Given what transpires in this understated season finale, its title – “To Fight and Conquer in All Your Battles is Not Supreme Excellence” – is a rather amusing but still apt choice. It is part of a quote from Sun Tzu which continues with “supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” If that is interpreted figuratively rather than literally, then it mostly applies to Kazuya’s efforts to further secure the favor, loyalty and love of the veritable harem developing around him. Not that he necessarily had such a self-serving goal; he’s clearly just trying to do nice things for people he already (by his own admission) considers family. But how that would be perceived by others is what matters here. Really, how could any outsider look at what is going on around Kazuya and not interpret it as him collecting a harem?
The prominent opening presence of the leadership of the Gran Chaos Empire also marks their formal entrance into story participation, but the quote could also apply to them as well. Kazuya has apparently made a favorable initial impression on both Empress Maria Euphoria and her young sister, the warrior-envoy Jeanne. (If the names were chosen deliberately, rather than just because they sounded appropriate, then the potential references here are interesting. A whole host of Marias – including Maria Theresa, Maria Louisa, and Maria Josepha – were Empress at various points in the later stages of the Holy Roman Empire, and a Jeanne in plate armor could be a reference to Jeanne d’Arc.) That she is deemed an idealist, and thus contrasted to Kazuya’s realist nature, makes for an interesting comparison, especially since their views on many things probably are not so far apart.
I do have to wonder, though, about the practicality of it all. Doubtless Maria Euphoria being regarded as a saint has something to do with her maintaining authority, but both her and her idealism seem too soft for a period when such a great threat exists to both their kingdom and human/demi-humankind in general. And really, a skirt under plate mail? Talk about impracticality there. . . but I digress. They also seem a little too soft and apologetic towards Kazuya, even for being partly responsible for him having been pulled here. Still, bringing another major power into the mix is a good move for the story, as the setting will need to expand now that Kazuya has largely settled matters at home.
Sadly, the announcement that negotiations about Amidonia will take place essentially marks the seasonal break point for the series. It will return in January, and initial advertising art suggests that Liscia may have a more prominent role then. Let’s hope so, because she has been underused so far. In all, this season has not done anything spectacular, and I still find certain aspects of it to be a little too silly, but Realist Hero still has solid enough world-building that I will be back for more.
Other Titles That I Am Following:
I am hoping to have a Summer 2021 wrap-up post up on Wednesday 9/29, so I will reserve any further thoughts on series that I have completed (or will be completing by then) for that.
With this episode, the series wraps up the Amidonian subplot (at least for now) by having King Gaius die gloriously in battle – so much so that even Kazuya has to acknowledge it. However, while the battles in the first half form the episode’s action content, the more interesting parts – and the ones with the longer-term consequences come after.
Honestly, the battle portion was not all that impressive. The animation chops just aren’t there to make for truly dynamic fight scenes. Gaius’s duel with Carla at least tried, and did succeed in portraying Gaius as a formidable warrior, but even then the artistry seemed a little off, an impression that persisted throughout the episode; everyonea looked a little more cartoonish than normal, I guess? The battle tactics seemed standard, but I was less than impressed how – once again! – one of this setting’s major powers just admits ultimate defeat before Kazuya’s greatness but goes through the motions of resisting anyway. Granted, Gaius’s case is a more extreme one; unlike with his rebellious dukes, Kazuya has no practical “out” for leaving Gaius alive, and Gaius seems to understand that even if Kazuya does not himself. Even so, I cannot shake the feeling that the story is going easy on Kazuya
And speaking of Carla, why she his bodyguard now, instead of Aisha? Yes, she does have a reason now to be loyal to Kazuya (for Liscia’s benefit, if nothing else) and is wearing a slave collar, but having a recent enemy suddenly be a bodyguard does not seem like it has the best optics.
In any case, the second half plays out with Kazuya wisely being cautious about the fate of Amidonia; taking over its capital, even in retaliation for being invaded, was a big move, and I’m sure he’s right to be leery of how the Empire is going to react. His plan to use cultural programming to influence the people of Amidonia is an interesting one, especially mixing in the Amidonian officer to sing Amidonia’s (rather bloody) national anthem. That could be considered a bit anachronistic, as the formal adoption of national anthems is a product of the 19th century (there were some more informal cases dating back as far as the 17th century), but I can excuse that. More importantly, it stands as a clear symbol to the people of Amidonia that Kazuya does not intend to subsume Amidonia’s identity into Elfrieden. Despite this, I cannot shake the feeling that the series just wanted to have another opportunity to conduct a variety show. . .
Overall, I can see the ideas that the episode is trying to move forward with, but the execution is too lackluster for me to give the episode a higher rating.
Other Series That I Am Following (or at least checking out):
Fena: Pirate Princess episode 7 – Daaaaamn. The havoc wreaked by that uber-cannon is one hell of an eye-popping scene. Also have a bit more respect for Makabe after his speech earlier in the episode.
Ganbare Douki-chan – This 6 minute OVA is a bit fan servicey and features a young office lady who may be trying to seduce a coworker, but he’s too decent a guy to pick up on the signals.
