Special: Isekai in Audiobooks 2

Back in March I did a look at non-Japanese isekai stories based on their audiobook versions. Audiobook listening has since become an almost daily activity for me (and a staple on lengthy drives), and I have continued to mix a fair number of non-Japanese isekai series in among audiobooks of light novel series. Hence it’s time for a second round of looks at assorted isekai options on audiobook, though this time with some Japanese-originating material mixed in.

Concerning Readers: One thing I have increasingly noticed is that reading an audiobook is its own kind of art form. Not every voice actor can pull it off, but the ones who are good at it can really enhance the source material, even to the point of making it more engaging than it would be to read. AI read-alouds are becoming a thing, and I could see them being a boon for vision-impaired individuals, but at this stage AI readers are not even close to being dynamic enough to enhance the experience the way a good human reader can. (A few years down the road, though, this may no longer be true.) All of the ones I am reviewing here did have human readers, so each title will get both a Content and a Reader grade.

Fallen Lands

Author: C Peinhopf

Reader: Charlie Keegan James

Volumes: 3 (so far)

Series Rating: B

Narration Rating: A

At the time of this writing, this independently-published series consists of three progressively longer novels in print form, though only the first two are yet available in audiobook form. (The third novel was released in print/eBook form on 11/11/25, so it should be just a matter of time for the audiobook.) That makes for roughly 34½ hours of audiobook for the first two. The artwork shown above is for the audiobooks; the covers for the print/eBook versions are dramatically different and decidedly darker in tone.

In the story, Evelyn was a young woman from Colorado who was in the process of moving to California to attend college when she was stolen away to another world in very traumatic fashion. She finds herself in a new body that’s chained to a sacrificial altar, along with several others. He new body isn’t human, either; she’s a kitsune, which she later learns is a near-mythical spirit race in this world, but more immediately relevant is that she can turn into a fox, which is instrumental in her escape from a chaotic and bloody situation as whatever ceremony the demon cultists were trying to conduct goes amok. She soon discovers that she is deep in the hinterlands of a world where demon invasions have pushed humans and human-like races back and that the process which brought her to this world has (entirely unintentionally, she later learns) made her a hero that the world has been praying for. She eventually meets up with a female ranger who takes Evelyn under her wing, shows her how to be an adventurer, and helps her find the twin she remembers seeing in the room with the altars, whom she discovers was also originally from Earth and is a hero, too. Though she and Amelie (her red-haired/furred twin) eventually are taken in by a noble elvish family whose elderly leaders recognize them for what they are, both find themselves driven to be stronger and are not at all content to just be young noble ladies. Not that circumstances will allow them so simple a life when devils who still have a purpose for them come calling.

In most respects this is a standard LitRPG set-up, one which leans heavily on a game mechanics-like System (which we later learn was set up eons ago by the gods of this world to bolster humanity against inhuman threats) which duplicates various features of fantasy RPG play; the differences between this and some other similar settings are that not everyone in this world is a “classer” and that Evelyn initially has difficulty learning about how all of this works, since this System is far less user-friendly than most. (And when she does eventually gain a spell which allows her too look up information on System topics, the results are delivered in a curiously idiosyncratic fashion rather than the dry, mechanical reads normally seen with System voices.) Both novels are heavy on action and exploration elements, and battle scenes can turn very messy and even decidedly gruesome at times, though they are well-executed and vibrantly-described. The latter part of the first novel does also include some content on Evelyn and Amelie getting integrated into noble society (with their identities as heroes being hidden). That gets swept aside by the circumstances which set up the second novel, though the advertising blurb for the third novel suggests that it will return.

Little about the setting is strikingly distinctive outside of certain exotic monster designs, and one of the bigger negatives about the novels so far is that the world-building is a slow, drawn-out process. It’s almost frustrating at times how long the novels take to get around to explaining some important points, and there are some events which happen early on which only make sense much later, when the reader has much better context for what was being described. This wouldn’t be so much of a concern if the writing had put more effort into showing Evelyn thinking that through, but it tends to jump from Evelyn not understanding at all to having it figured out completely. On the upside, the nature of kitsune in this setting is rather interesting, as are the way spiritual elements are handled and some later revelations on why some things in the world are the way they are.

Despite the novels’ flaws, the story is more than carried by its protagonist. Evelyn is a fun and fully engaging character as she struggles to survive, come to terms with her new life, grow, and do what she feels needs to be done; she doesn’t specifically strive to be a hero (unlike Amelie), but her actions wind up being heroic nonetheless, and some of her most important triumphs are sheer exercises of will and determination rather than battles. She can be a berserker in a fight but also playful and sarcastic, too, especially once Amelie comes into the picture. The addition of Amelie provides the series by far its strongest character interactions, as both girls quickly come to see the other as sisters even though they come from different backgrounds and circumstances and look at their current situation differently. Another girl also becomes a close friend of Evelyn’s in the second novel when Evelyn and Amelie are separated for a while, but the bond is nowhere near as strong. The story is definitely at its best when the twins (actually part of a set of triplets, we later learn) are together.

That being said, the series’ strongest merit in audiobook form is the outstanding performance by its reader, to the degree that audiobook form is the recommended way to experience this story. Ms. James vividly brings Evelyn and Amelie to life and capably uses an array of different accents (Amelie was French on Earth, elves are British, other characters have Scottish, Australian, or even Russian accents) to help distinctly differentiate characters, and she convincingly wrings out every bit of emotion in the story without ever crossing the line into camp or exaggeration. She even manages well with male voices, too. This is easily one of the best audiobook performances I’ve heard to date, and this story might only be half as entertaining without it.

While the first novel ends on a cliffhanger, the second ends with the very dramatic conclusion of both a major goal for the setting and the conclusion of a story arc, but also indicators that even bigger forces have been set in motion by those actions. That leaves plenty of hooks for going into the third novel, and I’ll definitely be back once it makes it into audiobook form.

Summary – Strengths: Reader, protagonist, descriptions of action scenes and other dramatic confrontations.

Summary – Weaknesses: Erratic and slow on world-building, leans heavily on RPG-like elements, doesn’t describe well how the protagonist figures some things out.

The Last Dragonsoul: Kara, Book 1

Author: V.A. Lewis

Reader: Tess Irondale

Volumes: 1

Novel Rating: B

Reader Rating: B+

This self-published novel (apparently only available in audiobook or eBook form) appears to be the first in a new series for prolific author V.A. Lewis, who’s done a number of other series in the isekai LitRPG vein. While it’s advertised as “Book 1” and was clearly not written to be a standalone, a follow-up has not even been advertised (much less released yet in any form) as of December ’25.

The novel on its own does sufficiently establish its premise, setting, and titular character, however. Kara was a young woman from Earth preparing for her first day in a corporate job when she suddenly found herself in a monster-infested set of ancient ruins high atop a mountain range. She shortly encounters the entity who summoned her there: an ancient dragon, possibly the last of his kind, who wished to pass on his power to someone before he expires and doesn’t trust the humans of this world (who are partly responsible for him being on Death’s door). Kara needs that power to survive in this world, so she reluctantly agrees to take on his dragon soul, which will give her increasing abilities as she evolves it. She then sets off through the vast mountain range on a quest for civilization, dealing with assorted threats along the way that include monsters, golems, dangerous flora, magical storms, and even a robotic entity who seems to know about her and is curiously insistent on having her meet the mysterious Soul Master – whether she wants to or not. She also picks up a traveling companion in the form of a young, sentient bear. (The bear doesn’t talk, but is clearly intelligent and even eventually becomes able to use magic as well.) There are also unsettling signs that some force has been going around wiping out any bastions of civilization in the mountains.

