this and if they get cornered here, there will be nowhere to run. The only way? Go out and attack them!

Episode 12
Our heroes barge their way out as they fight the monsters. They manage to escape and take temporary refuge at this mountain. Holding out would be ideal but with more Godzilla clones spawning, that won’t be an easy option. Especially this really huge mother Godzilla that threatens to destroy the world! Hence the plan is to cooperate (what else?) to take down the lesser monsters so they can concentrate on the final boss. So Flame Emperor and Order of the Holy Sword will do just that as Maple Tree concentrate on the big mother. Everybody helps chip away its enormous HP. The monster then tries to escape and flies away. Maple and Sally are left on its back as they try to take down its wings. Anyway it worked. Now that it is grounded, it’s about time for everybody to show off their skills with their pets to do further damage before our guild bosses do their even devastating moves. In the final attack, Maple realizes her HP is dangerously low. So she hasn’t maxed out her defence? Sally gives her some elixir in time. After healing up, Maple gets a great push from Syrup as she thrusts through the monster with her devouring move. Big boss defeated. End of event. Hooray! All survivors get lots of medals and they can trade them with whatever weapons or skills they want before the next big event. Meanwhile the admins are broken. Their best ace got taken down like any other monsters and now there are too many players who survived and got lots of medals. You know what this means. Back to the drawing board to work out more details before the next event. Yeah, more overtime. But I guess one of them got so broken that she claims what they did was correct because as long as the players are happy, they did their job. She is so moved by their passion that she will talk to the management for special bonuses and hire more people to help. While this makes everybody happy, we wonder if management will even listen… We all know the game industry isn’t all bed of roses, right? As Maple hang out with Sally, we see a bunch of new characters sizing them up. They think they know their weaknesses and can beat them. Yeah well, I think I know how it will turn out…

NWO Any% Glitchful Speedrun
Can anybody stop these powerful players? Your guess is as good as mine. Sure, maybe they are so strong that they could be attracting new players to the game but at the same time, put other newbies off because well, they are so overpowered. And to think they end it with some drama that some new characters think Maple’s skills are just for chums. Are they trying to fool us? I’m sure they haven’t faced her yet and that’s why they talk big and don’t know the extent of her strength. My guess is that there’ll be a short skirmish and in the end, become allies and the alliance of powerful guilds will grow bigger. Yes, more friends. And yes, more headaches for our admins. Better throw away whatever real life they have and started tweaking! Is this worth all the special incentives and bonuses in the end? Too late to turn back now… But I guess Maple and friends are having a blast so…

Honestly, this season feels a whole lot boring. Forgive me if I missed a lot of important details and couldn’t piece together the puzzle to understand what is going on because I caught myself countless times being distracted by something else while watching this. Uh huh. So basically this season is about Maple and her friends going about their online adventure to kill more monsters, level up and get great goodies, defying expectations of the admins. Rinse and repeat. Is that not what this whole series is about anyway? Worse, I noticed that in some events, it felt like the whole thing was just like one big summary. This means the fight is not really dragged out and we see snippets of it mostly. This is both good and bad. Because the whole thing is already a bore, dragging out the overpowered fight scenes will be even more boring because we all know how it will conclude especially in Maple’s case. So it doesn’t matter if a fight event is zipped through or not because in the end, our main characters always win. Hence such ‘summary’ is good because it saves a lot of time on that but on the other hand, it’s not really a good thing when you have many events being given the fast forward treatment. Oh well, after all they are mostly all almost identical, right? Find monsters or go on a quest, defeat the monster boss, get rewarded. Rinse and repeat. YAWN!!!

Making the whole second season even worse are the characters. There is basically not much character development in this season as the first has already introduced what is necessary to us. Sure, we see them level up and obtain some new skills but nothing that would be a major significant that would give the series a whole new direction. Like Maple, we already saw how overpowered she has become in the first season that she is literally a walking legal cheat code God. Heh. Because of that, she has the luxury to just have fun in everything she does without so much having to worry. Weaker characters who still have a long way to go in improving their level and skills will have lots more to worry but not her. Literally, always in her own pace. I mean, who is going to beat her, right? There are moments when it seemingly looks like she might lose but rest assured, it is all just for drama purpose as all Maple needs to do is just to calm down, think about what she has in her arsenal and then unleash it. Always works and never fails. Rinse and repeat and there you have it, NWO’s strongest player ever. This entire season is so focused on her and her friends online that you might even forget they’re just playing a game. Literally, they have no life outside NWO!!!! And basically you can’t hate Maple for being overpowered because she didn’t cheat her or worse, bought and max out her abilities with real world money! Oh God. Those are the worst kinds of players, no? And to think NWO has no such mechanics, makes me wonder how they will stay afloat. I can foresee the management isn’t going to approve that special bonuses for the overworked admins…

And so the rest of the other characters in Maple Tree aren’t exciting either. I don’t know what else more to say about them. In fact, they feel insignificant despite having somewhat more share of the screen time. Yeah. Blame Maple for stealing the scenes with her overpowered features. So I don’t know if it is a good thing if Maple Tree didn’t get any new members inducted because they might be a small guild but they are so overpowered already. Yeah, maybe that’s why it felt so boring. But then again, better not have new characters because we already have had enough of overpowered characters. So as to show them as human and have a vulnerable side, I’m sure why we are reminded that Sally is still afraid of ghosts. But she’ll get around it when it matters most, right? And Kasumi’s new skill turns her into a vulnerable loli? KAWAII!

So to somewhat spice things up, hence the alliance with Flame Emperor and Order of the Holy Sword because it’s the only thing left to do. Instead of making them fight each other for supremacy (my bet is that Maple will still top them all), hence the latest event having them joining forces for the greater good. As good as saying they’ve already beaten the game because when you have the game’s strongest top 3 guilds working together, everyone else is screwed. Other players have no chance at all and the only way is to join them. Yeah, imagine if every player falls under one of these umbrella guilds, that would be so boring! So while it is refreshing to see the top guilds work together, ultimately I feel it is all just for aesthetics. Oh look, everybody is here! Yeah. That. I noticed a bunch of goons and clowns under the Order of the Holy Sword. Joker characters definitely. Yeah, they talk big or act tough but end up as losers anyway. It’s amazing how they can last this long into the game as the events get harder and more taxing. Yeah, always get protected by the powerful ones, huh?

Then there are those admins who will always forever be troubled at how much Maple and her guild has grown. We all might laugh at them for being too dumb to fix things or make things worse but put yourself in their shoes. With a game this big, bugs and glitches are bound to happen so it’s a herculean effort trying to find and fix them. While they are always complaining about Maple being overpowered, they are actually still trying to be fair admins. After all, if they really want to play dirty and don’t like her, they can just ban and suspend her account! Something they had not done and this proves that they are trying to take a more positive approach and fix things with their programming. Again, yet a seemingly impossible task since Maple has always surpass their expectations. They think the next time will be it but after coming this far, we all know better. Thus these admins are not the bad guys as they are just trying to do their job and make a game that is playable and more importantly, fun to everyone. Keep praying that Maple won’t cause any more trouble… Right, when pigs fly…

This season’s action scenes are still mediocre at least to me. As I am already so bored with everything, I thought perhaps the fighting scenes would at least alleviate some of that boredom. Sad to say, it did not. Sure, everyone has levelled up and gained some new set of moves especially with everybody now having their own cute little pet mascot. It feels like such scenes are to showcase in a flashy way all that power and it is only right because this is a fantasy game, right? Basically this is what many of the scenes in each episode is about. Fighting. After all, that is what such online RPGs like NWO is supposed to be, right? You’re here to show off your powerful skills and to do that you fight monsters. Sorry if you want some romance, go play a dating sim! But yeah, I couldn’t get all excited watching the power fight scenes because it’s all too predictable (even for the big final last boss battle). As I’ve already said, the latest event has the top guilds joining forces, it feels like a gimmick to give us viewers some variety because we’re so hell bored seeing the same Maple Tree winning, right? So why not share that win with the other top guilds.

While the art and animation remain the same, I have to mention that some monsters are given the CGI treatment and I think it should have been done better. Yeah, why do they always have to give us mediocre CGI quality? The main reason why it doesn’t seem so awful is because for example, the final battle with the big mother, the scene is quite dark. Aha. Enough to cover and hide the atrocious CGI, right? Oh yeah. Just what we need.

Junjou No Afilia who sang the first season’s opener, they continue to do the same for this season. However Kono Tate Ni Kakuremasu feels awfully familiar with their first season’s stint like as though it is some sort of spiritual successor or something. Oh you know, it sounds like one of those lively generic anime idol pop song with lots of sparkling effects. I don’t find it exciting for me, though. The same can be said for the ending theme, Step For Joy by Fram. Nothing special about this anime rock outfit which sounds as generic as any other. But the song I want to point out most is the insert song, As You Wish by Fram. This feels like a spiritual successor to Good Night by Rico Sasaki that was the insert song from the first season. With its tropical samba and cool acoustic guitar pickings, this is the best song for me this season. However unfortunately it still can’t hold a candle to Good Night as still prefer that one much more than this. One reason that As You Wish feels a bit weird is because the song is entirely in English and the singer sounds like she’s singing in Engrish mode! Ugh. Also, her singing sounds muffled and I can’t hear her clearly enough.

Overall, this sequel continues to be a let-down and worst of all, even more boring! I might not remember the first season much but my guts tell me this season was worse and lacklustre. You have to be hardcore fans of the series or the characters to like this sequel or find the second season to be something solid but unfortunately I am not one of those. I’m so glad this is over and considering this sequel ran into production issues (some episodes were postponed while the season was running and were blamed on that damn Corona virus and even the final 2 episodes were delayed to a few weeks later), I’m sure the production staffs too were glad they finally got over this nightmare. Uh huh. Don’t want to work overtime to fix something that many aren’t going to appreciate in the end, right? Yeah. Just enough to just finish the season and hopefully not get another. Yes, hopefully no third season because no matter how overpowered you are how much super goodies you have in your arsenal, it all means nothing when the server gets shutdown and the game goes offline forever! Not even Maple can max her way out of that! Or can she? Then it’s welcome back to reality, the true NWO! How about maxing out real life stats? Tough, right?!

Isekai Nonbiri Nouka

In the previous season, we had an anime that disguised itself as some sort of farming theme. And it turned out to be one of those generic comedy harem fantasy with the main character being overpowered as f*ck. Yeah, didn’t we all get duped by the pseudo farming? But don’t worry, in the next season, we have an anime to cover that disappointment at least for the farming genre. And so it is farming’s turn to get the isekai treatment as seen in Isekai Nonbiri Nouka. That’s right. Instead of being reincarnated as some overpowered hero going on to save the world from the Demon Lord or something, our main character here chooses the quiet life via farming! Might not sound exciting to the new generation who doesn’t know how to appreciate hard work and sweat, but I guess for others like yours truly, need to take a break from those typical and general isekai tropes and see what farming has to offer. Oh, who am I kidding? That busty sexy girl on the promotional poster got me curious in the first place. Can I farm and harvest those melons? WTF am I saying?! This anime supposed to be wholesome!!!

Episode 1
Look who died and got the isekai treatment. Yeah, Hiraku Machio died and got reincarnated in a fantasy world whereby he is living his dream farming life! Flashback shows after he died, his soul is met with God or at least the one who governs his world. He blames himself for some mistake that had Hiraku suffering in his previous life. From bullying to terminal illness, he hopes to atone with this second chance he is about to give him. What world would Hiraku want to reborn in a healthy body with? Farming! Because he got interested in some farming series while hospitalized. And so God grants him that wish as well as an omnipotent farming tool. And so Hiraku begins his life. From scratch. Yeah. In the middle of the forest of nowhere. We see him start out by farming simple crops. Not sure if he is overpowered or it is the tools that are overpowered that allows him to cut through wood like hot knife through butter. We also see him happily dig for water source as well as create some structures for living and lavatory. Uhm, is this all part of agricultural knowledge? Heck, Hiraku doesn’t even know what he is doing but since the crops are turning out well, it must be okay! With monsters attacking (don’t worry, his brute force kills them outright), he puts up walls and creates trenches. One day, he sees a couple of injured dogs outside and lets them in to house and feed them. He notices one of them is female and pregnant. Is she going into labour now? Yeah. Awkward. Hiraku leaves them and temporarily takes shelter inside the tree cave just to give them space! Next morning, all is well as Hiraku is happy to see the birth of a few happy pups. The dogs remain loyal to help guard and hunt for him. He calls the adults Kuro and Yuki. His mini farming kingdom has grown and reaping the fruits of his labour. Hiraku can’t be happier than this slow and peaceful life.

Episode 2
God is regretting yet another mistake he made. Dropping Hiraku in the middle of the most dangerous forest in the world with monsters. There’s a reason why they call it the Forest of Death. But don’t worry about Hiraku. Look how happy he is growing his potato plants. Thanks to his dogs as guides, he is able to explore his surroundings without getting lost. Then a spider comes to stay at his place. Friendly but sorry, not your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman! Anyway, this spider whom Hiraku names Zabuton, conveniently knits him clothes. Just in time as winter is around the corner. With all the warm clothes, Hiraku is able to survive winter. But wait. Suddenly he feels lonely?! I guess the dogs and spider are a different story… With spring arriving, the pups are adults as they head off to find a new home. Too bad they found new partners and bring them back to live. Even Zabuton has a few offspring of her own. Wow. Looks like the denizens have increased. This means more farming! One day, Hiraku stumbles upon a weakened girl lost in the forest, Lu Lulucy. As he approaches her, she sucks his blood! His dogs attack her but Hiraku has them heel. Apparently this vampire girl needs blood for strength so he lets her suck his to her fill. Then he brings her back to his village and she is impressed with his farming. As she stays for a while, he learns that she is researching medical plants but got into a fight with nobles and was on the run. She is lying low till this blows over. Suddenly Hiraku realizes he can’t let this opportunity slip. Basically he is asking her to stay with him. Forever! Not sure if all that blood sucking turned him this way. Lulucy is shocked at first but with him prostrating himself and he sounded desperate, not to mention it sounded like a proposal too, oh well, we knew this had to become some sort of harem somewhere. She accepts and happy Hiraku gives her a big hug! Take her on as his wife when? Happy with her company, he notes she is the first villager aside him. Well, counting the dogs and spider, make that around the 30th.

