Rating: B
After how, ahem, “eccentric” the Brain Eaters proved to be, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Isla, Queen of Bugs, once she finally got summoned. Would she be similarly twisted by the evil alignment of Mynoghra? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t expecting her to be everyone’s kindly grandmother, however.
Isla having an evil side that will finally manifest when Mynoghra is threatened certainly is still a possibility, but that doesn’t show in her introductory appearances. Instead, we get the kindly, doting grandmother, one who can reduce even Atou (who was giving motherly scoldings to those involved in the Dragontan incident just a few minutes earlier) to a child as she gives out her head pats. In fact, head pats seem to be her solution to everything, and she’s not above scolding Takuto over his poor sleeping habits and encouraging him to buck up and deal with business matters on his own, such as (gasp!) actually speaking directly to his underlings! Even Head Warrior Gia crumbles under her gentle admonishments and head pats, and it looks like she’s going to quickly endear herself to the common dark elves, too. This begs the question of whether Isla turning out this way is inherit to her nature as a defensive-focused Hero or if her personality was perhaps influenced by Takuto subconsciously understanding that a stabilizing influence like hers was sorely missing in Mynoghra so far.
The other interesting aspect here is that Isla, like Atou, is also aware of Takuto from his times using her in Eternal Nations. Perhaps that’s why all shots of Takuto in Isla’s presence show Takuto’s true appearance, while he still is shrouded in his black aura when she or Atou are not around. Again, I feel like this is a very important detail, but the series hasn’t explored it enough to make more than a guess about what it all means.
As for game-related strategy points, the Learning Institute sounds somewhat similar in function to a Library in other 4x games. That’s often one of the earliest buildings that I go for (after military barracks) when it’s available, as research bonuses are essential for expanding and advancing a civilization’s learning tree, so I heartily approve of its prioritization here and how the series works in a practical int-story reason for it as well.
The end of this episode suggests that we’ll see Atou in more direct action next episode. (A new trailer for the remainder of the season also suggests that her battle against the Barbarians threatening Dragontan isn’t the only action we have upcoming.) Given the series’ animation track record so far, I’m not expecting anything dynamic out of it, but perhaps we’ll get to see a bit more of what Atou can do on offense.
USA Anime 