Eventually Kara and the bear Angel find their way to one of the last remaining “sanctuary cities” in the mountains: a dark elf metropolis that’s mostly underground. There they make new friends – a dwarf smith/innkeeper, a dark elf prostitute, an elf archer, a female troll food stand operator, and a minotaur tailor (the latter two of which turn out to be former lovers!) – and tenuous allies and enemies in a city that’s full of refugees but has only one other human besides Kara present, and he’s a villain. Trouble eventually finds Kara even there, though, as the force responsible for wiping out the other towns and settlements she found comes calling. Fortunately she’s quickly learned to always be ready for a fight, and her unique status as a dragon soul possessor makes her one of the most powerful beings around.

If you favor settings where the world’s ground rules are firmly established early on rather than gradually metered out, this one may be more to your liking than The Fallen Lands. The most interesting aspect here is a major twist on the standard “fantasy world with a governing System” gimmick: the System does exist, but only for humans (other than Kara), and specifically as a mechanism to allow humans to use magic. There’s even backstory up front about how that came to be, so that’s not treated as a core mystery in this case. That sets up an intriguing potential conflict between different fantasy world mechanics, since the evolution approach that monsters and dragons undergo is utterly different and demi-humans like elves, dark elves, orcs, and trolls advance by improving their cores through a leveling-like method that isn’t part of the human’s System. And then there’s the Soul Master and his robotic minions, too, which may represent a fourth set of rules. The minimal presence of humans in the first novel unfortunately limits the opportunities for these system to clash, but this offers vast possibilities for future novels.

While Kara isn’t as distinctive a protagonist as Evelyn from The Fallen Lands, she does well enough as a confident but also compassionate young woman, one who won’t hesitate to take action and can act quite boldly when needed. While Angel is her longest-term companion and can generally get his point across well enough without talking, that does limit his personality development. The writing somewhat makes up for this by more fully developing the talkative, congenial elf archer and especially the dark elf prostitute, whose progression into learning self-worth and self-confidence from associating with Kara is one of the novel’s highlights. Other recurring characters impress less but still contribute to an overall well-rounded cast.

The novel also excels at staging and executing a diverse variety of action scenes – and, importantly, Kara’s not the only one who gets to show off in them (even if she does get the lion’s share of attention). The writing also does a reasonable job of providing her escalating challenges and forcing her to get creative rather than just power through everything. On the downside, the mechanics of the setting do still lean on RPG influences, even if it’s not done as heavily as many other LitRPG titles, and parts of this very lengthy (over 22 hours of play time) novel drag a bit, primarily because the writing keeps too many things going on at the same time.

No complaint about the reading job, though! Ms. Irondale capably handles all of the different voices and personalities, including the slow and ponderous speaking style of the minotaur tailor (actually this seems to be the speaking style of minotaurs in general, not this character) and generally paces the reading well. Her reading isn’t as emotive as the job done in The Fallen Lands, but that may partially be the fault of less emotive base writing. It’s still an above-average job, though!

Plenty of loose ends are afloat at the end of the novel, and humans are starting to come into the picture in bigger numbers, so there’s lots of room for a continuation here, and I will likely be back for it if it comes.

Summary – Strengths: Up-front world-building, varied action scenes, generally strong supporting cast.

Summary – Weaknesses: Pacing can sometimes drag, not being able to speak distinctly limits one key supporting character.

Station 64: The Doll Dungeon

Author: Matthew Peed

Reader: Chloe Cannon

Volumes: 4

Novel Rating: B-

Reader Rating: B-

This four novel series from Tantor Media was published over 2021 and 2022 and appears to be complete. This review is based on the first three novels only, as I am currently ambivalent on finishing it. The novels have an average audio time of around 7 hours each, which puts them in line with the typical Japanese LN.

While this series probably technically falls under the LitRPG umbrella, it has some eccentricities that somewhat set it apart from the crowd. It’s a reincarnation story (sort of) but not an isekai, uses a System with game-like levels, abilities, and stats but in a setting that’s modern-day (and later sci-fi) with fantasy elements overlaid, and essentially flips the basic concept of Solo Leveling – i.e., dungeons appear all over the world that must be dealt with by adventurers who have gained classes and abilities. That happens here as part of an apocalyptic event called the Aether Shift, but the effect here is more drastic: major cities have become isolated city-states ruled by the strongest adventurers and separated by difficult-to-traverse rural wastelands teeming with very powerful monsters, while the dungeons pop up in those cities. Also like in Solo Leveling (and numerous other game mechanic-like settings), the economies of these cities have largely become dependent on materials and valuables collected from the dungeon, so being an adventurer is a dangerous but also rewarding job.

The “flip” comes in the nature of the protagonist. Azaria was the sheltered teenage daughter of one of Chicago’s power couples, but she happened to be on a train when the Aether Shift struck and so got caught up in the remaking of the world. Instead of becoming an adventurer, though, she winds up becoming the disembodied Core of a new dungeon springing up where her train was at the time it happened (i.e., Station 64). She later learns that she’s not the only one this happened to, and that most who suffer this fate lose their self-awareness in the process. Some unusual circumstances and her delayed (by a year) start as a dungeon have allowed her to fully retain her identity, though. She opts to take an atypical approach by designing her dungeon around the concept of automatons which typically look like dolls or stuffed animals, which eventually earns her dungeon the moniker of Doll Dungeon. She also soon learns to her dismay that killing adventurers within her dungeon gives her power which helps her to level up just like the adventurers do, and she feels a compelling push to do so.

Fortunately for her, she’s not alone. As Azaria is preparing to open her dungeon she encounters Lance, a down-on-her luck female adventurer who’s gotten herself into trouble with more powerful adventurers. Lance’s attempt to actually communicate with the essence of this new dungeon leads the two into a working relationship which helps strengthen and stabilize both. While Lance works on expanding her power and limiting her trouble with other adventurers, she eventually discovers that the biggest threat to her may be from her own family. Azaria also soon faces bigger problems: agents of the godlike beings who engineered the new status quo are around and they don’t take kindly to dungeons or worlds which prove too uncooperative. Their motives in all of this also prove to be more sinister than any human realizes. A time may come when humans and dungeons have to work together against a common threat.

The dual protagonists split works well for the series, since it allows readers to see both internal and external viewpoints concerning the dungeons and the new state of the world and thus quickly get a much more complete picture of what’s going on in this altered reality. Lance’s efforts to claw up (sometimes literally!) from rock-bottom are fairly typical for the genre (and may remind some readers of Jinwoo from Solo Leveling), while Azaria’s path may seem fresher but actually fully lines up with the much rarer dungeon-building stories out there. The parts about her building her dungeon and learning to interact with other sentient dungeons are still interesting, as is how she integrates her musical background into running her dungeon. However, the story doesn’t truly start to distinguish itself until the dimension-hopping elements come into play in the second and especially third novels and the greater purpose behind the Aether Shift becomes apparent.

Of all the entries in this article, this is the one which is carried least by its protagonists. There’s nothing exactly wrong with Azaria or Lance in those roles; they just aren’t especially dynamic characters and don’t stand out personality-wise, although tracking Azaria’s gradual shift towards ruthlessness does hold some interest. The same can be said for the supporting casts for both, although you’d have to actively try to craft a less interesting leader for Neo-Chicago than the supremely powerful Neo, whom I’m certain was patterned off his namesake from The Matrix. The writing places roughly equal emphasis on action and developmental elements, with a little splash of intrigue and even hints of romance here and there; this is not a sign that the story ever gets complicated, however. The series also does suffer some from its heavy dependence on stat screens, though this lessens some as the series progresses.