Episode 3
Looks like déjà vu because the dogs catch a suspicious girl. Turns out to be Tia and she knows Lulucy. Tia is an angel but she’s not the kind of race we all know that is God’s servant. She may look like it but she’s just a race of strong warriors. Hiraku soon learns that Lulucy is on the run and there’s a bounty on her head after causing some trouble. Well, her masters kept forcing her to make drugs she doesn’t want so she fled after causing some ruckus. Hence Tia was hired to track her down. Lulucy suggests Tia live here as she brings her around the farm. Just in time, need another set of hands to tend to the ever expending farm. I’m sure she’ll be hooked once she learns how tasty the foods she grows with her own 2 hands. Hiraku thinks of creating a bigger shed because his dogs and spider will soon have more offspring. Then Tia says she’ll be leaving for a while but will be back. A few days later, she returns with a group of hot elves chicks led by Lea. They lost their home after a devastating war in the north and was wandering about to find a place to live. You can see where this is going, right? Now they can settle down and repopulate their race. Can a human and elf mix? Anyway, Hiraku welcomes them all since extra hands are welcomed. Don’t worry, the youngest one is 300 years old! With the elves’ tenacity and hard work, they create a better living space and even do some mining and blacksmithing jobs for him. Their elven knowledge also help make bread. Uh huh, need more variety than just vegetables. Hiraku can take heart that since he built everything on this land by his own, he has the right to claim it. Thank goodness that is how it works here.

Episode 4
Zabuton catches a queen bee. Rather than kill it, now Hiraku creates a beehive for it to make honey. He and the girls then continue to construct the waterways for their reservoir so they don’t have to always go fetch water from the well. With some luck, perhaps they’ll catch a few fish into their waterways too. Next, he makes a paddy field to plant rice. Yes, lots of hard work to grow, harvest and cook that rice Hiraku loves so much. Because planting gets you dirty, the elves can use magic to wash the dirt off easily. Hiraku has an idea to create a bath. And hence the construction begins. But what about their waste water? They can’t just flush it back to the river, right? That’s right. Slimes will purify all the wastes. Hiraku tells the girls the ‘ritual’ on how to take a bath. Yeah, faster if he demonstrates it himself. Luckily they’re quick learners. Too bad he didn’t think this is a unisex bath because he thinks he should’ve created a separate baths for genders. The girls aren’t bothered and think he is trying to make his own private bath! What’s wrong with bathing together?! Only Hiraku can’t enjoy the rest of his bath… Soon, more elf girls pop up to seek refuge here and of course Hiraku welcomes them. We hear a narration from Kuro how he was a badass hunting machine when he was single. Until he met his future wife, he didn’t stand a chance. With the concept of family now important to him, he lost his hunting prowess. They lost to some bear king of the forest. Injured, they stumbled into a lone Hiraku whom they thought was weak. Surprisingly he took them in, fed and sheltered them. Because of this, they consider him their master and live was good. He hopes Hiraku won’t stumble into the more terrifying creatures like the inferno wolves. Anyhow, he is thankful to meet Hiraku.

Episode 5
We see the interior and layout of their big house. Wow. Quite cosy. They have rooms for everything. From underground cellars to even a room for mating… Okay, never mind… Next we see Hiraku and the girls harvesting spices to make curry. Hiraku then uses his expertise to make curry that goes well with naan bread and you bet everyone is having a great curry time. Winter season will soon be here so everybody makes their preparation for old man winter. This includes getting lots of cloths from Zabuton as well as preserving all kinds of foods. With winter hitting the area, everyone huddles indoors. Thank goodness they won’t die from boredom because Hiraku has created a few games for entertainment. Like Reversi, Lulucy is a bad loser as she flips the board when she is about to lose but Tia resets it back with her magic. But the most shocking one goes to those dogs because damn they’re intelligent in chess! Damn Lulucy lost to Kuro in chess! There’s also mahjong in which once again Kuro excels by a mile and Hiraku being the biggest loser! Then there’s bowling which of course everyone enjoys the most. Once winter blows over, it’s good to go back outside. However the alarm bell rings because a dangerous wyvern soon encroaches into their safe space.

Episode 6
The wyvern is going to burn everything down if they don’t do something. Hiraku then imagines he needs a weapon. Just like that, a spear pops out in his hand. Is a spear a farming tool?! OMG Hiraku could be a javelin champion as he throws and kills the wyvern! Examining its corpse, Hiraku confirms that nobody sent this rare creature to target them so this is just an isolated unfortunate incident. Because more importantly, can wyvern meat be eaten?! Yes it can! Enjoy. Meanwhile in the neighbouring kingdom, the Demonic Kingdom of Galgardo, the Demon Lord’s generals are fretting over reports of the wyvern being killed and are trying not to cause the public to panic. Also in a nearby domain, the Gatekeeper Dragons of Dryme’s Lair, a human and dragon pair has observed the wyvern attack and wonder if they can handle such attack themselves. Hiraku has the girls make wine. That’s right. Wine stomping the traditional way. To find their rhythm, the elves sing their signature song to get all the juice flowing. Meanwhile God gets chewed out by his own daughter for giving Hiraku a spear. So father is forced to kneel like that for 300 years?! Déjà vu again as another hot babe is caught nearby. Turns out to be Flora who is Lulucy’s sister. She was looking for her sister after hearing rumours some angel was targeting her. After learning about this village, Flora wants to move in so she leaves and comes back a month later with a group of orc maids led by Anne. Wow. The population just increased. Tia gets worried that angels don’t have the numbers so she brings back a few of her own race as well as the lizardmen leg by Daga. Oh sh*t, even more elf girls turn up to stay here! This is sure turning to be a refugee camp! Hiraku calls all the race representatives for a meeting. Since their population has grown so big, they’re going to name this village. Hiraku doesn’t want it named after him or this forest. Yeah, bad omen, Forest of Death Village. Zabuton then suggests the big tree in the centre and thus Hiraku officially names it Big Tree Village. Everybody has a party to celebrate its naming and at the same time everybody unanimously names Hiraku as the mayor. Who else fit for the job, right?

Episode 7
Beezel, one the generals of the Demon Lord visits Big Tree Village. After handing Hiraku some gift, he wants to talk about the status of this settlement. Hiraku thinks he is occupying the Demon Lord’s land and thus it’s about taxes. Hiraku negotiates to give 10% of his harvest. Surprisingly Beezel agrees and leaves. That was easy. Hiraku confides in his girls and it seems they’ve got a bargain because normally the tax rate is 50%! Beezel returns to report to the other generals. It seems he was scared during the negotiation because damn, all those powerful races behind Hiraku! He thought one wrong move and he is done for. That’s why he felt he had no choice but to accept their terms. Soon, Dryme visits Big Tree Village and has gifts to show their hospitality. Their kingdom is located far in the south but despite the distance, they’re still considered neighbours. Dryme is so taken in by their hospitality that he doesn’t want to go back! He has to since his aide reminds him about it. With visitors, Hiraku soon realizes the need to welcome guests. Hence he discusses about making guest houses for them. In no time it is up as Hiraku also delegates the welcoming committee tasks. One day, a group of beastmen led by Garf from Howling Village is here to seek diplomatic relations with Big Tree Village. Because they didn’t bring gifts, the other girls view them as suspicious and reduce the hospitality by 1 level? Hiraku still treats them nice because until they are determined as their enemies, he wants to show them kindness. They learn the beastmen want to do some trading. They have ores that can be used to make utensils. In exchange they want food. Previously they were trading with humans but some trouble flared up so they went looking for new people to trade with and learnt about this village from the Demon Lord’s people. On the first trading visit, Dryme gives Tia a lift to Howling Village and everything went well. When she returns, she tells Hiraku that 20 people from Howling Village wants to live here. All women. Oh boy. Is there a limit to this expanding harem?! Hiraku will agree to take them if they send 2 males. Led by Sera, the women of Howling Village arrive. And those men? They’re young boys! Hiraku should’ve been more specific! Now he has to wait a few more years. The future of Big Tree Village depends on it!

Episode 8
A monster bear and viper are fighting nearby, enough to cause some tremors. Hiraku wonders if they are edible! One hit kill! Bringing them back to be cooked, he uses wine for the bear meat (something the ladies are in despair because he used their precious wine) and the viper, uhm, tastes like chicken?! Feeling something amiss, Hiraku goes to see Flora to create some condiments that he would like to try out in his cooking. That’s right, welcome mayo and miso to the fold. Soon, a group of dwarves led by Donovan visits the place. It seems they want to exchange wine (something the girls are not too happy to give away). As the dwarves have no money, they have technology to brew it. They demonstrate and you bet this hits the spot. And now they are permanent residents of Big Tree Village. Hiraku is more than happy because more men! He asks Donovan if he has any preferred ladies. Well, they’re all too young for his liking. How old is old? Till they grow beards! Holy sh*t! That won’t happen for these women! When a couple of dragons are seemingly attacking the village, Dryme attacks back. But when Hiraku is about to go in for the kill, he is stopped because those dragons are not the enemies. They are Dryme’s wife and daughter, Graffaloon and Lastismoon AKA Lasty respectively. They got suspicious as Dryme kept sneaking out every night. Thank goodness not having an affair, right? After they apologize, mom wants Lasty to stay here so as to keep Hiraku’s power in check and never to be turned against the dragons. Uhm, okay. And so we now have a dragon girl living with them. But since she is clumsy with farm work, Hiraku has her do diplomatic work since dragons are also known for their wisdom. She is attending to Beezel who continues to be more afraid now that this village has a dragon girl! He just accepts whatever! He returns to discuss this with the rest and afraid they might be getting too powerful, they need to monitor them. Hence Beezel sends his daughter, Flowrem to spy on their military strength. Lasty shows her great hospitality as Flowrem notes the hierarchy of this village but also starts to know the meaning of fear once she realizes all the powerful races are gathered here. She didn’t think much of Hiraku when she first met him since he is an ordinary human. But after learning he is the mayor and more powerful than the rest, now she’s trembling in fear for her rudeness. For now she lives here but still fears a bit of Hiraku.

Episode 9
I guess nobody cared about the slimes until one of them drank an entire barrel of wine! Hence the village’s first trial! GUILTY! Even if it got some confinement punishment, it’s not like it can learn from it. So they just let it join them in their celebrations. With the gang talking about seafood, Lasty knows a port town that supplies them. She goes there and brings back Michael Goroun, the president of his own company. He is willing to do trading with Big Tree Village and also wants to become the village’s official government supplier. Looks like they allow him to trade anything he wants except WINE! DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! The deal is sealed and as Michael leaves, he is so relieved because he was scared the entire time. Yeah, dragons, angels, vampires… IT’S SO DAMN SCARY! Soon, Lasty visits Michael at his office to begin some trade. Then Michael himself goes to deliver himself to several places and holds in his fear in meeting all these powerful creatures. Hiraku and his girls can now enjoy their seafood. When another dragon attacks, this one is playful and dodges Hiraku’s attacks until she can’t. Turns out to be Hakuren, Dryme’s older sister. Apparently she heard Lasty is getting engaged to Hiraku?! Oh, must be Dryme talking in one of his drunken tirades. This made Hakuren jealous so she decided to check him out. After all, her niece is 900 years younger and is getting engaged! The gang plays mahjong and Hiraku becomes the ultimate loser as he lost all his clothes! Yeah, the girls are loving it?! Now that Hakuren has decided to stay here, at first she doesn’t do anything but laze around. Eventually she becomes a teacher although her motivation is questionable. Soon, a group of lamia come begging to Hiraku to spare their lives in exchange for some materials. Thanks to his dogs raiding their dungeon, they got the wrong idea. Well, at least they won’t be staying here as they continue trading relationship. Meanwhile Princess Yuri, the daughter of the Demon Lord learns from her subjects that Flowrem may be forced to stay at Big Tree Village against her will and could be a hostage. Time to gather the troops to rescue her.

Episode 10
Beezel tells Flowrem about Yuri and her subjects organizing a small army to attack this village. Is there a way to make them give up without using force? Apparently, just use the lamia to show a bit of their strength and just like that the whole army gets scared and gives up! At Big Tree Village, Yuri and her subjects are getting lectured and warning from Flowrem. She ‘claims’ they will be staying here and work themselves to death for this incident to be looked over. So don’t be shy in putting them to whatever work that needs to be done. They are shown around the village. The subjects think of using chances to escape but after encountering those dogs and spider, I guess they give up and now focusing on working hard! Flowrem and Yuri talk and as childhood friends, Yuri did all this because she was really worried she got kidnapped and become a hostage. They’ve grown apart like strangers over the years so I think at this village they get to reconnect again and as equals. Soon Yuri leaves for home but her subjects will continue to stay. Yeah, they love the food here. With the gang preparing for the winter, because they have harvested so much that the storeroom isn’t enough, they think of sending the extras to Lasty’s various family in the north and south. During that period, a group of mountain elves led by Ya wants to move in and stay here. Does Hiraku have a reason to decline? Soon the elves discover a new dungeon up in the north and to send an expedition team to explore. When they return, they want a subjugation force to take down a viper that lives there. All for the rare and valuable meat! Hiraku still wants to talk with the rest for this? But soon Lulucy falls ill. She’s looking fine to me. Mentioning about a few symptoms and food cravings, if you haven’t guessed it yet like our mayor, Sera explains Lulucy is pregnant! WHAT?!

