When we last left off, I wanted to see more of Konoha’s — that is, the real Konoha and not the fictional, idealized version of herself — reaction to her own writing. Does the adult Konoha still like what the teen Konoha had written? And if not, what would she have done differently? Obviously, she’s going to have to change significant portions of her own story in order to prevent her own death as Iana. But what else would she have changed?

Well, we do get a bit of that in this week’s episode. In the first half of the episode, we cover the second chapter of real Konoha’s magnificent tale — a chapter that sees her idealized self captured by a carnal beast. Said beast will then proceed to ravish its victim when morning comes. The source of this fantasy is simple: real Konoha was going through puberty and also learning about certain… topics. Older Konoha is too embarrassed to even talk about them openly despite being a professional working woman just recently. So instead, she lies to the hot bishes, Ginoford and Sol, by telling them that their Konoha will be devoured rather than “ravished.”

In the original timeline, idealized Konoha (henceforth dubbed iKonoha) had awakened to her magical potential. Did she save herself then? But then real Konoha (henceforce dubbed rKonoha) says that intercourse is “ceremonial in nature” in this other world. What… what does that mean? Something that is “ceremonial” is essentially powerless, but I’m not sure what that entails vis-á-vis intercourse. I guess what I want to know is how iKonoha defended herself in the original timeline if at all. This somewhat transgressive nature of the story was a way for rKonoha’s younger self to explore taboo topics, so how far did she push the envelope? And how would rKonoha’s adult self have written this chapter differently? Would she write it differently?

Moreover, while Ginoford is now convinced of Iana’s good nature, Sol is not. What makes Sol so different? What makes him more dynamic than Ginoford? rKonoha speculates that rewriting the story is confusing Sol. He’s “programmed” to assassinate Iana, and now that he can’t, his character is lost. He needs a new purpose in life, so to speak. Meanwhile, Ginoford is supposed to be unconscious right now; he’s supposed to be the gentleman in jeopardy. Does this explain why it’s easier for his character to accept huge changes to the story? By design, is he meant to have little depth?

Unfortunately, I think the adaptation is moving too quickly to explore the above questions at a level that I would find satisfactory. Because as soon as iKonoha is rescued, we quickly proceed to the third chapter in the second half of the episode. I think adapting a chapter per episode would probably have been ideal, This way, the events have a little more breathing room, and we can also see more of rKonoha reflecting on her old fantasies. But Studio Deen has a target in mind. They want to reach a certain point in the story before the season is over, and the downside is that we might be rushing through this a bit too quickly. As such, we move right along to the big ball.

Apparently, after iKonoha dances with a bunch of hot, new guys (and one suspiciously young boy), she would set off on a journey to defeat the demon king. What happened to saving Ginoford? Or does saving him necessitate defeating the demon king? And if she doesn’t defeat the demon king this time around, then… what happens with the demon king? Is he allowed to wreak havoc then with his newfound lease in life? And are all these new faces potential love interests for iKonoha in the original timeline? Why does rKonoha need to prevent these dances from happening in the first place? If Ginoford is alive now and iKonoha has no magical ability, why would she randomly set off on a journey even if the king declares her a saint?

Again, in an adaptation that can afford to slow down and smell the roses, rKonoha might think deeply on why she wrote this chapter the way that she did, and how she would’ve rewritten it. Most notably, would she still have created that shota-ish character? C’mon, it’s fine for a kid to come up with this story, but I wanna know if adult Konoha is still a degenerate. But instead, we only really have time to watch her flail about, awkwardly preventing all of the boys from dancing with iKonoha. In a sense, she’s assassinating Iana’s social standing. The partygoers might find the younger sister so boorish and uncouth.

From Sol’s vantage point, it looks as though Iana is sabotaging her sister. We later learn, however, that iKonoha had hurt her ankle, so she tells the bishies that her sister was merely trying to spare her from having to dance. But why has this change occurred? I assume it’s a change. I assume her ankle wasn’t hurt in the original timeline. And if that’s the case, why would the story rewrite itself to accommodate rKonoha’s desire to be less villainous in the eyes of others?

All of a sudden, a fire breaks out. rKonoha is bewildered by this event, so it must also be new. She quickly assumes that she must have triggered her own death flag, because the story is trying to reset all of the changes she’s been making to the timeline. But this doesn’t really jive with the ankle thing, does it? Why, on the one hand, would there be a new event designed to kill rKonoha if, at the same time, another event comes about just to help clear her name? So it can’t be a death flag. Rather, I think it has to be a romance flag.

Even now, Sol is still suspicious of Iana. Since he’s watching rKonoha’s every move, Iana must seem very bizarre to him. She must seem like two different people. He says as much when he outright asks Iana who she really is. Her being trapped under fallen debris, however, forces him to come to her rescue once again. This time, he gives Iana the classic princess carry to safety. In other words, rKonoha has triggered his romance route. We started a fire only to let her become the damsel in distress. He’s still suspicious of her, but those worries will slowly ebb away as we progress through this new timeline. By why is this happening? And how? Who’s writing this story? rKonoha can only try to change the events from within. She can’t create new events. Why did this fire occur spontaneously? Or is it even spontaneous?

It would be funny if, for example, in her mother’s grief, she had discovered her late daughter’s writing, and is now rewriting it to give Iana a kinder fate. Or something similar to that. I dunno why she would do something like this, but hey, why would anyone get isekai’d in the first place? I suppose I would be disappointed if this fantasy universe is somehow just rearranging itself for rKonoha’s benefit out of nowhere. Anyway, I hope the two chapters per episode thing isn’t a set pattern. I hope we slow down a bit in future episodes. rKonoha is reflecting on her writing a little, but I still want more. ‘Cause damn, her younger self gave iKonoha such a revealing dress for a ball! The king originally saw that and declared her a saint? But we don’t even get to talk about this ’cause there’s just no time!

By the way, I love silly faces in anime. I’m looking forward to an upcoming winter anime series mostly because the heroine is a goober with non-stop gremlin energy.