Of the entries in this article, this one benefits the least from its reader. Deeper-voiced Chloe Cannon is competent overall and handles the heavier voices (especially Lance and Azaria’s chief underling) well, but she doesn’t have the range that some of the other readers do for alternate vocal styles, pitches, and accents and uses a slower, more deliberate reading style. That works fine when trying to reinforce the creepy ambiance of some of the dungeons but less so with lighter-hearted or more emotional parts. Overall, her read of the novel isn’t a negative but it’s not a plus, either.

Overall, this is a competent but unexceptional story which carries itself more on some interesting ideas than its execution.

Summary – Strengths: Variation on basic concept, does eventually explore the structure and reasons behind the dungeons and the transformative Aether Shift, dual protagonists facilitates a quicker exploration of the setting.

Summary – Weaknesses: Unexciting protagonists, comparatively short length of each novel, some aspects of the setting seem impractical given the time frame.

Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid and Proud of It!

Author: Atekichi

Reader: Courtney Lin

Volumes: 3 (audiobook), 4 (English print), 8 (Japanese print)

Novel Rating: B+

Reader Rating: A

The one genuine Japanese light novel on this list, Heroine? Saint? has three novels available on audiobook at the time of this writing, with a total audio time of around 25 hours. The fourth novel is available in English but has not yet received an audiobook.

This series answers one salient question about isekai stories involving being reincarnated into an otome game: what if the modern Japanese person who is reincarnated as the heroine not only isn’t aware that she’s in an otome game but also decides to do something utterly different? That’s case here with Ritsuko Mizunami, who was a peerless genius growing up in Japan but found nothing satisfying until she became enamored with an idealized image of maids. When she dies in a plane crash and is reborn as the daughter of a former maid (And the bastard daughter of a noble, though she’s never aware of this), she vows to pursue the path of ultimate maid-dom upon her mother’s death. Because someone seems to be looking for her, she uses her enormous magic potential to alter her appearance and pursue maid-related application for her spells, then travels to the capital to become a maid under the name pseudonym Melody Wade. She quickly finds herself in the service of Luciana Rutleberg, the heiress of a poorly-regarded noble family (they’re nicknamed “the Ignobles”), who’s in desperate need of support since her one servant just retired. Melody quickly whips both the rundown capital estate of the Rutlebergs and Luciana into shape, hence turning the girl who’s supposed to descend into jealousy and become the game’s first mid-boss into a girl nicknamed the Fairy Princess during her debut. And that’s far from the last time that Melody unwittingly completely upends the story by applying the powers of a Saint to her maidly duties.

But Ritsuko/Melody isn’t the only reincarnate present in the story. Two others who died in the same plane crash and found themselves reborn as the country’s prince and the daughter of a duke, respectively, do know the source game Five Oaths of the Saint and are desperately trying to figure out why the girl who’s supposed to be the Saint hasn’t shown up on schedule and how they can handle game’s challenges without her. Though one of them does meet Melody, as of the end of novel 3 they haven’t recognized her for who she is and haven’t yet been able to track the story’s irregularities back to her. The one person who has figured out that Melody is actually the missing illegitimate daughter of the count isn’t aware that that daughter is supposed to be the Saint and is torn over whether to reveal her identity or not since Melody is clearly happy being a maid. Later on a fourth reincarnate shows up who seems to come from much later in modern Japan and is connected to the second and third ones, and there are vague suggestions that a fifth character (whose viewpoint we never see from) is also a reincarnate. Oh, and the Big Bad Evil of the story gets turned into a puppy along the way. Novel 3 also drops some hints that the entire setting may be artificially-induced and is being actively manipulated to force certain story beats to still happen.

In essence, this series is a complete, playful subversion of “reincarnated into an otome game” stories while also lightly parodying isekai OP protagonist stories in general. Melody is unaware of how monstrously out of scale her magic is (in essence, she has end-of-story-level magic at the story’s beginning) because she only using it for her weird, one-track extrapolation of what maids should be doing – like duplicating herself to do cleaning tasks, fashioning a dress for her mistress as impregnable as the strongest armor, or teleporting through a protective barrier into the land’s most dangerous forest to gather ingredients for dinner. Part of the charm of the story is seeing what stupefying feats she comes up with that she passes off as nothing special, and watching how she unintentionally interferes with the storyline is a delight, much to the dismay of the other two reincarnates who don’t know what’s going on. The fourth reincarnate, who also knows the source game, does eventually realize who Melody is but doesn’t understand why she’s acting the way she does and doesn’t have a clue about the other two. Add in a couple hunky guys who only look at this all from an outside perspective but have become potential love interests for Luciana and Melody and a mistress for Melody who’s literally alive because of her but struggles to get a handle on Melody’s mix of utter brilliance and infathomable cluelessness and you have a lively cast indeed. The story also moves along at a good clip.

If there’s one negative about the story’s content, it’s that the setting offers nothing special; in fact, that it’s utterly generic may be intentional. Throughout the third novel there are some growing hints that this may be a wholly manufactured/manipulated world rather than on which just resembles the game setting, so that view could change as the story progresses further.

The best thing about the novel in audiobook form, though, is the reading job by anime voice actress Courtney Lin. (She’s probably best-known as the English voice of Black Rock Shooter, Panty in New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT, and Kana in Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.) She is an utter delight as the acerbic, sarcastic narrator of the story, but also maintains the pace and flow of the material well. She also very convincingly handles the voices of all of the important female characters, easily distinguishing each one without relying much on accents or affectations, and doesn’t do badly with the male voices, either. I presume she’ll take on at least one of the major roles when an English dub is made for the upcoming anime version; any of the narrator, Melody, or Luciana would be an ideal fit.

In short, this one is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it even for those who aren’t normally fans of otome game-based content.

Summary-Strengths: Reader, narration, playful twists on standard genre conventions, does not use stat screens.

Summary-Weaknesses: Setting is very bland (though perhaps intentionally so).

That’s it for this installment! I expect to do this again in a few months.

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 10

Episode Rating: B

It’s finally time for the music festival! This being Isekai Quartet, naturally the performances weren’t going to go off without the final boss showing up and a fight breaking out. It’s so expected at this point that hardly anyone in Class 2 even seems fazed by it. In fact, they take it all in stride and fight off the animated morning glories literally without missing a beat.

That shows how in tune with the rules of this world most of Class 2 is by this point. They know they were tasked with giving a performance, and little considerations like monster attacks have no bearing on that. Extending that logic to restrict anyone who’s not on stage from fighting back (because they would be disrupting the performance) is the clever extension of those rules here. Yunyun winding up doing a solo as she represents Class 3 is less inspired; that trick was used in season 2’s athletic festival.

And as I expected, Cid/Shadow does show up to play the piano, though as an emergency fill-in for Class 2 rather than in support of Class 1. He’s sometimes shown playing Moonlight Sonata in his own series, but that’s too mournful a song for this setting, so it makes sense that he’d be playing something different here. He’s also known to do variations on his signature “I Am Atomic” spell, so here we get the An Die Freude version – aka, “Ode to Joy.”

Slightly disappointingly, this doesn’t capture the snap that this series is typically known for. It does provide a handful of deeper references, such as Sebas from Overlord dealing with troublemakers Betelgeuse from Re:Zero and Motoyasu from Shield Hero. Aside from them being somewhat alike in being irritatingly obsessed with love, the full gimmick hers is that both are voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka; this would hardly be the first time that the franchise has put two characters voiced by the same actor together in the same scene as a gimmick, so undoubtedly this was intentional. Ains needing prompts to get his cymbal playing down right could be a reference to a not-well-educated background. And I’m not sure what was going on with Yunyun on stage after her performance as the protagonists talk in the foreground.

