Rating: B
This episode leaves us with one burning question: how does Atou know enough about a traditional Western marriage ceremony to dream about it when Takuto all but proposes to her at the end of the episode? Granted, this could just be the production staff being cute and playing off a common stereotype for this kind of scene, and it’s not like the series has shown any propensity for dropping subtle hints so far. If taken seriously, however, that means that Atou is more aware of Takuto’s world than we’ve been led to believe so far, and that raises bigger questions about who (or what) she actually is.
That possibly-frivolous consideration aside, this episode is almost entirely about Mynoghra establishing its first peaceful relationship with a different nation and the irony that an innocent blockhead is principally responsible for unwittingly making it happen. Pepe is neither wise enough nor experienced enough to be intimidated by the evil aura of the Mynoghran delegation (or maybe he just sees beyond it?), so he sees the newcomers as a prime opportunity to make new friends. And fortunately for everyone, that’s exactly the best approach to take with Takuto. Even Atou doesn’t fully appreciate how important gathering friends is to Takuto, and naturally, no one else from the city would ever think that a supreme evil being values something like that. As a long-time gamer, I don’t find it strange at all that bonds of alliance could be formed over playing board games, but no doubt that left official on both sides with their heads spinning.
But maybe not the twins. They may not fully grasp all of the complicated details, but they saw how much of an icebreaker Pepe’s “let’s play” approach was and they recognize as much as the adults do that they are perhaps ideally-suited to be less threatening initial envoys to Forngawn. We’ve seen other stories where a young prince or princess fulfilled this kind of role, and the latter is basically what the twin’s are at this point. They’re every bit as much the long-term hope for Mynoghra as Pepe is for Forngawn, and what they’ve endured to get here makes them ideal representations of the overall struggles of the dark elves. And they’re going to have some interesting-looking protectors, too.
All of this almost overshadows a big point here: with seeking to investigate the culture and beliefs of Forngawn further, this scenario is now stepping beyond what Takuto knows from his many times playing Eternal Nations. Unlike the business with the witches or map variations, this cannot be passed off as just a randomizer element within the game generation. Some of the more advanced 4x games do explore the spread of culture and religious elements, but these are typically abstracted in numerical terms rather than dealt with in detail. It provides another avenue for the series to expand beyond being just a 4x game, and that’s something that will benefit the story in the long run.
USA Anime 