Rating: 4
In the original novels, the downtime between the Moss Huge part of this arc and Ryu part of the arc is an epilogue that amounts to only five pages. That doesn’t allow anywhere near enough content to make a full episode, so that the revelation about what Ryu is seemingly up to can happen at the end of an episode – as it should. (In the novel, it is the last scene of novel 12.) Hence episode 6 is a rarity for the franchise: an episode made up predominately of anime-original content framed around the few bits that are true to the novel. While this doesn’t quite result in the masterful use of such fleshing-out seen in a series like 86, the adaptation still, pleasingly, makes the transition between the arcs seem logical and seamless.
This also allows the series to stick back in a scene from the beginning of this arc that the adaptation initially skipped: the Denatus scene where Bell gets his updated title. Putting it here makes timing a little awkward; since Hestia knows that her familia is safe and there’s time for word to get back down to Bell before the move to the Ryu part, the series is implying that Bell and crew are spending several days in Riviria. However, it does fit better with the flow of the story in this spot, and putting it back in is a welcome acknowledgement of having entirely skipped the first Denatus scene (from back around episode 9 of the first season). Also, the specific inclusion of it here may be implying an eventual intent to animate content after this arc, since this Denatus scene has some vague but consequential hints about the story after this point.
The rest of the episode is really just some proverbial house-cleaning with a touch of extra character development. The elves and dwarves are naturally very grateful to both Bell and Lily, but both of them have trouble accepting that gratitude for different reason; Lily is unused to praise from the adventurers she grew up hating, while Bell can’t quite appreciate that seasoned adventurers consider losing a limb a fair price to pay for coming back alive from an especially hairy situation in the Dungeon. The rest is mostly Lily’s oft-thwarted efforts to get some precious “me” time with Bell, which is both entirely in-character and entirely fitting, given that, in the previous episode, she staked all her resolve on what Bell would do. The scene between them is a sweet affirmation of Bell’s longest-term relationship with another Dungeon-delver.
As for what Ryu is up to, based on anime-only content, some reasonable deductions can be made. She is a serious-minded, earnest type who is, by her own admission, both a retired adventurer and a retired vigilante. The slaughter of her familia put her on the vengeful streak that got her blacklisted, and she ended up at the Hostess of Fertility only after Syr found her collapsed at the end of her task. Given Chloe’s mention about her “remembering stuff about her past,” the only reasonable explanation for what she’s doing here is that it has something to do with someone who got away last time. Who all is involved? How far will she go this time? That’s the juicy teaser for the next arc.
USA Anime 