I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives episode 23 – Yes, Yuka, you really are into hot older guys. Don’t try to deny it; just run with it.
Tawawa On Monday – This is apparently a series of 6-minute-long ONA shorts, and it is nearly 100% about large, bouncing bosoms – specifically, a well-endowed teenage girl who helps a salaryman to “recharge” on the train on Monday mornings. Really
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime episode 47 – Yep, Milim was faking it after all, and clearly Rimiru was not the only Demon Lord who couldn’t tell. Very pleased that Raphael is thoroughly disgusted with him at this point; he deserves it. The offhand revelation about how Milim is related to Veldora was an eye-opener, and their “playing” was fun to watch. With Clayman also getting the crap kicked out of him and the revelation of who was pulling his strings, this may be my favorite episode yet this season for this series.
The aquatope on white sand episode 11 – Maybe the best episode yet of the series. Still not sure if I totally buy an actual romantic connection between Kukuru and Fuuka, but I love the way the episode both reflected and summarized the central struggles for Kukuru. But where can the series go next?
The first few episodes of this series may have taken a much slower, more carefully developmental pace, but that’s all different now. Elfrieden is facing not only a civil war but also an attempted land-grab by a neighbor, and both issues need to be dealt with decisively for the kingdom to move forward. Since the series is already up to episode 11, that means that things need to be dealt with quickly. But was this too quickly to be credible?
Events can move along this quickly partly because Kazuya did an enormous amount of planning and prep in the background, but also partly because even less was what it seemed in the confrontation with the dukes two episodes ago than was apparent at the time. The conversation from a few episodes earlier involving the shocking thing that Count Magna told Kazuya in private finally resurfaces, and turns out to be the revelation that Duke Carmine’s “rebellion” was just an act to draw out corrupt nobles and their connections, which otherwise would have gone into hiding and continued to fester under Kazuya’s rule. Essentially, it’s Duke Carmine’s play to both provide the greatest service he could to Elfrieden by finishing the job of “cleaning house” that Kazuya had begun and to pass the torch onto the next generation, and if that puts his career and possibly even his life at stake, well, he readily accepts that cost. Turns out revealing that to Liscia is what their private conversation right before the meeting with the dukes in episode 9 was all about, and she’s the only other person outside of Count Magna and Duke Carmine (and presumably his chief subordinate, the dog-headed guy) who knew about that.
Since things had already been arranged with Duchess Walter beforehand, that left only Duke Vargas hanging – possibly literally. He has always felt like he was more boxed in by his warrior pride than truly passionate about this rebellion; perhaps he was motivated more by an understandable lack of trust in the newcomer and being thrown by the rapidity and thoroughness of the changes Kazuya was instituting. Or perhaps he couldn’t just accept working under someone who could not beat him in a fight. While he does prove a match for Aisha, Kazuya has more cleverness and people on his side than to lose in this situation (and, pointedly, neither he nor the people on his side ever agreed to a one-on-one duel); the simple fact that he won over Liscia, the person put in the most uncomfortable position by this change of power, should have been a glaring indicator to Duke Castor the he was on the wrong side. He seems to know that at the end, as does his daughter. I cannot see Kazuya having them both executed for treason (even though neither would object and Kazuya would be within his right to do so, as Liscia seems to well understand), so it will be interesting to see how their fates play out.
Things are looking much worse for Amidonia. This is the part where I most feel the episode moves much too fast, but the point that Gaius is outmaneuvered on every front is sufficiently made. I don’t see that ending well for Gaius, but at least his daughter was smart enough to ditch the old man. Will she wind up taking over once daddy is out of the way?
Sadly, the animation shortcuts here are still quite evident, even if the series is doing far better than certain others I could name. (I’m looking at you, I’m Standing On 1,000,000 Lives and Battle Game in 5 Seconds. . .) But hey, at least the character designs are still solid. And yes, I agree with Carmine that I would like to see Liscia in a wedding dress, too; we really haven’t seen her in anything much other than her military uniform and that school uniform, and neither is very flattering.
Other Titles I am Following:
Remake Our Life! Episodes 8-10 – I fell a couple of episodes behind on this one, but after hearing talk about some controversy concerning episode 9, I made a point to get caught up this weekend. What happens at the end of episode 8 and throughout episodes 9 and 10 is a very interesting and highly unusual twist on the more standard “accidentally changed the future for the worse” scenario, and I am loving the moral ambiguity of it all. I also like how the scenario was so carefully foreshadowed, especially in episode 8 but to a lesser extent in the entire series up to that point. This is now a higher-priority title for me.