Episode 11
So, are we not interested to know who the father is? I don’t think vampires are asexual. But it’s back to the usual daily lives of Big Tree Village. Hiraku monitoring everything and also does a bit of farming. Because the population has gotten so big, he has to split breakfast into 3 groups. With everyone having a good time eating the good food they harvest from their sweat, perhaps a little too good as some are putting on weight. Better get started on those exercise. Each night when Hiraku retires to his room, it’s like a bit of anxious feeling. Because the elves are keeping a close watch on him so that nothing happens! I mean, who the f*ck wants to bring harm to this guy?! Or are they keeping guard so no girls would be paying a nightly visit?! One they strange man enters the village and starts paying his respects to the statue. He is Vargryfe and the progenitor of the vampires. Despite his youthful looks, he is actually 4000 years old! The secret in staying young? Erase some of his memories every few hundred years but keep the important ones! Now, Vargryfe has met God once and that was during his birth. Because being born as a vampire has saved him from lots of miseries, Vargryfe can’t thank God enough. But no matter how much he tried to create an image of God, he just can’t. Until he saw the one in Big Tree Village. Of course Hiraku can’t give that to him and will make him a new one. Since Hiraku won’t accept payment for this, Vargryfe will think of another way to thank him. He brings the statue back to his town where it sits in a temple. Vargryfe knows Hiraku isn’t the kind of guy who wants his name to be honoured. Instead all temples will support him and his quiet life. As payment, Vargryfe sends a grand piano and also to celebrate Lulucy’s pregnancy. Because the other girls would like to play but fear of breaking it, they request for a practice version. With Michael’s help, they manage to get one as everyone starts practising their new entertainment. It’s all fine but can they at least stop practising in the middle of the night?!

Episode 12
Wonder no more because it is a fact that Hiraku is the one responsible behind Lulucy’s big belly! While she can move about and all, the only downside in her pregnancy is that she can’t drink alcohol! So much so, everybody so concerned for her has made a plea to Hiraku to sell all the alcohol in this village! You girls really want to miss out on your favourite thing just for this? Hiraku suggests they just hold out for a while. After all, wine tastes better when aged, right? So don’t worry Donovan. There’s a reason why nobody is drinking your wine for now. And soon that day comes when Lulucy goes into labour. Like any father, Hiraku worries and since he won’t be of much help, he hangs out alone and away until the morning comes. He returns and Lulucy has given birth to a healthy boy whom they named Alfred. Now you’ve become a father! As life continues, Hiraku then comes up with a reward system. For every good deed, a medal reward is given. Basically it’s like money. As Hiraku is one who handles distribution of everything, the village has got lots of stuffs now and soon he won’t be able to keep track. So this could start off as so before evolving into their own currency in which they can trade with other nations. And so this system gets off to a good start as the citizens can trade for items they want. But sorry little girl, can’t trade it to make babies! Holy sh*t! Then a party is held to celebrate Alfred’s birth. Husband and wife crack open a barrel of specially made wine by the dwarves. Because it is a shame Lulucy still can’t while she is breastfeeding, Donovan has an idea to bottle up some of it so when Alfred comes of age, they can drink it together. It will age like fine wine then. Meanwhile the Demon Lord’s generals talk about the new birth at Big Tree Village. They think of making political marriages but the Demon Lord stamps his disapproval. Nobody gonna marry his Yuri!!! Soon, the girls report to Hiraku that many people and races from all over want to seek refuge here because of war, etc. How many? Oh my, the numbers break into triple digits! Is Big Tree Village big enough to house them all? Why not build a branch? As in a new village! Since the girls are so eager to start working as repayment for Hiraku’s gratitude, oh well, time to get started. Big Tree Village 2 coming soon…

Farmville: Isekai Escape
Oh wow. Big Tree Village seems like the most happening place ever all over this world. Are there no other places good enough for these people? Hiraku might want to set up border control and security soon. Heh. Migrants and illegals. But that will be an issue to be dealt with for another time. At this rate with people wanting to move in, might as well just hand over the entire land of this world to Hiraku and make him the king of the world! Hey, it’s not possible. And it will be one of the weirdest and most successful world conquest stories ever. Imagine, having to conquer and rule the world without even having going to war! And to think Hiraku had humble beginnings as a farmer. This is too bizarre!

Good thing or not, there is no real storyline or plot to follow and the entire series sees Hiraku and his citizens continue to enjoy their peaceful farming life. This can become boring for those who are seeking for something more exciting. Oh I don’t know, maybe some jealous overlord trying to burn down their village to assert his dominance and hence Hiraku and his formidable team of villagers-cum-fighters go all out to defend their home and in a way save the world from certain destruction. Yeah. That kind of plot. But thankfully it did not so in a way prevented me from calling this yet another pseudo farming anime. Phew. Any kind of tension will be quickly solved (like that wyvern threat) because well, Hiraku himself is overpowered and there is nothing he can’t take care of. Don’t want to drag out the drama. Must return to the peace quick. But yeah, you have got to accept and live with the dozen episodes of wholesomeness. Well, almost. Because having lots of females becoming part of Big Tree Village seems suspicious enough and tempting to classify this anime to be a harem one but thankfully no. More on this later.

Speaking of farming, while I am not saying that this anime is your gateway to amateur farming, there are a few so called farming concepts at the beginning. However they are brief and like always, if you are interested to do your own farming, there is always the internet and Wikipedia to do more research on that to start your own little green garden. Of course the techniques here are just very brief and I suppose they don’t want to bore us with all the technical and draggy details. And of course be warned, they may look like making farming such a fun concept but it’s really lots of hard work, patience and yes, passion. Everybody is smiling here because they put in their blood, sweat and tears into their crops and that’s why every year they have a bountiful harvest. So if you’re not prepared to have all those characteristics, then don’t go even think about going into farming. But the biggest factor in why everybody so happy and free to do what they want: No government and bureaucracy red tape to hinder their agricultural activities! Oh yeah. Definitely that one. No subsidies but they’re so self-sufficient it doesn’t even matter. Other than agricultural farming, I note that there is also a bit of architectural design. This stems from Hiraku expanding his little abode into a farming empire. Hence a bit of architectural design on the buildings and waterways he needs to make in order to sustain this mini kingdom of his. Cool but also quite brief so as not to bore us.

As for the characters, oh my goodness, there are a freaking lots of them. I don’t think it is Hiraku’s dream to have such a mini empire but he went with the flow and look at where he is at now. Not that it is a bad thing but I guess it is going to get boring very fast if we see the same shenanigans within the few characters in every episode. Therefore for variety purposes, every episode somewhat guarantees either a new tribe that moves into Big Tree Village or at least introduces us to a new character who will support Big Tree Village if that character has no intentions to stay. And some even staying because as recommended from others like Lasty’s mom or Flowrem’s dad. Hey, is this village some sort of internship too? Of course some don’t stay (for now) like the lamia as they have their own home (FOR NOW! When gonna become permanent citizens?!). Hell, imagine everybody who shows up at Big Tree Village ends up becoming a citizen, I will even get suspicious if there is some sort of black magic that makes them never want to leave. Worse than Hotel California!

Anyway, with the ever expanding population, this is both good and bad because at least Big Tree Village now seems like a functional and independent country of its own, too many characters have made many others significant. Like as though they just need to push this gimmick every episode and fulfil our curiosity which tribe or clan will now be part of Hiraku’s harem, oops I mean citizen. And seeing the various races coming here, I am even wondering what races are left out and has not joined this exclusive farming village! Oh right, where are the ogres?! Werewolf people?! I’m sure they’re not part of the beastmen.

Hiraku as the mayor and main character, all I can say that he is definitely enjoying his second life. Although I still find it hard to believe that he wanted to do farming because of some flimsy show he saw while in his hospital bed. Imagine if the TV had shown another programme, oh I don’t know, say accidentally shown porn! OMG!!! And so that feels like the lousiest of excuse for this isekai setting. But whatever. Hiraku is happy as he is and he gets overpowered farming tools, who are we to complain? Heck, his name is like a pun for endless future possibilities so I guess he is doing a great job. You could say he is quite outstanding in his field! HAHAHA!!! Sighs. Even with his population growing big, he still maintains the same casual and carefree (in the good sense) personality because that’s how he wants to live his life. As long as you don’t cause trouble, he allows you to do anything. And that is why he is seemingly fair and manages to keep the order in his village. Honestly, not Hiraku who is doing all that policing but the other girls.

Speaking of his harem, oops I mean female villagers, like I’ve pointed out, it feels somewhat suspicious that in several episode, a small group of female of some race wants to come stay at his village. I don’t know, did he posted or advertised Big Village Tree on Facebook or Twitter?! Anyway, this means if you’re hoping to get some sort of character development from the girls, be very disappointed. The same can be said for the initial girls like Tia and Lea. The more new characters pop up, the more they fall into obscurity. To a point heck, I can’t even remember the names of the newer ones. But imagine the farming labour force being dominated by females. Oh well, this is isekai fantasy to begin with…

Of course the girl that seems to take the cake and swooping it all in the end is Lulucy. It was the biggest shocker to me and perhaps for this series for her to get pregnant. So this must mean Hiraku actually slept with her, huh? It must be because Alfred is said to be half human and half vampire. The shocker is because we never get to know they got married or not and suddenly they dropped this bomb. Sure, wedding ceremonies are a pain and it might be an alien concept in this world. Not that Hiraku would know anything about it either. That is why it was surprising when Lulucy became pregnant. So, did Hiraku not visit Lulucy’s parents or guardians to seek blessing? Or did they skip that part just to surprise us on this? Otherwise this series would’ve ended in a more boring fashion. You can now say Lulucy is the second most powerful person in the village after Hiraku and as the mayor’s wife but thankfully everyone still remains the same. It is only right that Lulucy became the luckiest girl as she was technically the first citizen of Hiraku’s village. And to see her transform from a young teenage vampire girl to a caring mother, oh wow, the greatest change in character ever in a series.

While we all celebrate the birth of a new life and the possibility of having more migrants into Big Tree Village, well, this is all dandy, fine and happy news. Because I hate to rain on your parade because did you not notice that there are no deaths yet in Big Tree Village???!!! Oh gosh! Yeah, it would be a really sad moment to see who will become the first casualty, oops I mean the first person to die here. Sorry to sound gloomy at all but I think the reason why Big Tree Village keeps expanding rapidly is also because of no deaths. Population boom, now you know why. Heck, it gives an impression that everyone who lives here are immortals. Case in point, the pet mascots are still alive! Yeah, maybe the dogs and the spider live longer here but damn, it sure makes you think that this is some sort of heaven where everybody lives happily and none dies. Weird. If there is one thing that everybody loves in this village, it’s their booze. Oh yeah. Just waiting for the moment Hiraku declares it a national treasure. Thankfully nobody gets super drunk and they’re still responsible and doing their jobs. Except for Dryme. Luckily he has a subject to always restrain him. Remember, drink responsibly, people.

As this village has a lot of females, this is of course tempting for the series to go down the harem route. Surprisingly and thankfully it did not and managed to stay wholesome towards the end. Though, I won’t say it is 100% wholesome because of the unhealthy number of cute and sexy girls as Big Tree Village. I mean, look at how Tia and her angel tribes dress. If that doesn’t tempt Hiraku’s libido, I’m very certain he is gay! Oh never mind, farming is his first love and I’ll believe him on that. Until he got Lulucy pregnant, that is. Not turning this into a harem saves the series a lot and prevents it from turning and falling into that cheesy harem trap. This means there are no girls that fight over Hiraku’s attention and try any sleazy moves to get his love juice. In turn, this is also how the village’s order is kept because there won’t be any big scandals or cat fights all over Hiraku. If that happens, I’m sure Hiraku would kick them out. That would be a big no-no. So everybody gets along pretty fine and we’re all happy village people. Yeah. Sorry fanservice aficionados, nothing to fap here. Move along. Yup, nobody even uses the cucumbers for any other purposes other than eating! Thank goodness!

As for the male counterparts, I’m not saying that they are far and few in between but they are way less than the females. Of course my dumb conspiracy theory says it to prevent viewers like yours truly to eventually scream their heads off that this is a harem anime disguised as a farming theme. But they don’t really stand out like their cute female counterparts and are just mostly getting by. Like the dwarves do research on alcohol. Yeah, those short ugly bearded men. The lizardmen? Too scaly for you? Those young beastmen? Not a shotacon! A few male characters like Dryme and Vargryfe are a bit eccentric and oddball but nothing that would mean any real harm to Big Tree Village. Oh, not forgetting about pet mascots, those dogs and Zabuton but as usual, they also feel very minor in appearance and role as Big Tree Village takes on more citizens. I want to comment on God, because Hiraku’s miserable life isn’t only his mistake and it is hinted that Vargryfe also could’ve experienced so, are you telling me this God actually made several blunders?! WTF?! Oh right. Gods in many isekai shows are always careless and that’s why they grant the main character a second life. But who knows how many lives this God has screwed up. Damn, imagine so many isekai characters he has created… A running joke for the Demon Lord’s territory is that they always worry about the emerging powers of Big Tree Village that might threaten the fabric of balance or whatever. All unfounded and baseless so may I suggest to allay all those fears, care to be a vassal state? Yeah.

Art and animation are pretty standard. Well, it’s nice to see that there is some sort of quality surrounding the farming produce and it’s quite refreshing to see such greeneries. Heh. Big Tree Village itself is located in the middle of a dense forest. I noticed some CGI too but thankfully they are not that bad and perhaps it is because they are sparingly used. Of course your character designs are typical with all the girls looking like your cute 2D anime chicks. Does the world look like this or does Big Tree Village only attract pretty girls? Grr… No wonder I’m so freaking jealous of Hiraku! He’s got a harem and not even fully utilizing it! Just kidding. This anime is done by Zero-G who did Tusumomo, Rikei Ga Koi Ni Ochita No De Shoumei Shitemita, Grand Blue and Tenkuu Shinpan.

Oh God, with so many characters, I’m sure the voice acting list must be a long one. Yeah, maybe those insignificant tribe members are all voiced by the same person. Yeah, ever wonder why the rest of the elves sound the same like Lea? Not that they have much lines to begin with. When I first heard Hiraku, I thought he sounded so much like Touma from To Aru Majutsu No Index. Especially when he once went, “Fukou da!”. No surprisingly, it’s Atsushi Abe behind Hiraku. The only others I recognized were Sho Hayami as God as well as Youko Hikasa and Graffaloon. It slipped past my radar that Daisuke Ono was making his cameo as Vargryfe. I guess I wasn’t paying attention.