In all, it wasn’t a bad episode, and it was neat seeing all of Class 2 playing instruments, but this isn’t one of the series’ highlight episodes, either.

The Apocalypse Files #2

When I did the first installment of this exercise a few weeks back, I was half-jokingly making a reference to the classic TV series The X-Files with the title. After Touring After the Apocalypse episode 11, though, I have to take the reference more seriously. One of the key underlying implications of The X-Files were that aliens were afoot behind the scenes, and as of episode 11, that’s now true for Touring as well. Or at least apparently it is; you never can be too sure what’s really going on with this series. And if it is genuine, it’s entirely possible that the aliens have nothing actually to do with any of the other weirdness in the series.

Compared to earlier episodes, 8-9 did not have a lot of weird stuff in background shots, although there was no shortage of weirdness. The whole business at the race track carried the strongest metaphysical vibes yet but not a lot of significant little details.

Episode 10

The journey into the large underground space revealed on the second instance of bodies being found. (You have to look closely in the following screen shot from the 9:35 mark, as some of the suggested bodies are deep in the shadows.)

Also in episode 10, there is, of course, the boulder-splitting scene at the 14:18 mark:

Was that actually done by the mythical figure Benkei, which Yoko imagined she saw? Speculation I’ve seen elsewhere is that this was a satellite weapon activating to protect Yoko and Airi, and that was my initial interpretation, too. If true, that means they’re being watched closely by someone.

But by far the most intriguing shot in episode 10 comes during the closer. This looks suitably ominous, perhaps a result of whatever damaged the moon?

Episode 11

The first evidence that the ultrasonic signal Airi is hearing might be from a non-human source comes at the 9:54 mark, right before the mid-episode break. That swirl in the sky certainly isn’t normal:

The more obvious swirl, followed by the black teleportation sphere, follows at the 12:27 mark:

When Airi gets zapped into space, she briefly sees a satellite, but it’s also wrecked:

The alien encounter scene which follows felt like a clear homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s famous final sequence, with perhaps some influence from the interstellar transport scene in Contact. The revelation which Airi gets from that is interesting: that the aliens last visited roughly 1,500 years ago. Since the aliens said they helped construct the Yoshimi Hundred Caves, which were believed to have been made during the 6th and 7th centuries, that means the current time of the series probably isn’t more than, at most, a few decades past the apocalypse. The original, long-debunked theory about the cave’s origins was that they were a city of little people called Koropokkuru, and they were associated with mythical beings by locals before that, so connecting them to aliens is a sly extension of local superstition.

But possibly the most interesting comment in all of this is this report from Airi:

That and the following comment about how she and Yoko “were one possibility for the future” both suggest that human civilization hasn’t completely ended, despite most other signs to the contrary.

Another fairly obvious movie reference is later pointed out by Yoko in her reference to Close Encounter of the Third Kind to describe the final encounter with the alien. (Curious that she knows that movie.) And of course the aliens zig-zag when they depart because that’s what aliens do:

On other fronts, what are those plumes of smoke off to the right in this shot from the 18:05 mark? Volcanic activity off the coast, maybe?

For the latest in oversize animal oddities, appearing at the 21:08 mark is what would be called a “dire boar” in Dungeons & Dragons:

The anime series seems to be adapting the source manga at a steady pace of three episode per volume, which means that one more should bring the adaptation to the end of manga volume 4. That seems like the ideal break point for the series, so likely episode 12 will be the last. What mysteries or encounters will the season end on?

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 9

Rating: B+

The appeal of Isekai Quartet is heavily predicated on clever callbacks and sly applications of lore from its components series, so few things in the franchise truly count as plot twists. The revelation that the prize for the upcoming music contest might be one of the mysterious buttons which brought most of the characters here, though, definitely qualifies.

That the person least willing to take the prize Roswaal presents at face value is Tanya is no surprise; she’s had painful personal experience with bait-and-switch tomfoolery of this magnitude. However, seeing how each group reacts to the possibility of being able to return home is very interesting indeed. Tanya’s torn between how crappy the world she came from was and her sense of duty, but as some of her underlings point out, they can’t get drunk in this world. Though some of Kazuma’s group still want to defeat the Demon King in their setting, he and Aqua are enjoying things enough here that they’re not interested. Ains, meanwhile, is noncommittal because he’s come to appreciate meeting and hanging out with everyone here. That the person most firmly committed to returning home is Subaru actually isn’t a surprise; as flaky as he may seem, he’s the lead protagonist driven by the strongest convictions, whether it’s to support Emilia be a companion for Beatrice.

That Subaru doesn’t know about the button raises an eyebrow, though. True, his group was the only one not shown having shenanigans with a button in the first episode of the first season, but there was always the assumption that they had used one, too. So is Subaru correct that Roswaal pushed the button to bring his group here? Or is something else going on there?

Either way, the other big part of the episode is the Seven Shadows finally making their move, with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and the little-used Zeta being the rooftop group. Of course they’re going to play the antagonists on the music contest since they see Class 2 as a bunch of cultists; after all, there is a “Ruler of Darkness,” actual devils and undead, and a girl who’s supposed to be a disguised devil. The big irony here, of course, is Tanya laughing off the suggestion that Rerugen might also believe Tanya to be a devil in disguise, when he’s said exactly as much in his source series. The other neat detail here is one you have to watch carefully for: the way Gamma (the brunette among the Seven Shadows) waves her hands uncertainly before they take off, implying that she’s unsteady. (She is.)

The Class 1 strategy meeting also has its interesting points. That the Seven Shadows, who normally thoroughly investigate and analyze everything, would miss the competencies of Kazuma and Subaru is no surprise, as neither looks all that impressive and Subaru in particular is, at the least, among the weakest individuals in any of the classes on his own. But Julius and Felt know that Subaru is a figure to be reckoned with despite his lack of power because of his ability to make things happen, and Chris knows well that Kazuma is a far trickier individual than he appears. (Doubtless she’s thinking of stolen panties when bringing this up, but that’s hardly the only unexpected stunt Kazuma has ever pulled off.) Meanwhile, Cid is sitting reading another Don Quixote book, like he was back in episode 2; I’m sure there’s a joke here that I am missing. Meanwhile the mutant plant/pasta zombie combo-to-be is again foreshadowing the season’s end boss.

Overall, this episode was a combination of philosophical musing and set-up for the eventual finale. To round out, a couple of final random thoughts:

  • There is one more class which will be involved in this competition. My sneaking suspicion is the Yunyun and Motoyasu might somehow end up winning the button.
  • All of the cast members forming a band in the OP now looks much less random than it did before.

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 8

Rating: B-

With all of the isekai groups trapped in a modern school setting, the series was bound to get around to one of the great and most crippling distractions of the modern world sooner or later: addictive online and/or mobile games.

While this episode features an MMORPG, this is an issue doubtless familiar to the broader public; I haven’t played MMOs in many years, but I have definitely spent way more time than intended on mobile games or civilization-builder games, including occasionally pulling all-nighters on the latter. The difference between me and the protagonists featured in this episode is that I (almost) never did it on a school or work night. That isn’t something that the isekai casts here have shown capable of being disciplined about, however.