I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives episode 22 – Still like the plot, still find the visuals to be crap. Once again, I have to wonder if this wouldn’t be one of the better series of the season with a decent animation effort backing it, as it raises some good points and character development.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime episode 46 – Wow, there’s a lot to parse here as the action gets heavy and Rimiru gets so pissed that he uncharacteristically stops listening to Raphael. The highlight is unquestionably Shion briefly beating the shit out of Clayman, but that’s far from the only important scene. What Guy is doing – or, just as much, not doing – is just as interesting, and we get the strongest indicators yet that Milim isn’t really mind-controlled; she’s just going along with what Clayman is doing for her own reasons. Frankly, I thought she was too simple-minded to pull such a deception off, but that smile she gives Rimiru as he’s preparing to flip her seems to indicate that getting to fight her “bestie” for serious may have been one of her goals. (Of course, she also just likes fighting, as the fight against Carrion showed.) And now Veldora’s on the scene, too! Next episode should be extra-juicy, since most or all of the Demon Lords are quite well aware of who Veldora is.
I first saw The End of Evangelion in a packed convention viewing room at some point early in 2002, when it was circulating as a promo for the inaugural English-language DVD/VHS release later that year. It was my most mind-blowing experience with anime (and maybe animation in general) then, and even 19 years later that assertion still remains mostly true. It was bold, brutal, utterly uncompromising in its vision of humanity, and awash with more symbolism that could be adequately digested in a single viewing, including some rather bluntly directed at petulant fans of the franchise. It told a story on the grandest of scales, but its ultimate resolution came down to the most basic of human foibles and desires.
Thrice Upon A Time feels like a deliberate effort to recapture the magic of that creation, except with a more thoughtful and accommodating approach about how it wants to speak to the fanbase. Whereas the the original version of the franchise’s conclusion has sometime been referred to as director Hideaki Anno giving a middle finger to audiences who complained about the end of the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is a more focused effort on truly bringing the overall story to a conclusion and more thoroughly (if not necessarily completely) examining the underlying issues of characters beyond just Shinji. It also proves that, this time, Misato’s comments at the end of the third movie about “more fan service” were not just a tease.
While the way things play out is quite complicated, the plot is relatively simple to describe: Shinji sulks for about an hour of movie time while a Rei clone gets a chance at a normal life in a village of Third Impact survivors and Asuka hangs around at loose ends. Meanwhile, both NERV and Wille prepare for the final confrontation over Evangelion Unit 13, which is to be the trigger for the Fourth Impact, which will finalize the Human Instrumentality Project. The entire second half of the movie is then the attempted implementation of the Fourth Impact. Altogether, that makes for a 155 minute runtime, which clocks in as the sixth-longest animated movie ever. (See here for a list of the titles which beat it out.)
Although the first half is certainly the slower of the two, it has its own merits. It allows the grown-up versions of a few familiar faces to show up and the offspring of some characters from the original series to appear. On the larger story front, it delves a bit more into why the Eva pilots haven’t aged (though a full explanation on that should not be expected) and shows the extent of the damage wrought by the aborted Third Impact, but the focus is more on a personal level. Each of the original trio of pilots gets a different experience: for the Rei clone, it’s a chance at a completely normal life (or as normal as one in a post-apocalyptic setting can be, anyway), away from anything to do with NERV, even if she cannot ultimately escape that connection. For Asuka, it’s a partly-self-imposed separation from the normal humanity she’s dedicated to protecting. For Shinji, it’s a chance to work through all of the mental and emotional trauma he has been subjected to. He needs time away from the insanity of NERV and Wille to come to terms with what’s happened. While his near-catatonia can get annoying after a certain point, could you really expected even a well-adjusted adult to be coping any better, much less a teenager?
Once the climactic battle against NERV begins, though, all bets are off. The rest of the movie is as much pure, sometimes nonsensical spectacle as End of Evangelion was, to the point that I’m not even going to begin to try to explain it; I’ll only add that a new class of technobabble might have been created here. This is mecha action and symbolism the way only Hideaki Anno can envision and execute it and an Evangelion title can produce it. While the exact details may be different, it follows the same general plan as End of Evangelion: giant Reis, oddly disturbing insert songs, and alternate-art interludes from the intense visual action. The main difference is that, this time, Gendoh is the one getting the most intensive introspection. The original never fully showed where he was coming from; there were hints, and he was clearly obsessed with Yui, but not a full rundown on why he was the way he was. In fact, that is the biggest new contribution that this movie makes to the franchise: showing how Gendoh came to be who he was and how he interacted with others, and how everything he does is derived from that. And if all of that makes him come off like a school/workplace shooter candidate, well, that was likely intentional.
The ending will doubtlessly be talked about for years to come, in part because it seems a bit too simple and clean. (Do watch that scene very closely, though, or you will miss background details.) Another reason will certainly be the role Mari plays in it. If I have one major complaint about the movie, it is the handling of Mari – or, rather, the lack thereof. Who she is, how she came to be involved in this, and why she seems more well-adjusted than the other Eva pilots is not explained in the slightest, nor is her strong connection to any of the others except maybe Asuka – and even that does not get much attention. A name drop late in the movie suggests a Biblical connection, but her role here does not fit well with that. She seems merely to exist to fill action slots that the other pilots cannot, and so her prominence presence at the end makes little sense.
The movie is strong in a technical sense as well. The visuals in the action scenes do lean heavily on CG, sometimes to the movie’s benefit (it emphasizes the artificiality of what’s transpiring) and sometimes not (it’s too artificial at times). Even so, this allows for some glorious action scenes in the latter half and a wealth of small visual details in the first half. Both Eva and character designs are as sharp and iconic as ever and the musical score is well-used. Oh, and let’s not forget plenty of sexy Asuka fan service and a lesser amount for Rei.