The rest of the other (selected) casts are Shino Shimoji as Lulucy (Saturnus in Beatless), Aya Suzaki as Tia (titular character in Tamako Market), Lynn as Lea (Ayano in Engage Kiss), Miyu Tomita as Flora (titular character in Gabriel Dropout), Natsumi Hioka as Lasty (Hinaichi in Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu), Yukiyo Fujii as Anne (Ivry in Edens Zero), Kanae Itou as Hakuren (Saten in To Aru Kagaku No Railgun), Miho Okasaki as Flowrem (Mary in Hamefura), Reina Kondo as Yuri (Nagomi in Akiba Maid Sensou), Tetsu Inada as Dryme (Gamagoori in Kill La Kill) and Youji Ueda as Beezel (Shinji in Lycoris Recoil). The opening theme, Flower Ring by Lulucy and Tia is a generic anime pop while the ending theme, Feel The Wind Yui Hizuki plays to a slower and calmer tune. I guess both sound rather okay in my books and nothing really that extraordinary. However the more amusing one is the insert song during that grape stomping event. Aptly named Budou Fumi No Uta, it’s quite a lively country-like song and has a bit of Celtic vibes with its violin and flute play. Is it me that a line of the song sounds like Row Row Row Your Boat?

Overall, this is one of those calming series of the season. No confusing plot twists or deep character developments or mindless numbing blood spattering adrenaline action or even unholy cheap fanservice gimmicks. Just your soothing and comforting farming themed anime, that is all. Yeah, to rephrase that meme, “It is much and it’s honest work!”. Feel free to relax and calm your inner nerves. Oh who am I kidding? I’ve seen so much toxic animes, this hardly effects anything in my corrupted system. But of course it’s nice to see something different once in a while especially one that is of the isekai trope. Not bad but yeah, a bit boring. Too bad I won’t be going into farming and even so, the only farming that I am willing to do is gold and XP in online RPGs! That’s my only outstanding field. Sorry for corny joke XD…

Rougo Ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai No Kinka Wo Tamemasu

Okay people. Time for yet another isekai series. Yeah, we are so tired of the trope of either the main character dies and gets reborn in the other world while retaining his/her old memories. And also the other one whereby they just get summoned as a whole. So how? Why not have the main character have the ability to travel back and forth between both worlds instead! That’s right. It does away with the need of killing the protagonist or getting stuck forever for the rest of their lives. And thus this is what makes Rougo Ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai No Kinka Wo Tamemasu somewhat unique. But that’s so much about it. Main character has the ability to traverse back and forth between both worlds as and when she likes and thus her goal is to save up 80,000 gold so she can retire young. What’s the point of living until your golden years and have no money to spend, right? I hope that means she’s not going to sell her body to achieve that target in a quick manner! NO WAY!!!

Episode 1
Mitsuha Yamano falls to her death! Oh no! She doesn’t want to die yet. Well, wish hard enough and voila! Now she finds herself transported to another world! Wow! Well, technically she didn’t die. She wanders about as she remembers her circumstances. Her family all got killed in an accident and she’s not doing well in her grades. Then she got mixed up with some bad company who pushed her off the cliff. Well, well, her survival skills are only because she remembers what her nerdy onii-chan, Tsuyoshi said?! Eventually she has wandered for days and with no food and all, she collapses. Luckily this little girl, Colette finds her and brings her home where her family feeds and nurses her back to health. Too bad they don’t speak the same language, though. Next day, her injuries are seemingly healed. To repay their kindness, Mitsuha goes to help Colette collect edibles in the forest. However a pack of wolf stalks them. Mitsuha then has Colette climb up a tree for safety while she becomes bait to distract the wolves. Oh dear. Mitsuha trips. Is she going to die again?! Well, wish hard enough and voila! WTF she’s back in Tsuyoshi’s room?! She takes all the necessary items and contemplates about going back there. She’s not a dick so she returns to fight the wolves before they eat Colette. After a tough fight, Mitsuha kills one and has the rest running. She passes out and soon finds herself in floating in limbo. Then this maneki neko talks to her. So basically what I understand, he is some kind of God, huh? He was travelling and visiting many worlds when Mitsuha grabbed him during her fall. HOW?! Because of that, she obtained some of his powers to travel between worlds as well as healing. That’s right. She can easily go back and forth between worlds. Mitsuha wants to speak this world’s language and the cat is happy to give that power to her before resuming his world hopping adventure. Mitsuha wakes up in Colette’s home. Everyone is happy she is fine. Good thing now we don’t have to hear gibberish and we can all hear our glorious Japanese talk! To thank her for slaying the wolf, Colette’s father gives her some gold as monetary reward. Uhm, how much is it worth? Apparently enough to make Mitsuha think that since she can travel between worlds, she is going to get goods from Earth and sell them here to make a profit. And hence she is going to save up to 2 billion yen worth of gold coins so she can retire comfortably in both worlds!

Episode 2
Mitsuha cooks up a story she came from a faraway country on a boat with her friends but got separated and lost. She talks to the villagers to find out more info like how the lord of this domain is Count Claus Von Bozes. Seeing he is an important and influential person, she thinks of heading to the royal capital to begin her retirement plan. However Colette is against this and throws a tantrum. Eventually with Mitsuha’s smooth words, Colette sees her off with a smile. Halfway, she makes excuse to get off so that she can teleport back to her own world to take a bath. Yeah, the toilets here stink. This is also to help begin her plans as she starts selling her stuffs to get cold hard cash. She uses it to train some personal militia, Wolf Fang on how to use firearms and self-defence. Yeah, as long as they get paid, they don’t care about this little girl’s agenda. Since the other world’s gold coin also has its value, they also gladly accept. Mitsuha practises using various guns while reconciling with Tsuyoshi’s concept about not taking a human life. Because when scumbags try to kill or hurt your family, it’s okay to kill them because they’re no longer humans! Mitsuha isn’t just buffing up her self-defence stats as she also researches on the internet about medieval times since the other world has very similar systems. Mitsuha also does online business and sells whatever goods at high prices. She doesn’t want to go for volume over margin at the expense of everything else. What’s the point of life if you hoard money? That’s not what she wants. I guess this means she thinks it is okay to sell family heirloom that she has no use for at a high price and she believes her dead mom will understand. Enough to buy a motorbike and return to the other world! Yes, Mitsuha is all prepared to continue her journey and mission in the other world.

Episode 3
Obviously the guards won’t let Mitsuha see Bozes without an appointment. After noticing the route his sons travel and take, Mitsuha sneakily feigns an accident. The sons panic and bring Mitsuha back to their mansion where they treat her with great hospitality. Mitsuha continues her Oscar worthy act as she talks to the family and claims herself to be a noble from the Japan. Mitsuha Von Yamano?! She gives them a Swiss knife as thanks. I’m sure they’re fascinated with this creative artwork. As she plans to head to the capital, they let her stay for the night. Bozes introduces his wife, Iris as well as his children, Alexis, Theodore and Beatrice. As Bozes asks more about her background, Mitsuha further ramps up the lies. She and her brother were in some succession feud. Both their parents died so it’s natural her brother succeeded the throne. But some wanted her to succeed only because they have intentions of marrying their sons to her and take her fortune. Thus Mitsuha went on a journey and ended up in this country. She only has this necklace as her mom’s memento. She wants to live an honest life in this country and when she wants to sell this necklace, Iris becomes vocally against it. WTF she talking about how precious such jewellery are and some will kill for it?! But Mitsuha needs the money… Hence Mitsuha would sell it to Iris and use that capital to start a shop. The clincher is when she calls Iris her mom because she reminded her so. She also sells to the son her other knife and WTF they’ll also buy her underwear?! Hey, it’s still money! As they ask what shop she is opening, she would want to open a general store. She happily talks all the things she would like to sell and this reminds her of her happy days with her family. She starts crying for them as Bozes and Iris hug her. Oh, I don’t think that was acting but okay. The tears are real! Next day, Bozes has given her what she needs as the family sees her off her journey to the capital.

Episode 4
Mitsuha opens her general store in the capital. She eagerly waits for her first customers but none after 2 days. Is she doomed to fail? Then a group of girls enter. Saved! They take a look around and are puzzled at some weird items. Mitsuha tries to sell them shampoo and body lotion. They would have bought it had it not been pricey. Too much for a commoner. Mitsuha is so desperate to keep their company that she agrees to throw in some freebies as well as cook for them. Seriously! Hence she uses one of the samples on one of them and she is satisfied with how clean it is. Mitsuha then starts cooking for them but they get suspicious since she isn’t cooking over wood and she cooks fast. However it tastes delicious. So is she a witch? Oh damn, is Mitsuha opening a restaurant too because she cooks like almost everything from stew to steak for them! All on the house! Finally she gives them some chocolates as souvenirs and hopes they will spread the word about her store. The girls return to their head chef, Marcel to let them try the chocolates and he is amazed at how delicious it is. Then all of them confine with their master about this. They are especially suspicious with the fish dish Mitsuha cooked. Since this kingdom is located far away from the sea, it is not possible to have fresh fish. Hence Marcel is tasked to find out more. Marcel visits Mitsuha’s shop as he buys several items of interests. Mitsuha realizes the wrong items she stocked when Marcel explains why people in this town don’t usually eat fish. After demonstrating a few items, Mitsuha then demonstrates this knife on display in which she is selling at no profit at all. Some merchant calling she says but Marcel is convinced and buys it. But now comes the real challenge. Marcel explains his situation that the previous head chef fell ill and he was asked to suddenly take over. The problem is that his lord’s daughter, Adelaide Reiner will be holding a lavish ball as her debut. This is something important for aristocrats because if it’s badly done, you’ll never hear the end of it behind your back. Furthermore, his lord isn’t really a high ranking noble so the odds are stacked against him. Marcel is under pressure to make this ball go well but has no experience. That is why he needs Mitsuha’s help to make her fresh fish dish. In short, challenge accepted for Mitsuha. Uhm, I got to ask is she running a general store or an odd jobs agency?!

Episode 5
Marcel brings his masters to Mitsuha as she prepares some dishes for them to test taste. Obviously, absolutely delicious. Mitsuha doesn’t want to stop to be their chef but offers to plan the entire debut party! First up, she heads down to their mansion to train the chefs on how to prepare the food. Then she brings Adelaide back to her world to take some measurements and ideas for her ball dress. Oh damn! She can bring a human back to her world?! Once all the preparations are done, they are ready for Adelaide’s debut. Of course the guests look down on the Reiner family and don’t expect much. Wait till they get wowed by the stage performance. That’s right. Mitsuha using modern props and special effects to stump those snobs! From hologram projection to dry ice effects, definitely this debut is like no other. Of course the star attraction is Adelaide herself. She stuns the crowd in several of her outfits. Now Mitsuha goes in for the kill as she serves various types of fresh fish dishes. Sceptical at first but once they find them delicious, they can’t stop eating! Mitsuha gets a shock when Iris looks mad. Yes, Bozes and his family are also here to attend the party and Iris is not happy because she tried to visit Mitsuha’s shop but it was always closed. She thought she ran into debts and ran away! Of course Mitsuha was busy doing this party so she hopes Iris could visit next time. But now there’s another problem: Not enough food! Even if they made arrangements to have double the amount, looks like the guests can’t get enough of it. Hence Mitsuha improvises as she uses whatever leftovers as well as snacks from her world to make whatever food. After all, nobles can’t tell apart commoner food and think they’re some exotic food. True enough, the guests are thrilled with the new type of sweet desserts as well as French fries. This party is a huge success and everyone changes their perception on the Reiner family but now the pressure is on those with adolescent daughters to hold such great debut parties. Oh Mitsuha, you’ve raised the standard bar way too much!

Episode 6
Mitsuha returns in opening her store. Any more closed days and the residents would think she has closed down for good! Soon, a head chef of a baron comes in and rudely tries to get her to sell some fish because his master wants to eat this new dish. Of course Mitsuha says her shop doesn’t sell fish and Adelaide’s ball was just a one off novelty. He gets mad and is about to hurt her but here comes Iris. Saved by the lady. Loser flees. But now Iris wants to take Mitsuha back for ‘interrogation’. On second thought, not saved. Another day the shop is closed… The family asks her how she got the food and those presentation effects. Mitsuha piles on the lies so much so I think some contradict each other! Good thing they believe in her. Yeah, sounds so complicating. Later Beatrice talks to Mitsuha about having her to organize her debut party which is in 2 years. Mitsuha promises and to do even better with fireworks! Wow! Can’t wait. WTF Mitsuha hopes she’ll forget it by then?! OH MITSUHA, DO YOU NOT KNOW A WOMAN ALWAYS REMEMBERS!!! Beatrice then asks if she has dated or the kind of guy she likes. Mitsuha then senses something amiss with her questions and forces her to spill the beans. Apparently her brothers and even her father put her up to ask Mitsuha these questions! Mitsuha realizes she can use info to mislead them and agrees to work with Beatrice for a small price of gold. Mitsuha returns to her shop. But soon more drama because a wanted person takes refuge in her store. His bounty hunter soon shows up. Loser thought of stealing a knife and taking Mitsuha hostage?! Not going to happen! Because he runs off without paying for the knife, you bet Mitsuha don’t want to have such loss. The wanted person is taken down by a group of heroes. Mitsuha realizes they are mercenaries and is excited because she wants to request a mission from them.

Episode 7
The mercenaries introduce themselves. Sven is the leader and the rest are Sepp, Grit and Ilse. Mitsuha wants to hire them as bodyguards as she’ll be going to the forest to hunt to restock. As they start their mission, Mitsuha shows off some of her modern science in camping like putting up a tent and the tools needed to easily start a fire. Impressive. Then she has them test taste a few food she bought from the supermarket. Obviously way better than the ordinary foods here. She asks their opinions on it and they think with such exquisite taste, the nobles and even the military might buy them all up. Later Mitsuha wants to go bathe in the river. She dons her swimsuit but this causes a stir with the mercenaries. The ladies tell the guys not to look as they lecture Mitsuha how inappropriate such dressing would be. The hunt begins as Mitsuha even does some hunting herself with the crossbow. Yeah, those lessons came in handy. On the trip back, Mitsuha needs to answer the call of nature. She can’t teleport back and make it look suspicious so she’ll have to do it in the bushes. Too bad there’s a wild boar going to attack her. Run! It’s amazing she didn’t wet it all. She kills it with her gun so the rest come by to see as she cooks up excuses on how she kill it with her crossbow. Do crossbows make bang bang sounds? Mitsuha treats the mercenaries to a drink for a successful hunt and she is more than satisfied having to test research a few products. Then she shows them a swimsuit magazine from her world to prove that she’s not crazy in dressing like that! I bet that book will fetch a nice price but too bad it’s not for sale! Speaking about art, she is thinking of ways to make money like that. Can’t draw. Can’t sculpt. Hence she tries to use her abilities to create statues. Too bad they all turn out hideous! Surprise, surprise. Because somebody thinks such hideous statues would be good to ward off evil spirit and will buy them all! Oh Mitsuha, feeling both a winner and loser at the same time?

