Sadly, the theme of this post is revenge.
The Holy Grail of Eris
Anime heroines tend to get humiliated by their fiancés. I wonder why this is such a common premise. Well, we once have that all too familiar setup. Thanks to yet another useless loser of an anime dad, Constance is engaged to Neil Bronson — the Neil Bronson, apparently. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pamela, just some random hater, intends to frame our dear, innocent heroine for stealing. But this is still her fiancé’s fault. Marriage of convenience or not, he’s still two-timing Constance behind her back. He wasn’t even sly enough to keep it on the down low. Not only have people been gossiping about it, his own fiancée stumbles upon them in the act. Worst of all, Neil’s a mega-wimp as the woman he’s supposed to marry is having her name dragged through the mud. In fact, they’re all mega-wimps here for some reason. Multiple eyewitnesses refuse to come to Constance’s aid, and for what? Do they fear Pamela or something? Or is this high society really that scared of rocking the boat? Ah, what is a poor girl to do?
Thankfully, Constance had previously invited a ghost into her home. And also thankfully, this ghost, whose name is Scarlett, was also humiliated by her fiancé (who was none other than the crown prince himself). Wow, what a coincidence! In fact, she was even beheaded for a crime she didn’t commit. The coincidences are crazy. But what separates her from Constance is that she’s a strong, outspoken baddie. As soon as she possesses Constance, she immediately dismantles Pamela’s false accusations with her confidence and aura. Not only that, she reveals the affair to everyone in attendance, which allows the engagement to be annulled. Is that how it’s done? I don’t know, I haven’t really bothered to learn the ins and outs of European aristocrats. In fact, do we even know if Constance wanted the engagement annulled? Oh well, the damage is done. We soon see the tragic couple — the Neil Bronson and his affair partner — dancing until the girl’s feet are bloodied. Uh, why? I agree that cheaters are scum, but this punishment feels disproportionate. But I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that this society is cruel and unusual (even though they’re also huge cowards). After all, Scarlett had been publicly executed. Hell, Constance had front row seats, and none of the adults even made a move to protect the child.
So now what? In exchange for helping her, Scarlett wants Constance’s assistance in getting her revenge. The meek and timid Constance will now have to stick her head in places where it doesn’t belong — in places that could possibly get her killed. Again, one of the people who wronged Scarlett was the crown prince. Sure, Scarlett can assume manual control and help Constance talk her way out of trouble. But Scarlett presumably tried to do this when she was alive, and… well, the results speak for themselves. I’m not so concerned about the circumstances surrounding Scarlett’s death. It’s unfortunate, to be sure, but Constance sounds like someone who just wants to live a peaceful life. Thanks to a false accusation from a bitter rival — and an ounce of kindness to a ghost — she has now found herself embroiled in a huge mess that has nothing to do with her.
By the way, who is Eris?
ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword
Well, speaking of revenge, here’s another one. Flum Apricot (what a name), our protagonist, is chosen to be one of the heroes destined to save the world, but she doesn’t even understand her own power or how it works. As a result, she seems weak and useless. Her stats are literally zeros across the board. All she can do is cook for her party and do other miscellaneous chores. Nevertheless, the sage of the group is jealous of her. Unfortunately, he doesn’t just kick her out; he literally sells her into slavery. Why does he have to go that far? Why not just literally send her home? It would’ve taken less time and effort just to say, “Yo, beat it. We don’t want your useless ass anymore.” Because the evil people in this story are just that extra. They’re so over-the-top that it borders on being comical. The rest of the party isn’t much better. They simply trusted his word! No one even bothered to check and make sure that Flum got home safely. So not only is Flum now branded as a slave, she thinks the rest of her friends sold her out. Well, they might as well have with their complete lack of follow-through.
Remember how I said evil people in this anime are extra? Flum’s slave owner can’t sell her and a few other slaves, because they apparently have no value on the market (which I find hard to believe because Flum can do chores, but this is neither here nor there). But the bastard isn’t content with simply ridding himself of his useless stock. He has to summon ghouls to eat them. To make matters even worse, he gives the slaves a weapon to defend themselves, but it’s cursed. Just touching the sword makes your skin slough off. It’s just not interesting when the villains are so one-dimensional. In a vacuum, this slave owner’s actions are obviously appalling. But in the context of the show, it just makes me roll my eyes. Then again, they keep making these shows, so what do I know? Well, you can probably tell where this is going: our not-so-useless-after-all heroine has no problems wielding the forbidden blade, because her special ability reverses all of her stats. Therefore, a terribly cursed sword might as well be Excalibur in her hands. So okay, she’s technically overpowered like most anime protagonists. She then proceeds to kill the slave owner and escape with one of the other slaves in tow — the cute one cosplaying as a mummy.
But I like I said, evil people are extra, so as soon as the two girls find themselves in town, a bunch of men just stand there and grin at them like fucking idiots. Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe. It’s like that stupid lizard meme, but they’re all rapey anime dudes instead of a cute reptile. I swear, this shit feels like a comedy. We’re supposed to scared or concerned for the girls’ safety, but instead, I’m laughing. Anyway, Flum knows that she and her pal need to make money if they’re going to survive, so she and her friend head straight for (you guessed it) the adventurer’s guild. Unfortunately, it’s also full of grinning, likely rapey bastards. Still, Flum manages to get a quest assigned to her. She’s intended to die on said quest, but you know she won’t. She’ll come back alive to the shock of all the “hehehe” men, then they’ll probably try to attack her and her new friend, and… well, they should die to the cursed sword. Why put Flum through all this? Because she has the gall to still have hope and optimism. We gotta stamp that out if we want our heroine to become just as cold and merciless as the men who have wronged her! Do I even need to watch the second episode? I guess I will just to see if my predictions bear out. Still, although this show is slightly different from the usual “I got kicked from the hero’s party,” it’s not that different. Probably “Everything else” fodder.
Between these two shows, I’m leaning towards The Holy Grail of Eris, but not by much. There are still a couple more shows to watch, but I haven’t had lunch. So yeah, I’ll have to check out Champignon Witch later tonight along with that anime about the invisible husband.
