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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In some senses this episode is a disappointment, since the crew from The Eminence in Shadow doesn’t appear at all. That, however, is more than made up for by the utter disaster that a Home Economics class on cooking turns into, and I have to give particular credit to the series for the novel way it creates such a disaster.
If a class activity is going to go utterly awry, there’s no better person to lead it among the school’s staff than the little-used Wiz, a KONOSUBA recurring character who had a couple of appearances in s2 as the school’s nurse. This is also an ironic choice since she’s actually every bit as undead as Ains is (she’s a lich), but irony is the lifeblood of this series so it’s all good. In her source world she also has a reputation for being largely incompetent as a magic shopkeeper (Vanir, the masked fellow, tries hard to rein her in as Wiz’s assistant), partly because she tends to overdo things and partly because she has a tendency to accidentally foist cursed items on customers. Both foibles are clearly in play here.
Naturally we get the normal mixes of eccentric personalities at each cooking station, but unlike many similar episode in other series, this one is less about the process of cooking and more about the results. Hence the real action doesn’t happen until everyone sits down to eat. The pasta being so fresh that it’s literally alive was a pretty funny joke to begin with, as was the way various characters don’t let any sentiment about it being alive get in their way of cooking it. The true coup de grace, though, is the follow-up joke that the once-living pasta is now zombie pasta, and that it animates to form hostile zombie pasta monsters which must be fought (or in Aqua’s case, fled from). In a setting where undead are part of the class, this actually seems quite fitting.
Laced throughout this are a few jokes which require more extensive knowledge of the source material. Tanya complaining early on about “drowning in pasta” once again is a reference to the Saga of Tanya the Evil OVA episode Operation Desert Pasta released in 2021, the franchise’s only light-hearted endeavor, which had the 203rd Aerial Battalion stuck in desert warfare and having their raids for food supplies mistaken for grand tactical plans as they went around gathering ingredients to make pasta – a lot of pasta. Lt. Serebryakov is also notorious for an appetite that isn’t hindered by any circumstance, so her being tempted to eat the collapsed zombie pasta at the end is completely in character. Aqua fleeing from undead is a specific reference to one incident from KONOSUBA s2 where she’s chased by a horde of undead in a dungeon (although I think this was a recurring joke, IIRC).
The other knock on this episode is that it seemed much more reliant on voiced-over still images than normal, although this was partly balanced out by a few cases of background animation. On the balance, though, it didn’t lack for fun quotient.
USA Anime 