How each character responds to getting caught up in Jormguld speaks to their normal character. As mentally the youngest of the protagonists, Kazuma naturally gets caught up in it the worst, and Aqua’s utter lack of discipline on anything makes her a natural to be struck hard by it, too. Tanya’s underlings might seem too disciplined to fall prey, but they are shown partying it up when they have the chance, so them getting drawn in is no surprise, either. Naofumi is a little more interesting case, as he plays apparently avidly, but he’s always been the most mature and disciplined of the Cardinal Heroes in his setting, so game addiction not affecting him much also seems natural. And Ains has the dual advantage of both coming from a game setting and not needing to sleep, so him not showing ill effects is only natural. He certainly shows his geekdom is other ways, though, as Puck can attest. The one mild surprise here is that Rerugen gets sucked into it, too; perhaps the show runners wanted to remind viewers that not only youths are susceptible to this? And “Honey Please” for an MMO name? Really, Rerugen?

The series also shows its cleverness once again on its deep references, by using the common game gimmick of skins to bring up miko outfits. For those not deeply familiar with Shield Hero, Raphtalia got tied into weighty circumstances on two different occasions by wearing a miko outfit: during season 2, it signified her as a bearer of a sacred weapon in the alternate world the main cast was in at the time, and at the end of season 3 and for most of season 4, she unwittingly staked claim to an imperial throne by donning it again in their base world. While Naofumi (and others in the setting) thought she looked great in it, to say that it contributed to major trouble both times would be an understatement, hence Naofumi’s very understandable desire to avoid it here. The passing mention about putting a flag in Filo’s meal – and Naofumi teasing Raphtalia about it – is also a deep reference to a meal Naofumi ordered for Raphtalia when he first became her owner in episode 2 of the first season, back when she still looked like she was Filo’s age.

And speaking of deep references, is that Julius we see sleeping in the back of the health room. which may again be a reference to the end of Re:Zero season 3? Also, the episode opens with a post on the wall asking about the Cult of Diablos, doubtless posted there by the Seven Shadows from The Eminence in Shadow.

Conspicuously, Subaru is entirely absent from this episode’s antics. I have to think it’s because his position on the games would have overlapped too much with Kazuma’s. But the seeds that were planted a couple of episodes back look like they are soon going to sprout. Burying those pasta zombies by the mutated morning glory was just asking for trouble, wasn’t it?

Overall, this was far from being one of the series’ funnier episodes, hence the lower rating. But it still finds at least some opportunities to be clever, and that’s good enough.

Isekai Quarter 3 episode 7

Rating: B+

The field trip announced at the end of the episode turns out to be a skiing/snowboarding excursion. This is actually a much less random turn of events than it might appear to be, since three of the core component series have significant events which take place in the snow. All of them are, to some degree, referenced here, and all may require at least some explanation/refresher even for those who have seen all three series involved.

The most prominent effect comes from KONOSUBA, specifically episode 7 of its first season. The setting here looks a lot like the setting from that episode, but more importantly, Kazuma’s team’s encounter with the snow sprites was a key element of that episode. In the original, the efforts of Kazuma’s team to capture/kill the sprites (Aqua did capture a few with the intent of using them to chill drinks, hence her comment to that effect here) invoked the wrath of a spirit called the Winter Shogun, who did, indeed, behead Kazuma. (He got better, of course.) Even Darkness couldn’t stand against him, and Aqua immediately resorted to dogeza to appease him, hence their behavior here. (This is actually a more complicated joke, too, since Winter Shogun is a term used in Japan to refer to a personification of winter, in particular cold air masses moving in from Siberia, hence the reason things clouded up when he appeared.) That the Winter Shogun recognized Cocytus (who has a similar physical stature and coloring) as a replacement Winter Shogun is rather amusing but also fitting. Megumin and Kazuma’s caps here are also similar in design to what they wore in that episode.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil connection comes from Tanya’s hellish training for the 302nd Aerial Battalion during episode 5 of that series, which took place in a snowy mountain setting. Tanya had intended that training to weed out and drive off the troops, but it ironically proved to unite them into a tight-knit group, hence the reason why they react the way they do when it’s first announced here. Digging foxholes was part of that training, hence the emphasis on shovels here.

The Re:Zero reference, meanwhile, is both the most obscure and the easiest to miss, since it’s reflected mainly by a passing comment Subaru makes to Beatrice about “the last snow festival.” This is a clear reference to the impromptu snow festival organized by Subaru in the OVA special Memory Snow, where Subaru enticed the reluctant Beatrice to come out and participate in a snow sculpture contest. (The creation primarily by Aura and Mare here could be seen as an oblique reference to that, too, since Subaru was the subject of a couple of such sculptures.) Ram’s reaction to the cold is also a reference to how poorly she initially handled the cold snap in Memory Snow.

Among other random references, Aqua’s skill with the snowboard could be tangentially attributable to her being a water goddess, and Darkness enjoying being rolled around in the giant snowball should go without saying at this point. The way 302nd member Grantz is treated could be a reference to how put-upon he is in that series, too. (Although that tends to come up more in the novels than in the anime.) Most of the snowsuits worn by various characters also at least generally align with the character’s normal color schemes, too. And Otto’s ability to communicate with almost anything allowing him to converse with the Winter Shogun was a neat touch, too.

In general, this is a fun and well-designed episode, with the only minor negative being that none of class 1 is included, nor is there any reference to what was going on in last episode’s epilogue. This franchise typically doesn’t drag things out, so we should at least partly be back to that next episode.

Isekai Quartet 3, episode 6

Rating: B

One thing that this franchise is not known for is being plot-intensive; while it does have writing continuity from episode to episode, it rarely has much of anything for an ongoing plot outside of the movie – and even then the plot is pretty thin. That’s why it’s a bit surprising to see one actually develop in the late stages of this episode. The rarely-used epilogue is setting up circumstances that will ensure plenty of chaos coming very soon. And of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

In retrospect, I probably should have seen this coming. The Seven Shadows formed around Shadow in large part because he convinced them with his BS that an evil organization called the Cult of Diablos was afoot in their world and either directly or indirectly responsible for both their own personal suffering and circumstances and all manner of manipulation and evil in general. The running joke/irony in their series is that the cult is actually real and doing everything Cid/Shadow claimed it was, and the girls are all much more aware of that than Shadow is, so they don’t treat his BS as gospel just out of blind devotion. They have also all suffered personal harm and loss of their previous lives from the cult’s machinations, so they’re plenty devoted to the cause even without taking loyalty to Shadow into account. Hence it’s completely in character for them (especially Alpha) to take any references to dark powers or devils very seriously. And in this setting you’ve got Ains, the “ruler of darkness,” and Tanya, who is regularly referred to as a devil behind her back by both the teacher Rerugen and her enemies in her setting. (“The Devil of the Rhine” is her semi-official nickname.) And Alpha was getting along so cordially with Tanya earlier in the episode, too. . .

That whole epilogue scene is even more loaded than that, though. What Shadow says to the Seven Shadows is his standard vaguely-worded theatrical BS, which the girls interpret however they like (and seeds have literally been planted of late, so there’s plenty for them to work with here). One significant detail here is that purple-haired Eta – the group’s resident scientific genius, who almost never speaks in her source series – actually gets a whole line of dialog. Another is that Delta carries off Gamma when the Seven Shadows depart from the tree; this is an oblique reference to how utterly clumsy Gamma is. (She’s the business brains and face of the group, and one of the most powerful members magically, but so physically inept that she often trips going down stairs.) Delta, meanwhile, is her polar opposite: the most physically capable of the bunch but also every bit the simpleton she’s shown to be here.