Episode 8
Mitsuha’s store is doing well with the shampoo being the best seller. A cute aristocrat girl, Sabine walks in to take a look. She didn’t know what the store was since it had no sign. Mitsuha realizes it is perhaps that reason why the store did not have customers in the first place! After she makes her purchase and leaves, Mitsuha notices a shady guy watching. Thank goodness he isn’t targeting the store. But he follows Sabine. Mitsuha can see where this is going and tails them. True enough, the baddie kidnaps her in the alley. Mitsuha confronts them and uses her fire arms to show she’s not going down with a fight. Luckily the knights come to arrest them. Yes, Sabine is the kingdom’s princess and she somehow managed to slip out from the knights’ watchful eyes to go visit Mitsuha’s shop she heard so much. Mitsuha now earns an audience with the king who is grateful for her in saving his daughter. Not one to miss a good business opportunity, she notices his bad eyesight and recommends him glasses. Amazing! He has his chancellor, Sahr wear it and now he doesn’t have to retire. Mitsuha is glad he’ll help promote glasses for her. As long as you can pay, she will provide you anything. Except girls. So sex toys are okay?! Just saying! One day, this arrogant fatty, Nelson Adler who is the president of his own company waltzes in and wants to take over her store. She somewhat agrees but tells him to return tomorrow. With Sabine a frequent customer, Mitsuha gives her a letter to be sent to her father. Next day as Nelson returns, he wants Mitsuha to sign the deed and he wants to take Sabine as his own too. Cue for Sahr to walk in and heard what is going on. Sahr then points out the harassment and obstruction he was about to make. Nelson realizes he is in deep sh*t and promises to stay out. Worse, Sahr revokes his royal permit. Now Nelson is tasked with monitoring all merchants in the capital and this helps protect Mitsuha from those trying to take her down. This in turn leads to many arrest of those involved in human trafficking as Nelson’s company is a hotbed for such criminal activities and corruption. But those captured took their own lives in prison. The king wants to investigate further as well as Mitsuha’s origins. She is no ordinary girl after all.

Episode 9
Alina approaches Mitsuha as she has trouble brewing in her small family restaurant, Paradise Restaurant. Apparently some son of some large restaurant wanted to court her but she rejected him as she is in love with her co-worker. As expected, he couldn’t accept this and his dastardly father hatched a plan to financially ruin her restaurant and make her run to him for financial dependency. Worse, some of the workers resigned and thugs were sent to beat up and injure her father’s dominant hand, disabling him to cook anymore. Mitsuha agrees to take on the case as she goes to see Alina’s parents. Obviously dad’s decision is to hire another chef but Mitsuha cautions about hiring an experienced one since the baddie might slip in their own to further sabotage. Hence her strategy is to reopen the restaurant with the current staffs. She has Alina’s dad teach the remaining staffs how to cook. Then Mitsuha spreads the word about this Yamano cuisine. So, basically omelette rice or Hamburg steak? She also hires those mercenaries as waiting staff. Soon business picks up as free advertising from word of mouth spreads. As expected, bad guy doesn’t like this so a few days later he brings a few guards with him to arrest the restaurant owner for serving fake Yamano cuisine. To prove it is not genuine, he has Marcel taste the food. At first Marcel looks furious as he calls out for the owner of this recipe. When Mitsuha shows her face, he complains of not teaching him this dish! As she allows the staffs to teach him, the place is soon visited by the Bozes family and the king himself! OMG! Mitsuha points out about thugs beating up Alina’s dad and just like that, the bad people get arrested. Paradise Restaurant continues to boom with nobles frequenting it. Mitsuha makes a small margin from all this but it is understandable since the restaurant was facing hardship. But it’s still money and it’s well worth the effort than ripping off rich folks?! Oh Mitsuha… Wondering how Colette is doing, she writes a letter saying she’s fine and this brings Colette a lot of joy.

Episode 10
Uhm, Mitsuha having a BBQ party with Wolf Fang? Is there going to be some flag? Meanwhile Sahr reports to the king and cannot find anything suspicious on Mitsuha. Yeah, given all those recent events on how she handled everything, isn’t that suspicious enough?! Oh well, no proof. Seeing she bears no ill will towards them and that Sabine is fond of her, no use pursuing this. Time to move on to a more pressing matter at hand. Soon Mitsuha is called to have an audience with the king and he right away tells her that war is coming to his kingdom. He wants Mitsuha to take Sabine out of the kingdom until the war subsides. It looks like the nobles at the borders have betrayed them and the enemies are using monsters in their military. Hence they have no time to prepare the troops. Mitsuha will not abandon her store so she will stay and fight. But her dilemma now is whether to teleport Sabine to Earth for the time being. Soon she attends the war council meeting led by Marquis Aiblinger. He mentions the enemy will arrive tomorrow and their plan is to hold out the castle. When a suspicious messenger arrives to report, he is actually the enemy as he fires his crossbow! Mitsuha would’ve died had not Alexis protected her! Though, she still got hit in the arm and kills the enemy by shooting her gun at him. I guess her bullets can penetrate his armour. Mitsuha is done playing nice and will go all out. First, she teleports Alexis back to her world to get treated. Then she talks to Wolf Fang’s captain about hiring them for this job and she will pay them handsomely. However he cannot believe this isekai crap and refuses! WTF Mitsuha driving the Humvee trying to kill him?! Oh, she’s testing it out but she could’ve handled it in a better way before she teleports him and the vehicle to the other world. Now you believe? They recon the area and find a line of stuck caravans. Lots of scared children in it. Hurry, the goblins are coming. Even if they got the boulder out of the way, there is the rapid river across. Mitsuha and the captain go shoot some goblins to buy time but WTF are they immortal?! Now I understand why they’re taking their time walking slowly without a care in the world!

Episode 11
Apparently head shots kill them so I guess better start shooting. Too bad they don’t have unlimited ammo and the goblin wave is seemingly endless. Mitsuha gets an idea as she teleports home to get her fireworks set. Then she lights a wall of fire and throws all her fireworks. So this random puny explosion wiped out the entire goblin army?! What BS! Of course this monster army is just a small one and there is the main troop to deal with. That is when Mitsuha wants to hire the rest of Wolf Fang for this job. So these 60 strong men are all prepared to go to the battlefield in the other world. Mitsuha becomes their commander and rallies them with her motivation speech. Uhm, she’s going to war in that ball dress?! Oh well, got to look good. And can she actually teleport the whole group of Humvee?! APPARENTLY SHE CAN!!! Mitsuha returns to the palace’s courtyard as she has Wolf Fang station at strategic parts of the kingdom. The people are filled with hope seeing their goddess Mitsuha fighting for them. The enemy is now before the kingdom’s gates. They send a messenger to negotiate but Mitsuha orders to snipe him! Though, he is not killed. It might be barbaric but Mitsuha claims the enemy doesn’t deserve to negotiate after they attacked and plundered many innocent villagers. She continues sniping some of the soldiers and those who control the monsters. Of course, all only to wound. As some villagers were forcefully conscripted, they are spared from the sniping because obviously they are not well armed like the proper military. When a bunch of wyvern riders enter the scene, Wolf Fang now show off their artillery might as they gun all of them down from the skies! No chance! But it’s not over yet. Now a huge dragon pops up. Seeing Mitsuha’s shocked face, I figure she didn’t see this coming.

Episode 12
The dragon attacks but Mitsuha uses a drone to project a hologram image of herself to be as big as him. Since the dragon is in no mood to talk, Mitsuha orders Wolf Fang to fire. Yeah, those puny shots might not look like it is doing any damage but it is slowly chipping his scales off and annoying the hell out of him. However the dragon can put up a defensive barrier. Holy sh*t! Mitsuha can easily teleport the Humvees away from the breath attack?! Mitsuha notices that he can only do either one so the trick is to make him do his beam breathe again and when he does, Mitsuha fires a bazooka into his mouth! At this point, the dragon has taken too much chip damage as he flies away scared, fearing for his life! With that, the enemy also flees. And that is how Mitsuha won the war and brought glory and peace to the kingdom! She soon gets to have an audience with the king. After the king has granted Bozes the viscount title for Alexis’ bravery, Mitsuha then cooks up some exaggerated drama about Wolf Fang and in short, needs some hefty reparations for them. She thought she might not be able to raise that amount but surprisingly all the nobles will help chip in and in no time Mitsuha is able to deliver the promised payment to Wolf Fang. Mitsuha also has a wish and that is to become a citizen of this kingdom. Obviously she will have their protection and it would be easier for her to do business. After a ceremony to make Mitsuha into a viscount, the king wants her to accept it on Alexis’ behalf but she declines. Confer it to him in person. Yes, Alexis is alive and recovered enough to attend this ceremony. Mitsuha soon pays a visit to Colette. Yeah, those hugs are still killing her. Anyway, as a viscount with her own land, she invites Colette to come work for her as her retainer to learn lots of things. Colette takes up the offer. With Mitsuha now a noble I guess it’s sad for many she has to close her shop and now runs a different business. I guess she can earn more as a ruler-cum-politician. The honest way? Only God knows…

Money Hoarder: Show Me The Money!
Well, I think Mitsuha will be able to reach her goal in no time at this rate. My fear is that Mitsuha might become greedier once she reaches her retirement goal because by then, any amount will never be enough! Bring in more money! Sure, Mitsuha doesn’t look like the kind to get corrupted by money. But there is always that chance. It is after all money that Mitsuha wants. There’s also another part of me that firmly believes because now that she has her own land to rule, being one who cares over the things in her possession, Mitsuha will certainly grow further away from the mentality of earning more money and instead put her effort in protecting and improving the wellbeing of her subjects. So much about retiring young because now she’ll have to work for life! Oh well, considering those big ‘FIN’ words at the end, safe to say they’re not making another season. Maybe.

At this point after watching so many isekai themed animes, I’m not sure how I’m feeling now. Especially about the story of this series. I’m not exactly bored but at the same time I am not actually thrilled while watching the entire series. Well basically, this series doesn’t really have a strong plot to begin with. Many episodes felt like mini arcs or standalones. As such, this is both good and bad. Good because we don’t need to strain our brains to keep up with whatever convoluted plot or shenanigans in which the producers might pull the rug from under our feet with some sort of plot twist. Besides, it is about Mitsuha trying to save up a lot so with such random adventures, it works and keeps the interest of viewers somewhat fresh. And because of that, it also serves as the series’ downside since that is just what it is. Mitsuha saving up. That is all.

Capitalism. A romantic word to some but a dirty for others (especially those who couldn’t reap its benefits). I’m not saying that I am willing to put this series on par with anime series with economic themes like Spice And Wolf. Nope, this anime is nowhere close to that. But from time to time, we do hear Mitsuha explain briefly about her marketing and capitalism techniques in making her sale. Interesting but they are all pretty basic. Feel free to hit up the reference books and do more of your own research if you are ever so interested in making more money. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that Mitsuha makes it sound so easy as she conducts her business. Like in many animes that deal with a particular theme, the downside is that they make such topics look simple whereas in reality it isn’t. There are a lot of risks and downside even for a simple general store or business that Mitsuha is running. Obviously Mitsuha succeeds because she is main character and it is all part of fiction. That’s why she can still keep smiling and have lots of spare change at the end of the day despite the discounts and special deals she gives her customers. Yes, she’ll reap bigger benefits and profits when they bring back more customers and businesses in the future.

Secondly, the people in this other world is not so business savvy. That’s right. Noticed how many if not all isekai shows are usually backwater medieval kingdoms? Because schools of business and economics do not exist in this world, Mitsuha takes advantage of that business sense by conducting her business here. Hey, you can’t say she is ripping her customers off since she provides genuine products and services. And who is to say that she is overcharging? Are there such price control laws here? Thought so. And with these people being so awed at Earth’s products and technology, it is no doubt that they will always frequent Mitsuha’s store for novelties and surprises. This is why Mitsuha is such a successful business girl. I mean, do you see her doing such business or anything in her own original hometown of Japan? That’s right. I bet she’ll be breaking a lot of laws and doing business in Japan is a cutthroat and dog eat dog world. Better scam, oops I mean do her business with ignorant, oops I mean nice people of the other world. Call her a con artist or a suave person, she has a way with words (and lies!) and perhaps that is an important aspect for anyone wanting to do business. Yeah, charisma helps smooth things over to close the deal.

The other thing I want to point out is Mitsuha’s ability to traverse between both worlds. While it sounds unique at first, the more I think about it, the more it starts to scream BS and plot convenience. Especially she grabbed God’s balls (isn’t that why he screamed?!) and suddenly got that power. Wow. Speechless. But hey, at least it saves the trouble of killing off a cute girl! Now with such convenient skills, she can now have the best of both worlds. So to speak. This gives her unlimited access to do whatever she wants and of course conveniently bring whatever technology she deems fit. So am I saying that I prefer the kill-off-protagonist-make-him-reborn-again-with-his-old-memories or the summoning one better? Nah! But seriously, this one feels a lot worse and even more so as I have seen there is no limit on what Mitsuha can transport over. Yes, this means I believe she can even teleport the entire world altogether! With no repercussions like long cooling down periods or shaving off years of her life! Just flick her wrist and consider it done. But I have got to remind myself that it is this feature that is disgusting and not Mitsuha the character. She’s just using what she has to her advantage. Yes. Basically, hate the sin and not the sinner. By the time maneki neko God dude returns, Mitsuha will already become the new God!

