When we last left off with Xylo and gang, a bunch of people had decided to shelter in place instead of evacuating the city. As a result, our heroes, who are already short on manpower, have to protect these folks against a seemingly unending horde of faeries. So as you can imagine, it would help a lot if the civilians could lend a hand and fight for their lives. It doesn’t take long before Rhyno offers his two cents on the matter. He definitely thinks like a Demon Lord. “Oh, you consider this unethical?” Bro, c’mon. How long have you pretended to be human? You still haven’t picked up on basic human ethics? Then again, there are actual humans around us who still haven’t picked on basic human ethics.
Nevertheless, everyone now has their roles and responsibilities. Jayce tries to offer air support while avoiding artillery fire from one of those greedy adventurers. Rhyno and Tatsuya will attempt to protect the civilians still holed up in the city. Venetim tries to get Tsav ready for action. Dotta provides reconnaissance as always. Norgulle is… being Norgulle: somehow effectively leading his men despite his delusions of grandeur. Last but not least, Xylo and Teoritta attempt to retake some strategically important tower. So important that we can only spare two people for the job. So important that Xylo just has his team blow it up anyway. Where are the rest of the humanity’s fighting forces? Prioritizing the VIPs, of course.
As I’m watching Tatsuya go berserk on the faeries, I can’t help but be reminded that they’ve never raised the stakes in this series. We’ve been told from the very beginning that our heroes can’t escape their fates. Even if they die, they’ll just get resurrected. The true problem with death, supposedly, is the loss of memory and their sense of self. This terrible fate looms over them… but it has never happened. Not once in eleven episodes. Not once in all their harrowing encounters with the encroaching horde of demons. Most of the deaths have unsurprisingly belonged to faceless soldiers. Other than them, who else? Lideo? That’s it, really. This isn’t one of those harder hitting shows where it feels like anyone important could die. Everyone just has too much plot armor to really keep me at the edge of my seat. At one point, Xylo says to Teoritta that they “might both die in the process.” But I can’t feel any of the tension, because I don’t believe it’ll happen.
Elsewhere, Kivia delegates her responsibilities to her underlings, because she feels she has to personally take care of her uncle. Again, I don’t think this is smart. I know this is personal for her. But even if she succeeds in putting Marlen down, she’s going to lose her current role as captain of the Holy Knights. And with that, she’s going to lose all the privilege that her current role entails. She might win the battle, but she will lose the war. And you can imagine what sort of punishment she’ll get. In order to suppress what she knows, they’re definitely going to make her a hero. If that happens, she will essentially become just another slave. From the very first episode, Xylo swore that he would get revenge. But has he gotten any closer to his goal in the past eleven episodes? Hell no. He’s been too busy just trying to survive. That’s the fate that awaits Kivia if she continues to pursue this personal vendetta.
For Xylo and Teoritta, however, their assault on the tower just feels like a video game, and not a very good video game either. First, we get what initially looks like a miniboss, but our foe barely puts up a fight. Shiji Bau shows up around the fourteen minute mark, then gets fireballed at around the fifteen minute mark. A minute. A whole goddamn minute. That’s apparently all that money can buy you in this economy. Welp, sayonara, Shiji Bau! We hardly knew ye. She should’ve prayed for this anime to be a long-running shounen. In a different show, her fight would’ve lasted at least three episodes, including a tear-jerker of a backstory told through a momentum-killing flashback. Instead, they just roast her like a corn on a cob in Sentenced to Be a Hero. But y’know, it could’ve been worse. Literally half a minute later, Rhyno takes out Iron Whale, the heavily armored, artillery spamming mercenary. Welp, that’s that, I suppose. Gotta reserve the rest of the episode for Boojum. No wonder the demons hate us. when they try to hire us, we certainly don’t send our very best!
Unfortunately, Boojum doesn’t deliver on the goods either. He was freakier and far more uncanny when he was disguised as a human. In his actual form, he’s just some purple humanoid thing with an obvious video game boss weak spot. This true form is certainly far less interesting to see in action, especially when he just stands there and flings purple stuff. Literally purple stuff. Mmm, look at all the purple. A veritable storm of purple. What a dynamic action scene. Even when Xylo seemingly has the advantage, Boojum continues to fling even more purple stuff. “Smithers, are they booing me?” “No, they’re saying, ‘Boojums, Boojums!'” Nah, I’m saying boo. For a penultimate episode, this shit sucks. Where was the choreography? Where was the creativity?
Well, Xylo and Teoritta wins. Spriggan is still out there somewhere, but at the moment, the whole thing with Kivia and her uncle feels like the only compelling plot thread left in the series. Who knows? Maybe they saved all their budget and creative juices for the Spriggan fight, but I’m not putting my money on it.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Kivia asks her uncle which unit first spotted the faeries in the city. I’m not sure why his answer is suspicious, but she clearly thinks otherwise. Seems like everything he says and does is confirming her worst fears. Maybe some small detail that was mentioned a week ago, but y’know, it was a week ago.
— I recognize this lady, but I know next to nothing about her. She just shows up and does stuff. Rarely has any interactions with any of the main characters, and certainly none of those interactions have been meaningful.
— Boojum talks about the need to respect worthy foes. Uh huh. Supposedly, his lord also shares this opinion. Ah yes, the one in charge of all this destruction and mayhem is also very honorable.
— I still think they could’ve done more with the Holy Sword’s design. It’s just so… plain. It’s like rocking up to the end of Dark Souls with a broadsword.