I watched the movie in English on Amazon Prime, which means that it reuses the cast that Amazon Prime used on its redubs of the first three movies. That means that Amanda Winn Lee is back as Rei, although even fans of the original English dub of the TV series will have to listen closely to tell the difference from Brina Palencia’s performances in earlier dubs of the movies. That and other carry-overs from the redubs at least assures that there will be no vocal inconsistency if you watch the movies straight through.
Ultimately, the biggest difference between this and previous franchise entries is the message sent at the end. I have always felt that the essential message of the TV series was about learning to like one’s self and accepting one’s own identity, while the essential message of End of Evangelion is that individual identity should not be subsumed to group identity. Both of those elements are present in the earlier movies of this tetralogy, but this one seems to boil down to a different truth: no matter what happens, life moves on. Staying mired in the past is very human but also counter-productive, to the point that dwelling there too long damages everything. Nearly every character in the movie who cannot do this is unhappy, while those who have done it seem well-adjusted despite difficult circumstances, and the movie’s climax basically hinges on this point.
While I am still somewhat ambivalent about the ending, this should be the final installment in the franchise, as nothing much of consequence is left to say. It is a movie that everyone who has followed the franchise to this point should see, though I do recommend rewatching the third movie first.
Realist Hero is not a series that sells itself on its action elements, but it doesn’t do half-bad with the occasional moments it has had. (They certainly look better than a couple of the more dedicated action series that I could name this season. . .) This episode easily has the biggest concentration of them to date, and that results in at least a couple of sharp scenes. There’s just something ineffably cool about using magic arrows to shoot cannonballs out of the air, and the whole notion of mounting a battleship on giant wheels to use for deep-inland bombardment of fortifications is just so silly that I must applaud its audacity. I’ll even set aside practicalities like how something so heavy was lifted so it could be mounted on wheels.
Improbable practicalities are also on display on one other front: the prefab fortress. Prefabrication is not a purely modern concept; it has existed to some degree since ancient times, with one of its most notable large-scale uses being the reconstruction of Lisbon, Portugal after a 1755 earthquake (and subsequent tsunami and firestorm) almost completed leveled the city. Hence assembling a prefab fortress on such short notice (and without Duke Carmine’s forces being was to it) strains credibility even with magical support, though it is not entirely unbelievable. The existence of cannons to be used for battering through the fortress isn’t at all unreasonable, though I found it interesting that they were regarded as precious commodities; since they do exist, I would have expected them to be available in bigger numbers. But perhaps they were never emphasized much since magical bombardments normally filled their roles?
In any case, the episode doesn’t just feature Duke Carmine’s efforts against the prefab fortress or Kazuya’s mast diversionary tactic and apparent bold “special forces” strike against Duke Castor. Amidonia is also on the warpath, and how they are being handled by Duchess Excel (though they don’t know that) is also interesting. She’s clearly using their sensible desire to minimize their own casualties to stall for time, but how much longer will she be able to pull that off? Kazuya has two other battlefronts to deal with as well, and with dark elves helping at the prefab fortress and Aisha and Liscia presumably on his strike team against Carmine, I’m not seeing an obvious indicator of where the back-up on that front is going to come from. Still, this is a guy who put a freakin’ battleship on wheels, so I’m sure that he has something creative in mind.
As much as I like the world-building aspect, this episode is, overall, a breath of fresh air.
Comments on Other Titles I Am Following:
Battle Game in 5 Seconds episode 8, I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives episode 21 – I’m putting these two together because my comments on both are the same: I must wonder how good these series would be if they actually had even decent (much less good!) action animation. Both look like an animation budget that wasn’t big to begin with has run dry.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S ep 9 – And on the other side of the animation fence we have this one. Man, this series can dazzle when it goes all-out on the action content! Still find this season falling a bit short on the humor side compared to the first, so I’m starting to wonder if being as funny as last season was even a goal in the first place.
The aquatope on white sand ep 9 – While the series still isn’t doing much to get excited about, I continue to like the carefully measured approach it’s taking to plot and character developments. Pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of that trainee, especially since she’s neither entirely right nor entirely wrong about the impressions she took away from her stint, and both late scenes are potentially interesting plot hooks. I also like how the series is not over-emphasizing the magical nature of Gama Gama and is instead more subtly implying the important role it plays in the community.
Fena: Pirate Princess episode 5 – This one has taken a bit of time to grow on me, but I find the variant world-building to be amusing; the series’ creators are taking real-life places and making decidedly alternate versions of them, then throwing in elements like Joan of Arc and El Dorado into the mix. What will the series pull out of its rear next? And while I’ve found the lean towards humor to be a little too heavy at times (like it’s trying to find a middle ground between anime and Disney stuff), the balance is getting better.