As for the characters, Mitsuha as the main character is your typical girl trying to lead a normal life after a tragedy befalling her family. Damn, usually such isekai main characters, the tragedy befalls on him/her. But instead her whole family is wiped out and how is a young girl like her going to fend herself in Japan? Ah yes, as seen already, the isekai treatment. Life has to move on and thus we quickly see Mitsuha moving forward and working passionately towards her retirement goal. Well, assuming inflation is non-existent! We see her character being chirpy as well as adapting well while making sound business decisions. Might sound a bit unrealistic but I’m going to assume that Mitsuha has a knack for doing business. Hence she could be the next Warren Buffet of Japan if she actually pursues this seriously back in Japan! And you thought money can’t buy happiness, huh? Yeah, look how happy Mitsuha is making her money! Look at all those ka-chings rolling in her eyes! Well, if she introduces the concept of computers, software, paid subscriptions, I’m sure she can not only retire now but her flow of money will never even stop! Oh before I forget, the reason Mitsuha may look like she is getting her money so easily instead of slogging, it’s because of her methods she lets the money to the work. There’s this saying if you don’t let money do all the work, you’ll be working for the rest of your life. So yeah, maybe that is why Mitsuha seems quite successful even though the concept of investment in this world is alien. At least monetary investment does not exist here.

So as not to make Mitsuha like some absolute genius because that would be stretching her character too far already, hence the only member of her family that ‘survives’ is her brother. At least in her imagination and flashbacks. From time to time, you see him pop up because it is to tell us that Mitsuha knows about all these stuffs is because her nerdy brother once taught her all about it. Wow. Amazingly she remembers all of them! Now that is pure crap! But anyway, this is the reason why she is able to get by in this world thanks to remembering her brother’s words. How convenient. All his trivia and knowledge is not wasted as Mitsuha has put them to good use and that ensured her survival. Heh. Not even schools and universities could teach such priceless knowledge! Thank you Tsuyoshi onii-chan! Furthermore, seeing her spend more time in the other world, it only begs the question of the people she knows from Earth. Her teachers, friends and the likes not concerned about her? Oh well, she just lost her family. Let’s leave her alone for now. Yeah. How convenient to let her do what she wants without raising any suspicions. Including why she does not turn up for classes or seen public often! Yeah. Let her hole up in the room until she feels fine to come out! How convenient.

More on Mitsuha especially about her self-defence training. Yeah, I want to scream more BS here but I guess she needs to learn fast about survival and self-defence so as to stay clear and away from that damsel in distress trope. I mean, we’re going to make Mitsuha a strong independent woman, RIGHT?! And holy f*ck, after a few training with Wolf Fang, she’s a freaking pro now with firearms. I don’t know how intense the training was but don’t tell me she too has a knack for such! I’m sure the captain didn’t go easy on her just because she’s a cute little chick. It’s the money he’s more attracted to. And so with Mitsuha knowing how to defend herself, this helps elevate her status and perhaps steal a few girls’ hearts and make her be their onee-sama or future potential lesbian lover. HAHAHA! Oh, who am I kidding? Mitsuha is your God! And now to cement that legend of hers with the final arc of easily repelling the enemy armed with only backwater weapons. Yeah, not even monsters and magic can beat the might of military arsenal!!! Bringing a gun to a swordfight? I’m sorry, did you write the rules of war? All is fair in war. F*ck yeah! Mitsuha the Goddess of War! MitsuhAres… Sorry, bad pun.

As for the other characters, they are most likely a miss. Due to the nature of the series, many characters come and go. Some like Colette may be seen once in a while but it has no important bearing on the rest of the story or in Mitsuha’s life. I’m guessing Mitsuha needs a break from her or she’ll break her bones with her bear hugs! Yeah, is that Colette’s running joke? Thankfully she is not forgotten in the end and a small reward to have Colette by her side. I wonder if Sabine is able to relinquish her princess title just to be with Mitsuha. Will she be able to fool around as she does in her shop? Well, Colette and Sabine rivalry could be one to watch… As such, the many characters Mitsuha met in her journey is so that she could build rapport and relationships. Of course we all can guess it is a basic business strategy because it’s nice to have your friends help cover for you in times of need. Despite many of such characters only playing a minor role, each of them has built a small network for Mitsuha and in that context, all of them have been great importance to her. So it’s either you be her good friend or her enemy. You won’t get far as the latter because as seen, she uses her smarts and well timed connections to put you down for good. So think twice if you haters want to go up to this girl. No, make that the God of your world! Remember, Mitsuha shows no mercy to scumbags and has no qualms to kill if you are willing to go that far.

Art and animation are pretty standard and basic. Mitsuha and many of the female characters have your typical cute 2D kawaii look so are we going to complain about it? Of course I have to also point out the CGI effects. Thank goodness they are very rare here do not permeate the entire series. However the CGI quality varies. Some look passable but others look like sh*t. The bad ones for example include that river those refugees were trying to cross. Uhm, you call that a river?! I thought it was some magic spell flowing across! Some monsters too were in CGI but that is only when they are in hordes. Yeah, animate them small enough so you can’t see how bad the CGI is. The passable ones are like the Humvees and while not perfect, at least they aren’t giving sores to the eyes. Imagine people laughing at the militia because of bad CGI! Don’t let that happen! This anime is done by Felix Film who did Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai and Urasekai Picnic.

Voice acting is also standard as I recognized a few seiyuus like Jun Fukuyama as Tsuyoshi, Tomokazu Sugita as Bozes and Sho Hayami as the king. Some of the other casts are Rika Nagae as Mitsuha (Olivia in Asobi Asobase), Rika Tachibana as Colette (Karyl in Princess Connect! Re:Dive), Kaori Maeda as Sabine (Shizuku in Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai), Kaori Ishihara as Adelaide (Avrora in Strike The Blood), Satomi Akesaka as Iris (Esdeath in Akame Ga Kill), Yuji Murai as Wolf Fang’s captain, Fukushi Ochiai as Marcel (Kimura in Karakai Jouzu No Takagi-san) and Bin Shimada as Sahr (Gengai in Gintama). The opening theme, Hikatta Coin Ga Shimesu Hou by Kaori Maeda is your generic upbeat anime rock music. Not really that exciting for me. Luckily the ending theme sounds much more amusing. Yappari Economy by Yabi x Yabi has this jazzy and Broadway vibes. Sounds playful in nature and got to love those double bass lines.

Overall, this series is just passable in my books. Pretty standard. Another isekai genre, that’s all. Nothing to shout about. Not completely exceptional and at the same time not completely bad. Yes, middle fence answer rearing its ugly head again. Can’t hate Mitsuha for living out her life like a typical overpowered isekai main character because she’d be dumb not to take advantage of that. Not only that, she is business savvy and making more money than I am!!! OMFG! How can I not envy this girl again?! Oh right. It’s all just fantasy… Sighs… While Mitsuha is happily living her life out and even making tons of money, here I am slogging at my usual day job and just barely making ends meet. Yeah, I suppose this anime is supposed to inspire us to go into capitalism, huh? Sorry, I’m not as cute as Mitsuha nor do I have anything of value that others would want. So did I make the wrong investment choice? Oh you know, ‘investing’ in watching anime?! Forget about even saving up for my retirement. As I calculated, I should be able to retire in about 5 years after I die!

Eiyuu-ou Wo Kiwameru Tame Tenseisu: Soshite Sekai Saikyou No Minarai Kishi

Initially this is another one of those isekai series that I did not want to watch. Yeah, I thought I have had enough isekai animes of the season so not watching one or two won’t kill me or anything. After all, Eiyuu-ou Wo Kiwameru Tame Tenseisu: Soshite Sekai Saikyou No Minarai Kishi didn’t sound at all appealing. Oh you know, your typical isekai formula of dead main character being reborn again and with a second chance in life, is able to do all the things she has missed out in her previous life. Meh. Boring. However, something in my guts kept bugging me to watch this. I don’t know, I tried to brush it off but the tingling was persistent. And then I gave in and realized that… OMFG MAMIKO NOTO HAD A CAMEO HERE???!!! HOLY SH**********T!!!!!!!!! I didn’t even look at the casting list at all! What a f*cking pleasant surprise!!! And here I thought of resigning to fate of her retiring from active voice acting and my ‘search’ to find animes of yesteryears featuring her was put on ice for the time being. And then this. Wow. I’m so glad I trusted my guts!

Episode 1
The hero king, Inglis has reached the end of his life. Everybody is sad of this great king’s passing. So great that even the goddess Alistia pays him a visit and thanks him for all the greatness he has brought to his kingdom. If there is anything he wants, she will grant it. Speaking of which, he wants to be reincarnated. Because he spent his time ruling, he didn’t have time to master his sword. He hopes to reincarnate in a time where he can dedicate his time to the blade. Consider it done as she looks forward to their reunion in the distant future. And so Inglis Eucus is reborn again but as a girl! Though, his past life memories and aether (some sort of natural magic) are still retained. One day, a magic beast attacks the place. Mom runs over to her sister’s place so their babies can be safe. But when a dragon breaks into the place, young Rafael Bilford (Inglis’ cousin) is left to fend for his mom, baby sister Rafinha and aunt. Too bad he is still weak. Inglis sees this as an opportunity and uses her magic to blast the dragon easily away into the sky! Inglis looks forward to fight such creatures in the future. A few years later, our little ones have grown up. The young ladies are still apprentice in their sword training and Rafael is deemed a prodigy and a future holy knight potential. During the knights’ training, the merchant company of Rambach visits and the president hopes to have a mock duel with his son, Rahl. Rahl easily defeats the knights and put them to shame. Inglis can see he uses some magic to bind their movements. Because the knights are unaware of this, it proves that people in this era has lost concept of it. Inglis then hints to Rafael not to look into Rahl’s eyes when fighting. He does so but because he didn’t see where he is going, crashes into the wall, giving Rahl another victory. Inglis wants to spar next and after a few provocations, Rahl agrees. Inglis easily dispels his magic and even fights with her eyes closed! Damn, she’s making a fool out of him! Eventually she wins and everyone rejoices except for Rahl of course.

Episode 2
The girls take a baptism to decide what kind of rune class they will have to become a knight. Rafinha gets a high class one but Inglis, she gets none?! Apparently Inglis knows the trick on how runes get imprinted on one’s hand and repelled it. While many are shock, they also accept this. All part of Inglis’ plan to not let such a thing guide her fate as she wants to freely practice honing her skills. And to do that, she will become Rafinha’s squire. Many more years passed and our ladies are now 12 years old. They talk about this floating island known as Highland. Highlanders provide important materials for the surface dwellers to fight against magic beasts especially the high end classes known as Prismer. In return, they are given food and other stuffs. Basically Highlanders are like their gods. Inglis has done a lot of research of the kingdom she once ruled but none were written anywhere in history. What happened to it? The duo attend a party to welcome a Highlander and a royal inspector. This happens once a few years. Because Rafael has some other business, the girls have fellow knight, Leon Olfa as company. They meet the royal inspector, Shiony and shockingly the Highlander is Rahl! Apparently if you pay them enough money, they’ll grant you citizenship. Leon then brings the girls to meet his fellow knight, Eris. WTF she slaps him instead?! But soon a commotion back at the party as Rahl has burnt Shiony to death for defying him. Rahl can even cook up an excuse on how Shiony died. He is about to target Shiony’s knight but Inglis stands up and notes he still has a grudge against her. As promise not to harm anyone, she will come alone to his place as requested. Later that night as she makes her way, Eris stops her because she can’t let Inglis be defiled. On the contrary, Inglis looks happy to fight her and this has Eris confused because she is highly skilled without a rune. Inglis then powers up so they can fight more but then Eris doesn’t want to and believes she is strong enough to defend herself against Rahl. Inglis curses showing off and now she can’t get to fight! Instant regret. Suddenly Eris is attacked by Leon.

Episode 3
Is Leon betraying them for the Highlanders? Yes and no. Tired of them ruling over them, Leon has joined the guerrilla group known as Bloodchain Brigade. While on the outside they look like they are causing chaos, their goal is to drag those Highlanders down to the ground. Hence the goal of stealing their technology and spread it so they will no longer be ruled by them. He knows he can’t do it alone and that’s why he needs their help. The ladies refuse and especially Inglis who is more interested in just fighting the strong. They start fighting as Inglis quickly gets a grasp of how Leon’s artefact works. After all, her goal is to become strong enough to defeat a Prismer alone. Fight interrupted when Rafinha is seen escaping the clutches of a magic beast. Well, that is actually Rahl and he turned into one. Is that possible? Apparently Bloodchain Brigade created some drug that affects only Highlanders. There is no way to reverse this miserable death. Now that Leon has achieved his mission, he flees. Inglis and Eris kick the monster half way across town! Obviously the power is all from Inglis and this is to hide the fact that it would be chaos if people learnt a runeless person like her defeated the monster. But the actual truth is to use Eris as the cover so she won’t be stuck with duties protecting this town. Inglis puts Rahl out of his misery with a huge blast. In the aftermath, Leon is deemed to have betrayed them while Eris takes all the glory in this case. Now Inglis and Rafinha are 15 years old, they set out on their journey to the royal capital to enrol in the royal knights academy. Along the way, they stop by in this Nova town and learn the ruler is a Highlander. Surprisingly Seilyn is a good ruler and life improved compared to the previous one. They meet her as Inglis asks about the irregular mana flow she has felt that is slowly being drained from people. Seilyn is unaware of it. Too bad for Inglis as she is hoping to fight that powerful person. Seilyn has a request of them and it’s not fighting magic beasts but people. Apparently a few disgruntled people she fired are forming a rebel group against her. These are wicked people who served under the previous ruler. They go to their hideout and obviously get surrounded. Looks like they also have a strong mercenary on their side.

