The writing in this show is so weird. Whoops, by weird, I mean to say that it’s really just stupid. Y’see, Ryota had come to Kogoro because the latter supposedly has the means to synthesize more of those special pills that our endearing witches so desperately need. After all, our hero and his harem can’t go raiding a pharmaceutical factory every single time their supply of pills run low. There’s only one problem: it’s not as though Kogoro has any clue what this pill is nor what it’s made of. As a result, it should take some time to determine the chemical make-up and molecular structure of said pill. At best, it might take him and his team six months. At worst, we could be talking years here! Wait, what’s that? The witches only have a month’s worth of pills left? Why, let me just change my tune completely! Kogoro later calls Ryota to deliver the bad news that the pills can’t be synthesize within a month’s time, but whatever. Knowing this anime, however, he’ll flip-flop soon enough and claim that his team has made a breakthrough or something. Pills for everybody!

In any case, the serious part of the story is over for now, so let’s have a sleepover where all the girls can talk about how awesome Ryota is! Yay! All hail the harem lead! Now let’s all talk about how much Ryota likes Kuroha. Yay! Even though Kuroha tries to deny it, claiming that Ryota is too hung up on a childhood friend who looks exactly like her, Kazumi nevertheless glares at her friend. Sweet, it looks as though one of the haremettes has developed a new emotion: jealousy! Yay! Luckily for Ryota, Kazumi has the romantic IQ of a kindergartener. As such, her displays of affection include things like hitting the back of Ryota’s head with her book bag. It’s okay, though! Since she blushes at him afterwards, we know that she truly cares for him. Not only that, a random male classmates walks up to our hero and whines, “You’re so lucky, Murakami! Getting to chat with Kazumi Schlierenzauer.” Yes, the Kazumi Schlier-whatever. I’ll also have you know that this male class is probably one of the many idiots who had voiced his desire to rape Kuroha back in the first episode, so you know his opinion really counts. If you think the episode gets any better from here on out, you’re sadly mistaken.

In fact, the rest of the episode is absolutely wooooooothless. A bunch of classmates invite Kuroha to a karaoke bar. As such, Ryota cuts his tutoring session short just so he can stalk Kuroh–… I mean, make sure everything with her is okay. After all, she’s hanging out with a bunch of people who are not him, and you never know what’ll happen if a haremette strays too far from the rest of the flock. She might liquefy or something. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, the girl that Ryota tutors is also in love with him. Continuing on, Ryota finds his harem in nothing but their bathing suits the very next day. I think Kazumi ends up kicking the hero in the face, but I’m not sure. At this point, the episode is nothing but a blur to me. The two of them eventually end up going on a “date” to Akihabara. This excursion into the otaku capital of the world includes a discussion on whether or not eroge-lovers are virgins, the worthiness of a girl’s virginity, and last but not least, a wonderful shit-course meal at a maid cafe. Nevertheless, this is the most fun Kazumi has ever had in her life, guys. Coming to Akihabara and eating overpriced omurice that you could make at home in just ten minutes is literally the best time she’s ever had. Whoo!

To be fair, the episode isn’t completely devoid of plot development, but like a lot of other lazy-as-fuck anime series, Brynhildr in the Darkness opts to have the characters sit around in a room and just yap about stuff. Chisato meets with his mysterious superiors again. They then talk about recovering the “grane” at all costs, whatever that is. Fuck yeah, I love name-dropping shit that nobody has any clue about just so that we can explain it at some later point in the series. Storytelling! So anyway, recovering this “grane” thing is truly serious business, so Chisato will send yet another witch out into the field. Her fearsome name? Nanami! Oh, oh, and there’s even an S-rank witch above her! Considering how Kikako can shoot laser beams out of her frickin’ mouth, I bet this S-rank witch can literally fart out cosmic rays at the main characters. Truly frightening. Then there’s some stuff about how the top secret laboratory was originally founded to study alien ruins that the evil organization had managed to stumble upon one hundred whole years ago. Not only that, every single one of his Ryota’s haremettes has encountered an alien before. Wowie!

In the end, Ryota turns on that PDA-like device Kuroha had given him a couple episodes ago, and a map appears on the screen. Ominous German words in Gothic lettering — why? — also accompany the map, and they tell Ryota to kill all the witches if he wants to know the truth. Sweet! But before I end this post, let’s just address one quick thing. Apparently, some people think this show is a parody. Well, you can think that it’s a parody all you want, but an effective parody or a satire still needs to convey a certain point-of-view, whatever that point-of-view may be. If it’s just a parody for parody’s sake — “Haha, aren’t mahou shoujos stupid?” — then that’s a pretty worthless parody to me. Not only that, the argument that this anime is a parody is equally worthless. I mean, c’mon, if you’re going to advance an argument, go hard for it. Don’t just casually mention that, “Y-y’know, this seems satirical,” and leave it at that. At least give me something compelling. Besides, the show takes itself too seriously to be a parody anyway. So  yeah, that’s my two cents on that particular topic.