Night Head 2041 episode 8 – After the revelation last episode about parallel worlds, I half-expected the big plot twist this episode. As with last episode, the story makes a lot more sense with this revelation.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ep 45 – Finally, Walpurgis has arrived, and the main villain of the moment – Clayman – is on the scene. If he wanted everyone’s attention, he certainly got it, and I suspect he’s going to regret that. Seeing all the Demon Lords assembled was interesting, and that could make next episode the juiciest of the series since Rimuru’s ascendance. On other fronts, Shuna has always been implied to be quite powerful, but she’s rarely had to show event hints of it because she’s been so thoroughly protected. Here she finally shows what she can really do, and it’s impressive indeed.
The Detective is Already Dead ep 10 – I could probably write a whole article about all the different ways that this series is going wrong (and I may well do that at the end of the season if I don’t come up with a positive candidate for the surprise of the season), but the utter lack of a sense of urgency is the most pervasive problem in this episode. Add to this the fact that they are still leaving a lot of gaping holes in the narrative to be filled – which, again, would be fine if the series were more obviously puzzle-like in its construction, but this one still seems like it’s just jumping around without a firm follow-through.
Machiavelli’s The Prince was featured a little too prominently at the beginning of the first episode for it – and the intrigues associated with it – to not come into direct play at some point in the story. With the first eight episodes consisting almost entirely of world-building and foundation-laying (in some cases literally!), this seems like the ideal place for that to happen. Besides, the country’s largely autonomous dukes, and their lack of confidence in Kazuya, is something that would have to be dealt with at some point, especially after the rumblings a couple of episodes back about one of the dukes rebelling.
Kazuya’s latest scheme – i.e., centralizing Efrieden’s military control – is also the ideal method for bringing this building tension to a head, so much so that this may be a case of Kazuya and/or Hakuya deliberately forcing the dukes’ hands. It also brings up an interesting twist in the story progression: up to this point, all of Kazuya’s plans have been so beneficial that they are nearly incontrovertible in a practical sense, but this directive actually has significant gray areas. Kazuya is not wrong that centralizing the military chain of command would make the military more efficient and adaptable in the face of potential threats from many directions, but Duke Carmine’s point – that the military was deliberately decentralized as part of a system of checks and balances – is also valid.
In fact, the further implication that sometimes inefficiencies must be tolerated in the interest of protecting rights is a big enough issue that I wish that the series would focus on it more. However, all appearances here indicate that this is just a pretext for officially justifying the rebellion. The earlier scene with the meeting of the dukes already made it clear that Carmine’s main problem is not trusting Kazuya, both because he does not know Kazuya and because he does not understand the admittedly-very-odd circumstances which led to Kazuya being appointed King. Even if Albert wasn’t a strong king, Carmine at least knew him and knew what to expect from him – or at least thought he did, anyway. (That Albert was not a strong king may have even been a desirable characteristic.) Carmine’s point that Kazuya is sacrificing tradition for expediency is also a valid one, and feeds into Kazuya’s order about centralizing the military. Viewers know that a lot of the bureaucrats who lost their jobs were ineffective, but it isn’t hard to understand how that could look differently from the outside.
By comparison, Duke Vargas is far less interesting, except for the underling who is a good friend of Liscia’s and is sure to cause trouble since she does not know that Liscia is not being forced into anything and is genuinely falling for Kazuya. Duke (Duchess?) Walters has always been the most cautious and sensible of the three, and so comes over to Kazuya’s side because, unlike the others, she has investigated Kazuya’s character (via Juna) and confirmed that he is worthy of deference. The question now is whether Carmine and Vargas can be won over through defeat, or if they will have to be eliminated for the kingdom to moved forward. “The throne must be maintained by blood,” was something that the King of En said to Shouko in the early isekai title The Twelve Kingdoms, and Machiavelli was of a similar sentiment in our world. Will we see that play out here as well?
Meanwhile, the Principality of Amidonia looks like it is setting itself up for a fall, as it is badly misjudging the situation in Elfrieden and how much it might take advantage of the situation. When the smart people start bailing, you know a nation is doomed. The minor surprise here is that the enterprising trader seen briefly in previous episodes is actually the principality’s princess; I had just assumed that she was from a wealthy merchant family. She has already shown herself to be insightful, so I fully expect that we will see her on Kazuya’s side in the future. She knows where the good business opportunities are.
And my, was that a Tomoe sighting at the end? First time we have seen anything of her since, what, episode 4? Doesn’t feel like Liscia cutting her ponytail is going to make a big difference in her appearance, but it is still a bold statement nonetheless. Was where her loyalty lies what Kazuya asked her about, perhaps?
Thoughts on Other Titles I’m Following:
The Detective Is Already Dead episode 9 – This episode basically follows from episode 8, but it still feels like the series is being told out of order. Where did Charlotte (the blonde) come into the picture? The two leads speak about Cerberus as if they have met before, but I don’t think he’s appeared in any previous episode? And if this is how Siesta really dies, then how does Nagisa end up with her heart as a transplant? Too much just doesn’t make sense at this point.
Night Head 2041 episode7 – With the revelations in this episode about what’s really going on, the story and setting now make a whole lot more sense. This is very gradually becoming a more compelling series than it looked like at first.