While that’s easily the episode’s most important scene, it’s hardly the only thing going on this episode. Tanya’s always been a “leave no stone unturned” type, so her spearheading the effort to learn about the mysterious Shadow is completely in character. Alpha wasn’t lying or even stretching the truth when she told Tanya that Cid Kagenou isn’t their comrade, either; the Seven Shadows revere Shadow and so regard him as being above their level, an object of devotion rather than a compatriot. In this episode’s edition of “characters from different series being in sync,” Alpha and Raphtalia show what they have in common: wanting to be more useful to the lead male character in the series (whom they love) and lamenting that they can’t stand as equals with them. It’s also a reminder that, of the six series now featured here, Tanya is the only female lead in the bunch and the only one with mostly male subordinates. (Except for the walking stomach that is Serebryakov, of course; that joke continues here, too.) And yes, CZ2128 Delta is enamored with cute things in her source series, too, so her adoring Filo is completely in character.

Compared to all of that, the business about the morning glories needing to be transplanted is just an excuse for a bunch of characters from different series to interacti, as is the picnic meeting. (And of course the plants got out of hand given the personnel involved. Totally saw that one coming!) My favorite moment from these scenes was Weiss calling out Ram as hypocritical for complaining about Aqua acting arrogantly, and Ram not exactly denying it.

Overall, this episode is far being one of franchise’s funniest or craziest episodes, but it still has plenty enough going on to be sufficiently entertaining.

The Apocalypse Files #1

As I mentioned in my Fall 2025 Mid-Season Report, I deeply regret not doing episode reviews for Touring After the Apocalypse. Rather than do those fully, I’ve decided to take an alternate approach and explore all the little visual details which provide clues in each episode about how the apocalypse happened. This installment focuses on episode 7: “Tsukuba.”

The first shot comes near the episode’s beginning, which appears to show National Route 16 as it crosses the Ohori River near Kashiwa. That’s by far the most abandoned cars we’ve seen yet, which raises the question of what happened to suddenly that the cars would all be stopped like that but not catastrophically damaged.:

The next curious shot, from around the 4 minute mark, shows a jeliner crashed (and still partly submerged) in the river, though it looks to be largely intact. That’s particularly odd:

Just a few seconds later, at the 4:!8 mark, we have some trashed robots. The remains of a humanoid one can be seen partly under the car at the left, while on the right are what look like the remains of doglike robots. (More of those can be seen in another shot a few seconds later as Yoko and Airi pass through the area.)

At 7:28 we have a big hole in the ground that’s filled in with water mostly covering ruined buildings. A severed pipe in one shot suggests some kind of catastrophic calamity, but it happened enough ahead of the overall calamity that it was able to be fenced off. So what is it vaguely familiar to Yoko?

The next oddity comes at the 8:13 mark. That sure looks like a defunct tank on the left side of the screenshot partly under the greenery.

At the 8:39 mark is this Robot Zone sign flanked by remnants of a humanoid robot. The text informs the reader that they’re entering an experimental area where robots are active and cautions the reader not to approach the robots. The damage around here suggests that either someone didn’t listen or the robots went amuck for other reasons:

Just a few seconds later, at the 8:57 mark, we see what appears to be the arm and legs of a Gundam-sized bipedal robot sticking out of a pond. (A nighttime view of this comes at 18:40.) Apparently they had gotten pretty far along in robot development:

The nature of the facility, and why it was set up to be accessible only by a phone booth elevator, feels more like a nod to spy movies, but the most important detail in this sequence of scenes is Yoko’s health scan. There’s been speculation that Yoko isn’t human, but in this shot of the monitor at the 13:50 mark, those numbers sure look pretty standard for a healthy teenager. (The top number is probably heart rate, then below it oxygen saturation and blood pressure, then below that probably CO2 output and respiration rate.) Not sure about the part below the graph with the “L” (presumably Left) and “R” (presumably right) bars.

And what’s up with all these weirdly-colored guinea pigs at the 14:09 mark? I feel like we’ve seen them before:

At the 15:52 mark we have an oddly specific formation of light in the sky, with faint suggestions that they may be connected. Something like this was visible in an earlier episode, too:

Starting at the 20:20 mark we have the moving light in the sky. Yoko assumes it’s a satellite, and she could be right. That it appears just as Yoko is wondering about where “Big Sis” is seems much too suspicious on timing to be a coincidence:

Right after that, Airi explains that a space colony and lunar base were built before the catastrophe happened and work had at least begun on an orbital elevator:

Did those have something to do with the catastrophe? There was a scar visible on the moon a couple of episodes back, so the possibility that the scar was where the lunar base was, and some kind of apocalyptic event happened there, can’t be ruled out.

What does this all add up to? That’s still unclear, and teasing us with details that suggest something but don’t fully add up is par the course. That the research facility remains intact and functional (but still apparently abandoned) when nothing else does is a head-scratcher, though, and that it reminds both Yoko and Airi of their shelter probably isn’t a trivial detail.

Episode 7 was maybe the most loaded episode since the first one with little visual clues, so I felt it warranted special attention. Going forward, I’ll do a full report like this for each episode if there’s a lot to look at and every 2-3 episode when the pickings are thinner.

Fall 2025 Mid-Season Report

With most of the season’s series now having aired at least their sixth episode, it’s time to take a look at what series have and haven’t been working so far this season.

For the past eight seasons, I’ve followed enough titles to warrant splitting this activity into two or more parts. This season, though, is arguably the weakest to come along in some time, so I decided this was the ideal time to scale back a bit. Some series I would normally have pushed to keep up with in most other seasons (Spy x Family, My Best Friend’s Little Sister Has It In For Me, Chitose in the Ramune Bottle, among others) I simply didn’t bother to with this one. As a result, I’m only current on 17 series this season – my lowest count in at least a couple of years – and so will be doing this activity in a single installment this time. There are a handful of others that I may eventually get caught up on; I will address them in the seasonal wrap-up piece if that happens.

Of the series I am caught up on, all but one (Isekai Quartet 3, which I am episode-reviewing separately) are covered here. Despite few stand-outs, this season has offered a number of mild to significant surprises on both qualitative storytelling and plot twist fronts, as you’ll see below.

A Wild Last Boss Has Appeared!

Rating So Far: B-

This is one of the mild surprises so far this season. It looked at first like it was just going to be a pretty standard story about a gamer inhabiting his OP character at a point a couple of hundred years down the timeline of his game, a la In the Land of Leadale. However, despite taking a fairly standard “round up the original minions” approach, it’s gone in some more interesting directions than just pure power-gaming. In particular, the series has taken a sharp look at how deeply the actions of Lufas and the Seven Heroes have affected this setting long-term, including the disposition of her former minions. It’s also brought up the notion that a character still existing from the original game persists but doesn’t seem to be a player anymore, and the most recent episode has thrown out the intriguing notion that Lufas may have also existed independently of her player. So if the player’s soul inhabits the current Lufas, where is the original’s soul? Was the player controlling her like a puppet when playing the game? In other words, this series is actually trying to explore its base concept more, which is why its grade and priority status is on the rise.

Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon

Rating so Far: C

For all of the faults and repugnance of Redo of Healer, it at least didn’t shy from the irony that its protagonist, by getting so wrapped up in his revenge scheme, wasn’t really any better than the people he was inflicting vengeance upon. However, this series wants to sidestep that irony by having Light still be a fundamentally good guy while also having him thirst for vengeance, and that creates a tonal dissonance in his character which leaves him unsatisfying in either aspect. The series also makes its villains cartoonishly evil so there’s no moral ambiguity about Light punishing them, and oh yes, let’s not forget how it skips over Light becoming stronger and assembling his power so he can advance straight from him being a nobody to an ultimate bad-ass (and thus we have little to no idea on who his key servants are). The series actually doesn’t look bad, and Light’s interactions with the junior adventurers in recent episodes have been more appreciable, so I can’t entirely say that this one is a waste of time. However, it’s not a series I can recommend at this point.

Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I’m a Reincarnator

Rating So Far: B

This one has been a more significant surprise. Its title primes the series to be just another OP protagonist romp, but that isn’t at all the way it has played out. Instead, we are getting a remarkably political story where titular protagonist Ellen’s father, Rovel, is a virtual co-protagonist trying to navigate a relationship with the Royal Family of his former home kingdom in such a way that his daughter is not unduly exposed to them. And, as the most recent episode shows, there’s good reason for that, since the Royal Family bears a curse related to their ancestor’s past misdeeds towards spirits – a curse that they’re not even aware that they suffer from since the misdeeds have been lost to history. In other words, the current king may be manipulative and scheming but he’s not actually evil. There are some other interesting world-building aspects in play here, too, such as how the purity or falsehood of marriage vows carries real weight in this setting or how a festival persists without anyone remembering the reason it exists. And while the series regularly has its goofy, cute moments, it’s also capable of a startling level of intensity, as episode 6 in particular showcases. For a series not advertised as being plot-dense, it is becoming remarkably meaty.

Dusk Beyond the End of the World

Rating So Far: C+

I had high hopes for this one after episode 0, but it has struggled to deliver so far, with its artistic quality also taking a nosedive in recent episodes. (This screenshot is a prime example.) It does harbor some interesting ideas, such has how this whole “LC” business seems artificially-designed to subsume the inherent limitations of marriage, how OWEL seems curiously devoted to information control, and how and why Akira ended up in the future like this, and at least the series finally gets around to partially explaining the big events which led to the current state of affairs. Amoru is also a neat character design and Yokurata seems like a worthy addition to the core group. However, it also suffers from some over-the-top villains and beating certain points to death, and a permissive attitude towards incest may not set well with some viewers. Still holding out hope that this one will amount to something more, but it no longer has the shining promise that it did early on.

Let This Grieving Soul Retire s2

Rating So Far: B

I’m tempted just to say “more of the same” here and leave it at that, because that’s a good way to sum up this season so far. It’s definitely not a bad thing, either. The series maintains its sense of quirky fun as Krai and his party unwittingly put Arnold and his party through hell as they attempt to follow him on a trip to some hot springs. There’s also Cave People, bandits with a stupid organizational name, and a dragon or two involved and Krai once again somehow muddles through it all with everyone misinterpreting his actions. As a bonus, the remaining members of Grieving Souls who haven’t appeared yet in the current timeline – giant Ansem, witch Lucia, and swordsman Luke – finally make their entrance, too. This series may never be a priority view for me, but it never fails to entertain.

May I Ask For One Final Thing?

Rating: A-

This one IS a priority view, though; in fact, it’s far and away my favorite of the season, to the point that I’ve probably watched each episode at least three times now. Scarlet makes for an outstanding heroine, one who’s adorable in a completely different way than others, and is easily a contender for Character of the Year honors; there’s something quite satisfying, even cathartic, about the way she administers savage beatdowns while otherwise maintaining a perfectly elegant demeanor. She also has great supporting help in the wonderfully perverse Prince Julius, who finds her endlessly entertaining but, unlike his younger brother, is no fool. There’s even an ongoing plot involving Terrenezza and a surprise revelation about this being a stealth isekai series, too! (Only in this case the protagonist isn’t the one from another world.) Complementing this are good character and background designs, occasionally-sharp animation, and arguably the season’s best OP and one of its best EDs. There’s a lot to like here even if you aren’t normally into inherently violent fare, so it gets my highest recommendation at the midway point.

Let’s also not forget that the series has a truly outstanding simuldub. In particular, Morgan Lauré is giving one of the year’s best dub performances as Scarlet and Reagan Murdock is a delight as Julius.

Hero Without A Class: Who Even Needs Skills?

Rating: D

Nearly every season there’s at least one series where I ask myself each week why I’m bothering to continue watching it, and this season it’s this one. The problem actually isn’t the concept, as exploring how a person operating adjacent to an RPG-style System rather than as part of it can still duplicate many of the same effects is a fascinating notion ripe with all sorts of possibilities for exploration. However, this series is barely interested in doing any of that. It’s instead playing out as a completely bog-standard OP Protagonist story, one which is further saddled with one of the dullest protagonists (personality-wise) to come along in quite some time. It then further shoots itself in the foot by ditching the sexy female companions for a gaggle of kids that are essentially becoming groupies as they marvel at all of the ridiculous things Arel can do. There was some potential here, but the series is wasting it.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s

Rating So Far: C+

On the downside, the premise, plot, and general construction of the series feels like a mishmash of elements ripped off from Arifureta and Failure Frame, neither of which is a dazzling example of RPG-inspired fantasy storytelling themselves. And on those fronts it’s doing absolutely nothing special. What it does have in its favor is distinctly better-than-average visuals and animation, with its triumph being the design of the sexy female elf companion/potential love interest for our protagonist. It also has an unusually strong musical score. That makes the series watchable, but I still wouldn’t expect much from it.

Pass the Monster Meat, Milady!

Rating So Far: B

Delicious in Dungeon incontrovertibly proved that a fantasy foodie series about killing monsters and them cooking them is a workable concept. While this series takes a rather different angle on it, the concept still works nearly as well. Melphiera and Aristide make for a delightful central couple as eccentric nobles who don’t fit well with (and are derided by) others but are a perfect match for each other. I’m particularly impressed by how firm the foundations of their relationship are (both bring skills which strongly complement the other) and how practical their engagement will be – and for that matter, that the series doesn’t piddle around for a long time and gets them engaged by the end of episode 4. Both are lookers in their own way, but this relationship won’t be just about looks. I am curious to see what direction the series is going to go now that the central relationship has been established, but there have been hints that Melphiera’s research could eventually prove life-saving for Aristide, too. This is a neat series that’s always fun to watch.

Ranma ½ s2

Rating So Far: B

This one could also mostly be described as “more of the same.” The exact specifics may change from episode to episode but it’s still the same spirited shenanigans, whether it’s Shampoo’s grandmother showing up to give Ranma fits (and become a staple character), Mousse stepping into the picture, or the (dreaded by some) debut of Happosai, the series’ resident horny old man, who’s still thoroughly obnoxious despite being tone down some from the earlier adaptation. Let’s also not forget about stupidity like the Martial Arts Delivery Competition, which only this series could make seem sensible. Mileage will vary on Happosai, but otherwise this season offers plenty enough fun to warrant keeping up with it.

Shabake

Rating So Far: B+

This supernaturally-tinged period piece is never a priority view for me, yet I still keep coming back to it every week because of how impressively it delivers on its little details. It’s one of the better-looking and better-animated series of the season despite its more understated color scheme, and it certainly has some of the season’s best character design work, but the real joy of watching it is in marveling at all of the little things, whether it’s building or clothing design, how medicine is packaged, or even how the artistry on a dividing screen changes to reflect the current demeanor of the spirit within. It also spins a compelling mystery involving a craftsman’s murder and smoothly integrates in its supernatural aspects without being flashy about it. Give this one a chance and it may surprise you.

Tales of Wedding Rings 2

Rating So Far: C+

With Sato’s harem now fully assembled (including tag-along Morion, Hime’s younger sister), this season’s episodes have focused mostly on team and relationship-building and delving more into the history of the Abyss King and his opposite number, the Ring King. This has included dredging up some details which make the whole thing sound a bit more fishy than the standard “oppose the Demon Lord scenario.” Some of the ladies – especially Hime and Granary – also get substantial focus on personal development. The series hasn’t forgotten that fan service is one of its key components, with the OP and most of the episodes finding some excuse for nudity, though it still shies from outright sex despite strong implications that everyone would be stronger for it. Hardly a spectacular series, but it continues to deliver on what it promises.

