When we last left off… um, well, Scarlet sums it up pretty succinctly in the screenshot above. So what are we going to do now? We can’t exactly punch nations… unless… but first, the story insists on holding a strategy conference to discuss the state of the realm, and I’m already groaning internally. Uh-huh, we’re being invaded on multiple fronts, all hope is loss, yadda, yadda, yadda. Can we just cut straight to the heart of the matter already? This is when Julius introduces Alflame, that meat head from so many episodes ago, to the party. The prince of Vankish has a proposal for Julius and Pallistan, which quickly gets everyone else up in arms. Their distaste, especially Scarlet’s, is understandable, but considering Pallistan’s current predicament, at least hear the meat head out before outright rejecting the proposal. But much to her brother’s chagrin, Scarlet tends to punch first and ask questions later.

To make a long story short, Alflame wants Pallistan’s support in his upcoming bid for the Vankish throne. In return, his nation’s air force will throw their considerable weight behind Pallistan in fending off the monster horde. But really? All he wants is the throne? He’s not going to even try and negotiate for Scarlet’s hand in marriage. Not that she would agree, but hey, it’s worth a shot. Plus, both our heroine’s and Julius’s reactions would be pretty amusing.

As for the rest of the conference? Falconia’s heart isn’t in it, so if Pallistan can convince them to stand down, it might also get Eldrand to stand down. Nanaka and Dios must then travel to the northern border and negotiate peace with the elves and beastkin. Yep, this is probably the first time I’m not enjoying an episode of this series. Just a bunch of talking heads around a table, discussing boring strategy instead of taking action. Scarlet should be punching shit, and when she’s done punching shit, someone can run up to her and say, “Scarlet, you need to go here because x, y, and z,” or, “Oh no, the negotiations have failed!” Something to that effect. The end. No boring exposition needed. Of course, the story wouldn’t exactly play out this way, because I don’t know what happens later, but you get my point. You don’t need to do a scene like this where everyone literally sits down at a table and dryly talks things through. You can still do a scene like this, but you better nail the atmosphere and dialogue. It better be tense and suspenseful as all hell, keeping us at the edge of our seats like a political thriller. But this ain’t that.

Everyone has their marching orders, so we see Scarlet join up with Alflame and his men in order to slay monsters. The horde is supposed to number 50,000 strong, but I don’t think this show can really animate that — any show, really. So instead, we only get to see Scarlet punch and kick a handful of orcs at a time. It would take more than a handful of handfuls in order to add up to 50,000, but let’s just overlook that for the sake of expediency.

But this episode has a bigger problem: I don’t care about orcs or generic monsters. If I wanted to watch heroes slaughter orcs, I can pick and choose from a gazillion other shows. Generic fantasy anime is a dime a dozen. Hell, I can fire up any copy of Zelda and do it myself. This show is fun because Scarlet takes on people and institutions that are normally untouchable: the corrupt aristocracy, the evil prime minister, weirdo cults worshipping equally evil goddesses, a couple of princes, so on and so forth. She doesn’t even hesitate to punch an isekai heroine! Meanwhile, mindless orcs are nothing by comparison. At best, they have no analogue to our own world. At worst, they represent the boogeyman of the so-called foreign invaders that certain politicians like to rant and rave about. “Argh, they’re pouring through our weak borders, raping our women, and pillaging our beautiful, rich nation! They can’t be assimilated! They can’t even understand our language! This is the fall of society!” Basically, I’m not interested in watching our heroine waste her time with this shit. Scarlet even says it outright that there are worse individuals she has and could be punching instead.

Nevertheless, we can’t end this episode without a “final boss,” but I’ll make it quick: she punches the orc king hard, and she punches him repeatedly. The end. But this “final boss” perfectly demonstrates my point: it’s not how you punch, but who you punch. I couldn’t care less about some random orc, so wake me up when May I Ask for One Final Thing? gets back to punching someone who matters.

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Stray thoughts & observations:

• The anime shows us a glimpse of what it looks like for Snowind to evacuate, but this isn’t a whole lot of people. Hell, it doesn’t even come close to filling up an apartment complex. Maybe most of the folks have left, and these are just the remaining stragglers. Even so… eh.
• I’ll never understand anime’s obsession with head pats. But hey, maybe I’m the one who has been missing out. I certainly don’t remember getting them as a kid. My parents have deprived me of something that anime and JRPG characters cherish so dearly! Why, mother, why!
• It turns out Nanaka had disguised himself as Julius to try and pull a fast one on his master. After all, it doesn’t make sense why the crown prince of all people would abandon his duties just to come see his love interest. Luckily, Nanaka has an excuse: he had been brainwashed by Terenezza, and this was the best idea she could come up with. Good for him, because I feel like impersonating a prince has to be a pretty hefty crime.
• The southern nation gets no love. Just a bunch of SEELE-wannabes sitting in the middle of the nebulous black nowhere.
• Damn, so Pallistan kinda sucks…
• Pallistan is a landlocked nation, right? So the monsters are coming from another nation? In fact, Julius is pointing at Falconia. So how do they deal with the monster hordes? Literally 50,000 of them crossing over from Falconia to Pallistan — how does this even work? What were the monsters doing before there was a gap in Pallistan’s defenses?
• The Vankish troops refer to her as the Inferno Bride. Delusional men all serving under one delusional commander.
• Yo, wrong show.