One of the single biggest engineering achievements of the Roman Empire was also key to its long-term control over widely-spread territories: its system of ultimately more than 250,000 miles of roads, including more than 50,000 miles of paved roads. While Kaede is correct in this episode about how valuable roads like that are for trade purposes, they are at least as important for administrative and especially military purposes. (This has not changed with time, either; for instance, in the U.S., the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which established and began the construction of the Interstate Highway System, was pitched at least in part as a defense project.) Military units being involved in road construction was not unusual in Roman Imperial times (or in many other time periods and cultures across history), so the Forbidden Army being tasked with such duty here is highly regular; one would even think that their specialization in Earth magic would be helpful to the task, though no use of magic was shown in the road scenes. It does look like Roman Imperial road-building standards were being used in those scenes, however, including the use of the very durable Roman concrete.
The history geek in me loved that part of the episode, though other parts were interesting as well. The series seems to be making a habit of opening each episode with some world-building extemporizing, and while I have mixed feelings about the efficacy of this approach, this installment – about the uneven development of technology due to the presence of magic and fantastical beasts – also spoke to my inner geek. Kazuya is absolutely correct in his lament that technological development is often based on need; in fact, that’s the natural course of things, with the more logical and systematic lay-out of tech development being more a product of civilization-building games than reality. Kazuya does show himself adapting to that at least a bit in the use of Warden Trees to protect the roads, though not at the complete expense of preventing normal monster migration patterns. (The more systematic study of this is a more modern concept, though I would think that populations living closer to nature would have at least some awareness of this.)
The big event this time is the landslide in Aisha’s homeland. A Japanese person studying civil service would undoubtedly have a higher level of knowledge about such things than most, given how prone Japan is to such things (in fact, a big one occurred in Japan just a few weeks ago as I write this), so Kazuya being more knowledgeable on this front is more credible. The use of his Living Poltergeists for search mice is a neat idea, and I did like the added touch of him being driven nauseous by a grisly find; that would undoubtedly be especially upsetting to anyone not used to directly dealing with deaths like that, and it is something which often gets overlooked in these scenarios in fantasy settings.
The strongest parts of the episode were the scenes at the end. Kazuya’s acknowledgement to Aisha that prevention methods only reduce risk, not eliminate it, is undoubtedly one that Japanese citizens in particular can take to heart, and his comments about nature – his most philosophical reflections yet – feed into that as well. That he allows himself to break down before Liscia in the carriage on the return trip also signifies how much trust he places in here, even if his reaction reflects taking too much upon himself. Yes, it is the duty of a ruler or ruling body to put plans in place to deal with disasters, and he should be concentrating on “big picture” issues like that instead of personally looking for survivors, but he is trying to accomplish in a very short time changes that normally require decades or even centuries to develop and implement. He’ll burn himself out this way, so I hope this continues to be a story element going forward.
The episode is far less impressive on the production side. Too many stills, too much limited animation, and whatever the episode was trying to accomplish with the darker color filter in the God-Protected Forest scenes, it was more distracting than tone-setting. (See the screenshot above for the effect.) That is why I cannot quite give this episode a higher rating, even though it is best the best of the last few. Still, at the least the series feels more like it is on the right track now than a couple of episodes ago.
Thoughts On Other Series I Am Following:
Fena: Pirate Princess episode 3 – The plot thickens a bit as a new antagonist group gets established. My biggest gripe about episode 2 – i.e., that Fena was still in that impractical dress – also gets addressed. Can’t see this series ever being a favorite, as it edges a little too much into goofy territory, but I’m liking it well enough. I suspect that I will be commenting on this one on a regular basis.
I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives episode 19 – A new quest means a new member, and this time it’s an adult woman who also happens to be both a foreigner and a lesbian. But that’s not the only thing new: we get the revelation that others around the world have been separately dragged into this as well, hence suggesting that the other might eventually show. This also means another time jump of 14 years and the crushing sadness that Kahvel – one of 2020’s best characters – is no longer alive. Hardly the first time that the series has managed to pack some extra dramatic weight, and I doubt it will be the last.
Seirei Gensouki – Spirit Chronicles ep 7 – Well, that got unusually harsh and dark for this series, didn’t it? It did feel at the end like Rio was apologizing to himself at least as much as he was apologizing to the others
When Fena was very young, she was set loose on a lifeboat from her father’s ship as some calamity befell it. She came ashore on an island, where ten year’s later she’s about to be indoctrinated into life as a prostitute – and she’s in high demand for her “first time” because of her beauty and unusually pale hair. However, she has no intention of following through. Her complicated escape plan gets upended when old men once loyal to her father come to her rescue – albeit not without help. She eventually winds up on Goblin Island, which was once controlled by Fena’s family and where Japanese-themed travelers shipwrecked generations ago and have built their own little microcosm of Japanese society. Due to their enduring loyalty to Fena’s great-grandfather, the Japanese-types seek to carry out the last request of Fena’s father, which involves a strange block of transparent material. All Fena knows about it is that the word “Eden” may be associated with it, so she sets out on a journey on a special submersible boat to seek answers.