The Banished Court Magician Aims to be the Strongest

Rating So Far: C+

I want to dismiss this one as just another bottomfeeder in the “banished from the hero’s party” vein, and indeed, it does feature a banished character who’s far more competent than the prince who banished him gives him credit for. Most of what’s aired so far even plays out as utterly standard RPG-influenced adventuring, too. However, the series does have occasional strong points that elevate it a little. Once is the strategy which goes into defeating a floor boss in episode 4; the other is Alec’s confrontation with Regulus, the prince who arrogantly dismissed him for being a commoner, in episode 5. Regulus’ struggle to overcome his prejudice and acknowledge that he may have made a mistake with Alec is some unusually fine writing for a series like this. If the second half of the series can produce more results like that then it may rise above the level of being disposable, forgettable fare.

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess

Rating So Far: B-

I still like the premise here about a woman being reincarnated into (or perhaps trapped in?) a world of her own devising, where she suffers all the consequences of what her adolescent flights of fancy wrought. The most recent episode has also offered some fresh possibilities as the story starts to stray into territory that protagonist Konoha doesn’t remember so well and into having Konoha suffer more direct consequences of writing Iana as a widely-known villainess. On the downside, the series is overdoing her obsession with potential death flags. Tearmoon Empire showed an example of how a series can do that without going too overkill (and even then it was still a little obnoxious at times), so I’d like to see that aspect toned down a bit. And despite certain sharp character designs, the overall artistic and technical effort isn’t strong. Still, the series does have one of the season’s Best OPs in the rap-infused “Black Flame” and has consistently proven to be a mostly-fun diversion.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me

Rating So Far: B

Boy, this is not a series you want to watch when you’re in a funk, as this is one of the most morose narratives to come along in quite some time. Hinako is sympathetic as a girl suffering from extreme survivor’s guilt; she wants to die to rejoin the family she tragically lost (how that happened is finally revealed, as are hints about the physical as well as emotional scars that linger), but can’t bring herself to commit suicide because she feels a voice has told her to live on. (But whose?) Her drifting has caught her in a tug-of-war of wills between two girls: one who’s a mermaid who says she wants to eventually eat her (but is going to protect her from other supernatural creatures until Hinako is ripe enough) and another who purely wants to befriend her and is trying to avoid wanting to eat her – and, in one of the least surprising revelations of the season, she’s not human, either. In addition to what I’m told is a fairly accurate depiction of depression, the series is laced with all kinds of yuri vibes, coming from a similar angle to the eroticism inherent in many vampire stories. How literal vs. figurative mermaid Shiori’s intentions are is debatable, but she and friend Miko look like they’re going to make excellent foils in the kinda-sorta love triangle with Hinako. Not a series for everyone, but worth a look.

Touring After the Apocalypse

Rating So Far: A-

This was always going to be an anticipated show, but the big surprise is how prominent its mystery aspect is. In fact, my biggest regret of the season is that I didn’t go ahead and review this one weekly to thoroughly explore that, as every episode so far has brought up plenty to comment about and speculate on. It also satisfying manages to be cute, melancholy, and even occasionally harrowing all in turn (and sometimes at the same time). I’m not going to say more about it right now because I am almost certainly going to do a full series review at the end, but if you do decide to check it out, be forewarned that it’s not casual viewing (there are sometimes significant details in the background, for instance) and the ED shouldn’t be skipped, since it updates every episode.

That’s it for now. Aside from the regular episode reviews, watch for a second installment of isekai/audiobook recommendations shortly before Thanksgiving.

Isekai Quartet 3 episode 5

Rating: A-

This episode features the debut of a supporting character who, in retrospect, has been conspicuously absent from this eccentric mix: Motoyasu Kitamura, the Spear Hero from The Rising of the Shield Hero setting. And more so than most other characters in this setting, his behavior here requires some explanation.

Based on both behavioral and visual cues (including the feathers he’s wearing and the design of his spear’s head), Motoyasu comes from sometime after the halfway point of Shield Hero‘s third season. He’s been drawn to Filo since that franchise’s first season, but he became enraptured with her to the point of wanting to marry her due to her essentially (and mostly unwittingly) rescuing him from some psychological trauma early in s3. That same trauma (which involved being ruthlessly betrayed by another female character) also led to him calling Raphtalia a “raccoon-pig” and showing a delusional level of disdain towards other women besides Filo, while also referring to Naofumi as “father” since he sees Naofumi as a potential father-in-law. (And yes, that means that he’s a complete idiot.) All of those factors are in play here throughout this episode. Given that he’s been running around the countryside with only birdlike filolials for companions for the latter half of s3 and most of s4, him being relegated to class 3 with Yunyun seems like an appropriate fit.

The most inspired joke involving him, though, is how he does acknowledge Albedo as an “angel” because, like Filo, she has wings and an ahoge (i.e. cowlick). In Filo’s case that’s actually a special mark which denotes her as the heir apparent to the queen of her race, and as leader of the Floor Guardians of Nazarick and wife-wannabe for Ains, Albedo is essentially a queen-in-waiting, too, so the writers really thought through this joke. (The irony of a succubus being happy to be referred to as angel isn’t lost on Ains, at least.) Tanya gets dragged into this because she also has an ahoge and does technically have “wings” as well (her Silver Wings Assault Badge, which does have a wing motif). Motoyasu’s first escape from the pen by blowing a hole in its roof is also another deep series reference, since it duplicates a scene during s3 where he blows a hole in the roof of a building.

That’s not the limit of the deep references in this episode, either. Re:Zero‘s butler William looks pensive when Hamsuke describes Motoyasu as Naofumi’s son, which is a partial reference to scenes in s4 of his series involving his trouble relationship with his own son. At the end of last episode, Rem mentioned feeling sleepy, which could be a reference to how she’s been comatose for nearly all of her series’ second season and all of its third. (She’s also shown sleeping in one of the stills in the closer.) In this episode she reinforces that reference by mentioning how her “head’s been cloudy for a long time” but then goes on to mention that “it’s about to clear up.” Is this, perhaps, a foreshadowing of Re:Zero‘s upcoming s4? That would tend to reinforce Ains’ theory from back in episode 1. The state Julius is in at the end of Re:Zero s3 may also be connected to why he’s popping his head out of the curtained-off bed in the nurse’s office.

A few other interesting observations as well:

  • In hte class 1 scene, they look like they’re having music class. Is this meant to be the class 1 version of the music performance by class 2 in the opener?
  • Cid is actually present in the Class 1 scene, sitting at the piano, but you have to look closely because the piano mostly obscures him. That’s a reference both to how he’s trying to be inconspicuous and him canonically playing the piano in his source series.
  • Speaking of the opener, Motoyasu now has a brief appearance in it, too. (He wasn’t in Yunyun’s OP shot in previous episodes.)
  • In the hall scene with Ains, Tanya, and Albedo, there are multiple postings on the wall behind them. One features the KONOSUBA merchant (who has previously popped up in earlier seasons) advertising for part-time help, while another is a newspaper article about the Zombie Pasta incident, and a third is a calligraphy poster which seems to translate as “impact force.” Not sure about the significance of that one.
  • Darkness is a known freak, and Shalltear has a screw or two loose herself, but they may have found a new compatriot in The Eminence in Shadow‘s Epsilon, who is the Seven Shadows member arguably most intent on specifically seducing Cid/Shadow.

Overall, this episode is the deepest one yet this season in terms of how far it goes with its assorted callbacks and references, but it also doesn’t disappoint on the fun hijinks with its newcomer. That’s exactly the way this series works best.