Episode 4
While Rafinha handles the rebels, Inglis eagerly fights Sistia Rouge. Eventually Sistia loses and she is confused why she is serving a Highlander especially about the shady things going on in the shadows. Inglis doesn’t care about fighting for justice and is just repaying for the meal she was served. Sistia plays dirty by taking Rafinha hostage and threatens to kill her. Inglis allows her to escape but warns if she does this again to Rafinha, she’ll definitely die. After the rebels are captured, Seilyn won’t kill them and hopes to persuade them to do good. If they are willing to change, she’ll rehire them again. Then she brings Inglis and Rafinha to the bottom of the castle and shows this magic circle that is the source of the draining. It seems once it has enough mana, the land will break away and float up in the sky, becoming a new Highland. Because those who go up there will normally become slaves, she hopes this new breakaway land will be for those to live freely. She is not sure if her actions are right and asks Rafinha’s opinion. If she is wrong, feel free to cut her down. Don’t look at Inglis, you’re the boss. Rafinha decides to believe in her. But that night, Seilyn turns into a magic beast. Oh, who drugged her tea? It’s the innkeeper who wants revenge on her son who was killed by a Highlander. She is part of Bloodchain Brigade and so is Sistia who is here to kill Seilyn although Inglis won’t allow that. The leader of the Bloodchain Brigade shows his face. Actually, still masked. Since he has no name, we’ll call him Black Mask for easier reference. Inglis is excited as she fights this strong dude but she can’t waste time in that and needs to deal with Seilyn going berserk. When she is about to kill a few orphan kids, it seems their voice reached her so she tries to kill herself. Inglis prevents that and has a suggestion. She wants them to distract her while she tries out something. If she fails, do as you wish. Black Mask agrees but in return once this is over, she must leave Nova and Bloodchain Brigade will destroy that magic circle. Inglis converts her aether into mana to freeze Seilyn. Black Mask then uses his ultimate magic to suck away all the aether inside her. This means Seilyn is now a small in size and can no longer grow and threaten others. Bloodchain Brigade leaves as their only enemies are Highlanders. Inglis and Rafinha leave for the royal capital and Seilyn is now a little cute fairy version joining them.

Episode 5
In the next town, it seems magic beasts start to attack. Inglis is eager to fight as she rushes to where the action is. Leone Olfa thinks she is in the way but after Inglis shows her chops, both girls team up to get rid of the remaining magic beasts. When the knights will reward everybody except Leone whom they call a traitor, the arrival of Rafael and Ripple calm things down. Apparently Leone is the sister of Leon who as we know has betrayed the knights to join that guerrilla group. Rafael is happy to see Inglis and Rafinha here as he learns their deeds at Nova. They also learn more about Leone especially Leon who was their town’s first knight. Everyone was proud of him until his betrayal. Thus Leone’s mission is to become a full-fledged knight and capture him. This means enrolling in the knight academy as Inglis and Rafinha. Before they depart, Rafael shows them this frozen Prismer. It could be what that is attracting magic beasts to attack this town. So the knights are carrying it away. Ripple knows it will soon revive so they’re carrying away next to the border to fend off enemies. Inglis feels it is a waste because powerful enemies destroy each other, she wants a piece of that action. Ripple promises to call her when that happens. Our ladies soon enrol at the academy and after Prince Wein’s speech, the principal, Miliera has the newbies instantly undergo training. Everyone is put under some gravity spell and if they can last 10 minutes in this ring without being thrown out by monsters, they get free food for a whole month. Inglis kicks the monsters out immediately! Miliera trying to shift the goal post but it happens again. So after striking a deal, this time Inglis waits until everybody gets thrown out and the timer to reach zero before winning. As the girls withdraw to their rooms, it seems Liselotte Arcia does not want to be Leone’s roommate. B*tch making a fuss to be reassigned. This is when Inglis and Rafinha will gladly take Leone in and the trio can have a nice time sleeping together on their small cramped bed.

Episode 6
I know the food is free but Inglis and Rafinha going through how many rounds of sets already?! Need all the energy they can get, huh? The trio also makes friends with Pram and Rati. Since they are from a different country, they aren’t familiar with Leone’s case nor do they care. Training begins as the instructor has everyone put on their running shoes to run to the dock. Easy for Inglis, right? At the dock, they learn how to fly this, well, Flying Gear. At the end of the day, Inglis, Rafinha, Leone, Liselotte and Pram get summoned for a special test. Because the academy deems them with potential, if they pass within a certain time frame, they can get into their recommended programmes. This is a test of mental strength and fortitude so Miliera sends them into a door each. Inglis sees enemies she has fought as well as people in her early life. When she faces one who is from her previous life, she finds this in bad taste so she blasts the ceiling. So this is all just layered? Above her is Liselotte. She is regretting mistreating Leone and was only doing so to be careful as she is the daughter of a chancellor. She hopes Inglis can pass on her apology to Rafinha since she has been avoiding her. As they get to the next layer, they see Leone facing the ghost of her past. Everyone trying to get her for being a traitor. Of course Inglis intervenes and saves her skin. Liselotte taking this chance to apologize and just like that they become friends. Soon everyone except Pram passes as they emerge from the door. So sad for Pram and she got tossed out after going in. Liselotte also makes up with Rafinha. Then she welcomes back Leone to her room to become roommates as the quartet start their sleepover party.

Episode 7
There will be a party hosted by Liselotte’s father so you bet the quartet are invited. Free food, right?! As they shop for a dress, a magic beast attacks but it is quickly put down by Eris and Ripple. However Ripple is obviously not feeling well despite she claims otherwise. This magic beast is not a Highlander but a demihuman that is Ripple’s kind. Eris hopes to have the new Highlander emissary investigate this. At the party, the big eaters are about to dig in when magic beasts pop up and ruin everything. Protect the food?! How about protecting the people?! We see everyone helping to take down the magic beasts but looks like I’ve seen everything because Inglis shooting beams from her finger and she’s like dancing?! When it’s over, the girls can happily eat but there is more pressing issue. Ripple has collapsed and a barrier is formed around her. It is believed this led to the summoning of the magic beasts. Wein has the Highlander emissary, Theodore give his input on this and he believes the Hierarchy is behind this. You see, even Highlanders are split into 2 factions. Grand Duchy wants to share humans their technology while Hierarchy wants to keep it all for themselves. Both sides sent a Hyral Menas (strong knight) to maintain the balance but with Ripple as one created by Hierarchy, they found a way to destroy her from within. While they are sad about this, they try to maintain positive to bring Ripple back. Inglis getting jealous when Theodore tries to get too close to Rafinha. But when Theodore realizes who they are, he thanks them for saving his sister, Seilyn. He hopes to find a way to change her back but too bad Seilyn prefers to stay in Inglis’ boobs rather than go back to her brother. When Ripple comes to, she is saddened what happened and is willing to die to prevent this. Inglis suggest to bring her to the academy. This can also save the knights expending some men to watch over her. If she ever summons magic beasts, you bet Inglis and friends will defeat it. Yeah, she’s just itching for a fight, huh? Since there are no better solutions, Wein leaves Ripple in Miliera’s care.

Episode 8
Ripple is introduced to the students of the academy. A few seniors are tasked to protect her and one of them being Silva Eiren, the only student with a special class rune and the brother of Ledas who is head of the royal guard. Silva is a strict and prideful jerk because he looks down on Inglis as a squire and worse, badmouths Leone the traitor. To determine their worth, a mock battle is suggested. Second year Yua doesn’t want to participate and finds it all bothersome. She hints she knows who is stronger (spoiler alert: she bested Silva before). Ripple then starts to go into that barrier coma again. Miliera initiates another barrier so the students can fight the magic monsters. Silva is upset when Inglis and the rest fight on their own instead of listening to his orders. Yeah, Inglis only using her kicks and slaps on the monsters! The monsters eventually are taken care of although there is some damage to the building structure. Of course Silva blames Inglis and her pals for not holding back like he did and that’s why the damage. Yua is bad with names and gives everyone nicknames like Inglis = Boobs; Rafinha = Little Devil; Liselotte = Curly Hair; Leone = Boobs #2. Since Inglis is itching to fight Ripple, the latter agrees since she also wants to see her strength. Theodore gives Leone a special artefact that can isolate space as she is most compatible to it. So in this alternate space, Inglis and Ripple fight to their heart’s content. Inglis seemingly cornered at first. After all, sword vs gun? Until Inglis deflects Ripple’s bullets and forces her to take evasive action, allowing her an opening to defeat Ripple. When she was sent flying, Miliera put up a barrier to stop her fall. She noticed some of her mana was sucked away. They test it on Liselotte’s artefact but nothing happens. But when Miliera uses Liselotte’s artefact, Ripple absorbs everything. It is deduced that she can only take mana from a holy knight with special class rune. With that, Ripple falls into that barrier coma again. Leone cannot maintain this space anymore and so the magic beast pops up in reality.

Episode 9
Inglis may be able to deal some damage by kicking away the magic beast. But when it threatens to fall on Yua, she easily chops it in half! With the threat gone, Theodore reveals some of their observations. Ripple won’t be able to summon any more magic beasts for the time being since she has to absorb and accumulate mana from class runes. That will take some time before the next one happens. As for why those summoned are demihumans, because Ripple is one and such race can use telepathy to connect and summon. A fortnight passes and Inglis dreads no action. Hence she bugs Yua to show her skills but the latter being lazy will not do so unless Inglis tells her the secret to make her boobs big! Yes, Yua wants them to grow and show if off to the world! Can’t? Then no deal. WTF Inglis has Seilyn attack Liselotte’s boobs instead. Miliera then gives Rafinha a new artefact created by Theodore. When another magic beast summoned by Ripple attacks, this time Silva gets seriously wounded. This is only because he was protecting Rati who was protecting Pram from it. While other students blame them, Silva doesn’t because he believes it is his duty to do so. Thank goodness for Rafinha’s artefact with the help of Inglis channelling her mana healing him up. Later everybody apologizes to everybody so they make things even. Silva now looking more respectable instead of being a jerk on our first impression. WTF Rafinha thinks Silva is gay and into boys and that’s why he is kinder to Rati instead of Inglis?! WTF Pram can’t accept that because she can’t handle more rivals?! WTF?! Miliera then gets a letter from the royal guard requesting the handover of Ripple to them. This means sending her back to Highland and getting a new Hyral Menas. Of course they plan to oppose that and will continue guarding Ripple themselves. Meanwhile Leone and Liselotte are on patrol and stumble into a magic beast. It is taken out by an artefact and it seems it is leading them somewhere too. If you remember, this artefact belongs to Leon and yes, here he is. But it’s not only him. Bloodchain Brigade is here too.

Episode 10
Leone fights her brother while Sistia restrains Liselotte. Black Mask then reveals the royal court has decided to offer the land of Almen (hometown of Leone and Leon) to the Hierarchy so as to restore relations with them. They will also hand over the Hyral Menas and a Highlander emissary will arrive. Bloodchain Brigade will use this chance to kill the emissary. They’re telling them this because they don’t intend to stop them and they are free to do as they wish. Highlanders are their enemy. Just don’t get in their way. Leone and Liselotte return to report to the rest what happened as Inglis comes up with a plan. Inglis and Rafinha will dress up as maids to infiltrate the party. I approve! Since Silva is so adamant in protecting Ripple, Rafinha thinks he likes her. On the contrary, he respects her. He tells of his past where a friend of his died while protecting from a magic beast. Had not Ripple came to save him, he would’ve shared the same fate. Her words for him to become strong and protect others made him who he is today. But he still thinks Ripple doesn’t acknowledge him because he isn’t strong enough to fight alongside her yet. As Inglis and Rafinha infiltrate the party (boy, they sure helping themselves to the food even though they are servants!), King Carius introduces Ivel the Highlander emissary. Don’t be fooled by this young lad’s looks. He is nasty and looks down upon everybody. He badmouths them all for trying to suck up to him and calling them stupid. Carius applauds him for his genius and all and everyone follows suit. While this does not sit well with Rafinha, Inglis finds this approach interesting. Sucking up to others just to protect his people. When a magic beast attacks, during the chaos a Bloodchain Brigade disguised as a royal guard tries to kill Ivel. Inglis holds him back only for Ivel to kill him off. He blames Carius for this farce and will not accept his apology since they are of different status. Instead, he cuts off his hand and Carius thanks him for his mercy. Inglis and Rafinha then help heal and reattach Carius’ arm. Ivel wants somebody’s arm as replacement so Inglis happily offers hers. But Ivel soon is dumbfounded as he cannot cut it off (some strong barrier she’s erecting). He gets desperate and the more Inglis eggs him on, the more she is making him look like a fool. He wants her to fight him with full power and reveal her true identity but obviously Inglis is making a fool out of him. Ivel has had it as he reveals the reason he came here was not to mend their relations or send them a new Hyral Menas.

Episode 11
The place is being attacked by Bloodchain Brigade. Ivel reveals this party is just a diversion and a trap to lure them out so he could destroy those pesky rebels. Because he lied to the king and all, Inglis classifies him as a villain and Carius just needs to give the order to kill him. Oh well, capture him alive is what he orders. Will do too. Ivel creates a barrier that cuts anything that touches. He is shocked when Inglis knows this trick and she even tells him to concentrate it to one spot. He thinks it’s a dirty trick to attack his other weakened spots but she assures not. Or is this the Highlander’s way of cowardly fighting? He does so as Inglis gives the strongest kick that breaks that barrier and sends him flying out!!! With the chaos, our lovely maids head off to stop Bloodchain Brigade. This means Inglis has a chance to face off with Black Mask. Meanwhile on Silva’s side, they are preparing to get things moving. Miliera reminding this operation is voluntary and anyone who wants to leave to do so. Well, I guess it doesn’t apply to Yua. PLEASE STAY! Ripple giving her heartfelt thanks to everyone helping ad so the mission starts as she absorbs the powers of special class runes to summon those magic beasts for everyone else to take out. We return to our epic aether power battle between Inglis and Black Mask. Interrupted when Ivel returns from the heavens. Highlander vs Bloodchain Brigade boss. When Leone is at her limit and the few magic beasts prove too powerful, here comes Leon to help out. No sneaky tricks whatsoever, just his genuine intentions to help. This includes using a special mist to help heal everyone. Now for the final performance as he finishes the operation on Ripple. With everyone around knocked out, a huge badass Prismer appears. Look who is itching for a fight?