This collaborative project seems to be streaming subtitled on Crunchyroll and airing in dubbed form on Adult Swim. Though created and directed by the creator and director of Netflix’s B: The Beginning and animated by Production I.G., the series’ first two episodes felt like a deliberate effort to mix Western animation sensibilities with anime style, and this sometimes creates some jarring tonal jumps. The Western influences mostly show through in the more slapstick humorous aspects, while the action, designs, and ambiance are more typical of higher-end anime productions. The target audience here is also a bit confusing; at times the first two episodes feel like they are geared to be accessible to younger audiences, but Fena and her prostitute friend (guardian?) also speak frankly about Fena selling off the rights to her virginity (the series uses the term primae noctis for this) and some brigands tasked with killing Fena do talk about “having fun” with her first before being slain.
Beyond that, the first two episodes feel disjointed in other thematic ways. This is a clearly Western setting which has a very traditional Japanese-style enclave nearby? A time period which looks like it might be late 16th or 17th century, and yet there’s a submersible all-metal boat which looks like it could have sailed out of the pages of a Jules Verne novel? I also found it strange that Fena would have been sent off on her journey at the end of episode 2 without a clothing change, especially since she is shown in more appropriate sailing clothes in the opener and closer.
The jury’s still out on Fena herself as a character. She does seem independent-minded and ambitious while still having some bratty qualities, but she is not quite the instant charmer that Pacifica Casull from Scrapped Princess (the character she seems most spiritually similar to) was. Other characters are more stock personality types at this point. The plot seems like a fairly standard “explore to get to the bottom of a mystery” caper, but we’ll see on that, too.
Overall, the first two episodes have enough going for them on the set-up and technical front for me to give them a mild recommendation, but I am a bit leery on how this might play out.
Last episode ended with what appeared to be a shocking revelation to Kazuya from Glaive Magna, or at least something that he called “heavy.” And yet this episode entirely passed without any follow-up on that – or, indeed, any indication at all that such an issue is lingering. Granted, the elder Magna did say that he was not expecting the king to do anything about it at that time, and this being held off as a big hook for later seems entirely plausible. Still, a matter of such stress going completely unacknowledged is an awkward way to the handle the situation if it is not a complete oversight.
What the episode does do is use its now-traditional extemporizing in the intro to explain the organization of magic both in the world in general and in Elfreiden in particular. Much of this should be familiar to anyone who watches a lot of fantasy anime and/or plays fantasy RPGs, with the only minor tweak here being how specialists in each magic type generally end up in different military roles in Elfreiden. The one interesting point here is how “dark” magic is the catchall designation for “not easily classifiable as light or elemental,” which seems like it was brought up entirely to explain why Kazuya’s Living Poltergeist counts as dark magic. Honestly, explaining all of that probably was not necessary for introducing the mascot-sized version of the little ninja guy Kazuya was manipulating earlier using LP, but at least that allows for a vague thematic connection. And my, it looks like the ninja mascot could be as much of a charmer as Kazuya is proving to be.
The whole “adventure into the underground” part was just the fluff piece part of this episode, however. The real business is about the building of the new port city. The lead-in to this, where Kazuya is rallying and praising the white-collar workers who helped get the kingdom’s finances in order to make the project possible, is a little funny but also felt like it was stretching to use up time even at the time it happened. The series also uses another now-familiar gimmick by having Kazuya explain the purpose for it to Liscia so that it can also be explained to the audience. That people from a Renaissance-level setting would not be fully cognizant of economic principles like the Laws of Supply and Demand is at least somewhat credible; there is some evidence that earlier scholars understood the underlying concepts, but the laws did not start getting formalized until the late 17th and 18th centuries. These days, anyone with a high school level of knowledge about economics would be familiar with the basics of it, and someone like Kazuya, who was studying for civil service, would certainly know more than the average.
Even so, building a new port city expressly for the purpose of using these laws is quite ambitious, long-term thinking. So is the notion of specifically designing the city to minimize the impact of future disasters. This isn’t at all a new concept, but it is one that rarely gets used since cities are rarely planned out in advance. (I also find it interesting that this topic comes up when another concurrently-running series – I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives – is also using the concept of the lack of planning for disasters as a plot point.) I have always liked the concept of couching a natural disaster in mythological or supernatural terms (again, another direct parallel to what 1,000,000 Lives has been doing recently), and leave it to a dweller of a nation historically ravaged by tsunamis to figure out that the “sea god” was probably that: it wasn’t that a sea god was angry at people settling there, it was that the area is in a common long-term path for tsunami.
That is the aspect where the series is at its strongest, although these little moments between Kazuya and Liscia are growing on me, too. Once again, little that’s exciting is going on, but at least the series is staying consistent to the tone and nature it has shown so far.
English Dub: The first two episodes of the English dub are now available. Despite some minor, occasional points of stiffness in deliveries (mostly, I think, due to being too diligent about matching lip flaps), it seems to be a decent dub job so far. Casting seems fine, especially veteran Keith Silverstein as the former king, though the acid test will come when a passel of new recurring characters gets introduced in episode 3.
Other Series I Am Following:
With the school year back in session (and with heavier time demands than during COVID lockdowns last year), I am fully expecting at least a couple of series that I have been watching to this point to fall by the wayside; Kageki Shojo! is currently seeming like the most likely candidate for a drop, and it may not be the last one to go. Since there’s not much that I am highly excited about this season, that means that this section will probably continue to be shorter than what it was last season.
Fena: Pirate Princess – This has now debuted, but I will be writing it up separately.
86 English dub episode 9 – Okay, so this isn’t technically part of the season, but the dub has now advanced this far and is spectacular; it’s easily one of Crunchyroll’s best recent dub efforts. I am strongly considering doing a viewing guide for the series as a special posting once the dub is complete.
The Detective is Already Dead episodes 6-7: This series is starting to aggravate me, as it feels like someone got lazy while putting a much better series together. I wholly agree with ANN reviewer Christopher Farris that the series invariably shines brightest when Kimihiko and Siesta are interacting with each other, and that can be seen in both of these episodes, especially in the bedroom scene. (Siesta bouncing around while drunk was a delight in more than one sense.) The randomness of the series’ construction had also been bothering me, but with episode 7 it finally clicked that the “Eye of Sapphire” mentioned at the end of episode 6 – and which Kimihiko and Alicia are looking for throughout episode 7 – is probably the idol’s false eye from the episode 3-4 arc. How or why those are linked is unclear, but it seems too much of a coincidence to ignore.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ep 42 – One last set-up episode before Walpurgis events begin, and this one may be the most interesting of the lot. Rather than entirely focus again on what Rimuru is up to, it introduces us to one of the other Demon Lords and looks at what they are up to and think about what Rimuru is doing. The mix of misconceptions and keen insights is interesting, as is the introduction of another Demon Lord on Milim’s level, another dragon on Veldora’s level (his older sister, in fact), and an explanation for how Milim came to be Clayman’s pawn. This series might finally get lively.
This time around, the episode begins with some lecturing on the political situation of the continent, as having at least some understanding of that is necessary for understanding the conversation that Kazuya and crew were starting to overhear at the end of last episode. The short version is that Elfreiden has, at best, only a neutral relationship with most of its neighbors and a potentially hostile relationship with one. Even more problematic is that Elfreiden’s three main dukes do not trust Kazuya (for understandable reasons, given how he came to be king), though fortunately for Kazuya, the Dukes also don’t trust other kingdoms which have been making overtures to them, either (again, for understandable reasons, given the situation). That will eventually give Kazuya an opening to deal with the problem, but for now, his goal is to win over one promising young soldier who seems inclined to side with one of the dukes aiming to oppose Kazuya.
I did like how Kazuya taking his time to win over the young man unfolded, as it showed Kazuya doing it not through threats, grand deeds, or charisma but instead by approaching the young man in terms that the soldier could appreciate: namely, that siding against the king would put him at potentially battle-level odds against the girl he was at least longtime close friends with and quite possibly in love with. Kazuya further gets credit for recognizing the thoughtfulness of the fox girl and further realizing that he can kill multiple birds with one stone by appointing her as a staff officer under his strategist, which not only takes advantage of her insight and encourages her loyalty but also draw the young man (Halbert Magna) tightly into position by putting her at the fox girl’s side. Doubtless this will also insure Halbert’s father’s loyalty as well, as his son gets both leniency and a worthy position out of it.
On the downside, the gracelessness of these info dumps leaves a lot to be desired. Director Takashi Watanabe is more known for high-spirited action-heavy fare like The Slayers, Ikkit Tousen, Shakugan no Shana, and Freezing, but he has also done more thoughtful titles like Starship Operators and especially Boogiepop Phantom, so I have to think this is more a problem with either the original writing or the series composition. Either way, the production team still has not figure out how to get these dumps to flow better with the storytelling. At least this is partly balanced out by a nice Kazuya/Liscia scene, Kazuya’s more advanced use of his Living Poltergeists, and whatever Juna was preparing for with what she was holding behind her back; she may be much more dangerous than she looks.
Once again the episode ends on a minor cliffhanger, as the matter that the elder Magna brings up certainly doesn’t seem to be trivial. Hopefully it’ll be something to shake the series out of the rut that it is sinking into; we’re six episodes in and it still feels like the series is in set-up mode.
Other Series I Am Following:
Limited additional commentary again this time, and it may stay that way for a while, as the return of school in my area is going to start seriously cutting into my free time. (My school’s first day for students is tomorrow as I write this.)
Night Head 2041episode 4: While I still have issues with aspects of the underlying premise (I have a hard time buying that something that drastic could be implemented so fast, war or not), the plot developments and better-than-average 3DCG are enough to keep me going on it. The series certainly has a good eye for staging action scenes, at least.
The Detective is Already Dead episode 6: Still want to love this series, but it’s fading. I can see the kind of attitude that it is striving for, but it is not pulling it off, and the current flashback is not yet contributing anything to the overall sense of continuity.
USA Anime 