Episode 12
Inglis in a dilemma on which strong ones to fight! Uhm, I thought she would take them all together! Black Mask and Ivel resume their match but it won’t be a long one. With Sistia transformed into a rainbow spear for her master, this is able to pierce through Ivel’s barrier and even ‘vanish’ this kid into nothingness! Holy smoke! Not much of a challenge, huh? With Bloodchain Brigade’s mission over, Black Mask won’t stay to fight Inglis but gives her their Flying Gear so she could head over to her comrades fighting the Prismer. So we see them doing so and unfortunately Yua gets absorbed into the Prismer although not 100% but in time she will. Ripple has awakened and enough to join her comrades fight. She might still be on another fighting level but is still weakened. Silva wants her to become his weapon and they can defeat this monster. However despite she doesn’t will it, Silva’s strong will forces her to transform into this rainbow gun. Leon and Miliera warn him not to do it but Silva is hell bent on getting the job done. Unfortunately Inglis breaks through Miliera’s barrier and knocks him out. I guess nobody is going to steal her limelight. Now see Inglis fight to her heart’s content. Even when the Prismer fires beams at all direction that threatens to destroy the city, oh wow, Inglis is so fast that she knocks away all the beams!!! OMFG!!! CAN THIS BE REAL???!!! Now better hurry up and save Yua before she gets fully absorbed. Long story short, everybody combines their powers with Inglis before she ultimately deals the finishing blow. Prismer destroyed, Yua rescued and the town is safe. Wow. Just amazing. And you think Inglis and Rafinha can go to the cafeteria for their much needed food break but too bad it’s destroyed! Hah! Whose fault is that?! Wait till it is built back! Stay hungry… Soon, Inglis, Rafinha and Ripple are summoned by Carius. Due to her exceptional skills, Carius makes her the head of the royal knights. Before Rafinha can be sad that she won’t be with her anymore, Inglis turns this offer down. While her excuse is to always stay by Rafinha’s side the real reason is that post won’t see much frontline action. Yeah. Ripple and Inglis are glad Silva didn’t get to use her because they might have defeated the Prismer but it would’ve come with a heavy price. You think Carius is persistent in still wanting to talk to Inglis. Well, it’s to invite her to a feast as her reward. Can’t turn this down, can she? Now eat to your heart’s content! And once the school’s cafeteria is back, Inglis and Rafinha spare no chances in devouring everything!

One Punch Squire: There Can Only Be One!
Well, uhm, that’s so much about it. The day is saved once again until the next big threat that threatens the world. Heh. Only Inglis will see it as a form of entertainment and will be anticipating for such big fights. That is why I am slightly worried that in this world and time, it will not see peace because of Inglis’ craving for fighting the strongest. That’s right. I fear she might become the villain one day, stoking the flames of war and inciting nations to fight each other so that she can just get her kicks out of fighting something. Yes, fighting something even if it is weak is better than that. Sure, I might be getting way ahead of myself and speculating a lot of crap but from what I see from Inglis here, that kind of fate is not impossible. Let’s just hope I’m wrong.

To be honest, I felt the storyline is somewhat confusing. In the sense that I can’t see where this series is going. Mainly all I can see is Inglis fighting off whatever problems at hand with her brute strength. That is all. It is perhaps the title that helped in the confusion because it stated about a girl who was reborn to master the blade (on a trivial note, when I first read that line, I had to do a double take as I quickly misread it as masturbate!!!!!), in reality we don’t even see her honing her skills with the sword! Blame her for being so overpowered that she actually goes into fights with her bare fists! How can she master the blade when she is already overpowered in the first place! In fact, you could even say that she has overmastered it! I’m not surprised if she was. So yeah, a bit misleading there the title.

The series had other interesting potential such as the Highlanders as well as Bloodchain Brigade. It is very unfortunate that they are just very minimal here and everything is mostly focused on Inglis and her whatever shenanigans. These potentials could have brought an interesting take to the series’ story overall but for this season, they just feel so insufficient and insignificant that it doesn’t matter. That’s right. All for the sake of plot convenience, that is all. Even the curious mysterious of the land that Inglis first ruled until his death, it was quickly mentioned and then brushed off. Like as though they don’t want to touch on this subject any further. Because as you know me, I’m going to create dumb conspiracies about it. So you know why Inglis’ kingdom is not written anywhere in history? Because Inglis got reincarnated into another world and not the future! Holy sh*t! So this is technically an isekai anime?! Yup, seems probably. Or perhaps Highlanders have something to do with the destruction of that kingdom and erased it from history for whatever reasons. Yeah. That. Hence, perhaps making Inglis’ fight with them even more meaningful as act of revenge or something. But I guess as far as the end of this season is concerned, we’ll never know.

As for the characters, I find that they are mostly mediocre. Even with a handful of characters, I just feel that many of them are just shallow and that they are not fleshed out even decently. Of course the big bulk of the series focuses on Inglis and Rafinha as they are the main heroines. Inglis as a reincarnated character, the way I see her being such an eager beaver for fighting strong opponents, somewhat reminds me of the main character in Kuro No Shoukanshi. Yes, that guy who is always itching for a good strong fight. Inglis is perhaps the female version of him. And noticed that nearly evil expression she puts on when she realizes she has a chance to fight? That too.

Wanting to be freed of her past responsibilities, this is the excuse needed so that Inglis will not be tied down and thus the important factor so that she can do whatever she wants. This means she claims she doesn’t care about fighting for justice and all but to do as she wishes. Well, well. Doesn’t this remind you of the main character in Saikyou Onmyouji No Isekai Tenseiki? And while that on the surface may make her look selfish, of course we all know better that deep down she still cares. Can’t be a dick 100% because she still looks out for Rafinha whenever she is in trouble. And I suppose not having a rune mark on her hand also helps in this because dumb ones will look down upon her and before they know it, they get their asses handed to them. Say, doesn’t this hiding one’s powerful mark feel familiar like other isekai characters too? Oh I don’t know. Maou Gakuin No Futekigousha, Shikakumon No Saikyou Kenja…

The other annoying part of Inglis is because of her eagerness, it makes her look like an annoying retard. Oh you know, she’s so eager that she sounds like so enthusiastic and really looking forward to it like a kindergarten kid on her first field trip. Say, doesn’t that kind of enthusiasm remind you of a certain character? Oh I don’t know, does that Shadow dude in Kage No Jitsuryokusha Ni Naritakute seem pretty familiar? Yeah, we get it that her second life is much more exciting and that she’s just so overpowered and more powerful than anybody else here, but can she show a bit of restraint? I guess not.

The rest of the characters play second fiddle to Inglis and this includes Rafinha too. She is supposed to be the knight and Inglis her squire but as we can see, it is mostly the other way round. With Rafinha around, at least Inglis doesn’t go all out 100% because she somewhat plays the voice of reasoning and conscious before that squire goes berserk and all drunk in her fighting spree. Sorry, no yuri to be expected. But yeah, the biggest running joke about them is that they are big eaters. Only in anime when girls who have black hole stomach and pig out like there’s no tomorrow, and still remain slim and beautiful! No beauty regimen in this world can beat that! Sure, I presume they burn all that excess calories in fights but damn, the way they eat like as though hunger poverty stricken nations are not an issue in this world. The way the chow down everything they can rival or even put One Piece’s Luffy to shame! Oh heck, if the world is going to be destroyed, it is not because of Prismer, magic beasts and conspiring nations and megalomaniac Highlanders (“There can only be one!”). It is rather the world will run out of resources feeding these 2 chicks!!! Somebody do something about it!!! So other than caring about fights, the next biggest concern for them is whether or not they can eat! My goodness…

Other characters feel pretty meh once Inglis and Rafinha bombard many of the screen time. Because I still don’t pretty much get it about characters like Leone and Liselotte. It feels like they’re there so as to show Inglis and Rafinha has some cool teammates, that is all. Leone has some grudge against her traitorous brother and Liselotte, oh well, need a rich girl trope. I am still confused about the whole thing surrounding this Hyral Menas thingy so like Ripple and Eris falling under this category, uhm, what again? Then there is Silva who is just being too ambitious in wanting to repay his gratitude that there is this fear he might fall into the dark side. He works his ass off and his strictness makes him look like a jerk. No matter how much he puts in the effort, he can still never best or come close to Inglis! Feeling even way more insignificant are the Pram and Rati pair. I don’t know, it’s like they needed some secondary character so they’re that. In other words, just forgettable. Pram just being freaking over possessive over Rati because she likes him whatever but all that is overshadowed by the mighty Inglis somehow. That’s right. Forgettable. Even Yua feels the same only she is slightly more amusing because of her slacker attitude. She can afford to be lazy because she is powerful.

Like as though they needed some sort of cute mascot because I guess Ripple with animal ears wasn’t it and that’s why the need for Seilyn to become this chibi fairy following Inglis around. Falling from grace, her role has reduced to this insignificancy ever since and she only exists to remind us of the paltry fanservice this series tries to bait some viewers. Uh huh. For some odd reasons she likes to stay in between the cleavage of big breasted women. I wonder if those cushion effects felt nice. Because while Inglis was kicking ass, I am very sure here boobs will jiggle and shake a lot. Logic dictates that Seilyn would’ve had a major headache from all that impact but considering she didn’t even make any sound or complain, I bet she’s loving it there. Nice and warm. You don’t think Inglis left her somewhere else safe, do you? Where else could it be safer than in the bosoms of this big-eater-cum-big-fighter lady!!!

Now, there is this very interesting conspiracy theory that I have long thought about: What if Black Mask’s real identity is Rafael!!! One simple reason: You don’t see Rafael around in the most important of times, right? And do you not notice that Rafael and Black Mask are never in the same place together?! Holy sh*t! This is very curious and more interesting than anything else! Wein could also be that masked perpetrator but I’m betting it more on Rafael because this kid has shown some potential and it could serve as a plot twist in the future. In which, I wouldn’t be surprised when it happens. So yeah, Bloodchain Brigade is a hell of an interesting group because they are not entirely bad guys unlike the Highlanders. Or at least those stuck ups are painted so to us. My guess is that they are the ones who created magic beasts just to bring chaos to the surface dwellers. And to interestingly see how people suck up to them and that even among Highlanders there are factions, oh my, this series sure wasted such potential, huh? It’ll be a huge brawl when all sides come together in mortal combat and you bet Inglis will be there to snatch the win in this royal rumble!

As for the action parts, they just mostly feel passable. It was amusing at first to see Inglis being so overpowered and knocking things away with just a single punch, kick or slap. But then it got boring because well, overpowered characters can’t lose, right? Other characters have their own set of unique weapons to fight like Rafinha’s bow, Ripple’s gun shooting and Leone’s sword that can transport you to another dimension. Add some magic effects and voila. Magic fight! But it all just feels pretty average and nothing exciting. I mean, it’s not like any of these can top or even be more powerful than Inglis herself, right? Play support to her, yes. But fighting on their own as seen in the final arc, well, just buy enough time before the heroine comes to finish the job.

Art and animation are pretty standard with the characters having the bishoujo and bishonen looks. All the characters here look handsome and pretty, good or bad, young or old, like as though there are no ugly people that exists ever in this world. But there is one thing I would like to point out especially for the cute girls, somehow I noticed that they have this blush on their cheeks which makes them looking more like dolls. Maybe it’s just me but yeah, sometimes at certain angles it makes them look strange. Like as though dolls came to life. And of course, the CGI. While it is not the most terrible of quality, I thought it could have been a lot better. Mainly used on magic monsters, you can obviously see the difference although thankfully it is not that bad to break the scene visually. Still bearable but like I’ve said, could have done some better improvements. Or is this some sort of long term subliminal strategy to make us crave for 2D animation instead of 3D abomination?! Oh my! I’ve never thought of this until now! In that case, next time make your entire series 100% 2D animation, okay?! This anime was done by Studio Comet who is an old veteran studio that suddenly came out from their slumber. The studio who did School Rumble, Suzuka, Peach Girl, Saint October, the Jewelpet series and that gay Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love suddenly got a new animation under their belt for this season.

Of course, now I’ve waited this long to get here so I can once again pay my homage to Mamiko Noto!!! OH YEAH!!! Good news and bad news, her cameo as Alistia was too short for me to be satisfied but still I’m happy that I got to hear her voice after a very long time. Yes, watching the opening sequences of the first episode, it sent my heart racing when I first heard this goddess of a voice. I know it won’t be often but I was hoping to hear her again at least in the final episode so as to give us some sort of cliff-hanger and teaser but unfortunately, none. That is her one and only appearance for this series. Came too fast. Gone too soon. Sighs. Oh well. Got to appreciate what I’ve been given.

There are a few seiyuus I recognized namely Yuuichi Nakamura as Leon, Aki Toyosaki as Seilyn and Naomi Oozora as Ripple. As long as Akari Kitou sounds like Tsukasa from Tonikaku Kawaii, I guess it’s safe I’ll be able to recognize her voice from now onwards. As Inglis, she’s just a chirpier version of Tsukasa. It has been a long time I haven’t heard from Eri Kitamura so she slipped by radar as Sistia. At this point I should’ve been able to pick out Katsuyuki Konishi as Black Mask and Miyu Tomita as Yua but I guess I’m sleeping on the job. The other casts are Ai Kakuma as Rafinha (Eris in Mushoku Tensei), Tomori Kusunoki as Leone (Makima in Chainsaw Man), Wakana Kuramochi as Liselotte (Lilia in Kinsou No Vermeil), Atsushi Tamaru as Rafael (Ayato in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk), Fumiya Imai as Silva (Hiiragi Kashima in Given), Haruka Shiraishi as Eris (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy), Kiyono Yasuno as Miliera (Witch in Edens Zero), Matsutomo Nakazawa as Theodore (Haruki in Given), Kouhei Amasaki as Rati (Haruo in High Score Girl), Hiyori Kouno as Pram (Housenka in Kunoichi Tsubaki No Mune No Uchi Ni), Shun Horie as Ivel (Kazuya in Kanojo Okarishimasu) and Jun Kasama as Wein (Koenig in Youjo Senki). The opening theme, Day1 by Auo featuring Morisaki Win might sound like a generic contemporary song and it does. Personally, feels like it doesn’t fit the pacing of the series. I only like the funky guitar play in the background. As for the ending theme, Self Hug Big Love by Yui Nishio, the song has some nice guitar strumming but other than that, it also feels generic.

Overall, the series feels like another of those generic and mediocre isekai themed series that has flooded our airwaves in recent years. As always, it had potential but wasted it all with its haphazard pacing. Instead what we got in this season are mostly cliché tropes of the isekai genre. Sure, it has its fun moments (term used very loosely in this context and more like trashy dumb fun) but at this point in time it will need to take more than that and something really way exceptional to change my perception and sentiments of this dreaded category. Oh well, if I’m coming back every season to watch them, it either means I still have hope for it or I’m just plain dumb. Sucking up to such series like Highlanders but only scorn them in my mind. Heh. Not even Inglis can punch, kick or slap her way out of this huge monster known as disappointment! Inglis meeting her match? Reborn to Master the Blame Game, From Sulking to Extraordinary Squalor! HAHAHA!!! Sighs…