Hm, for some reason, this reminds me of one of those popular memes…
The World’s Strongest Rearguard Ep. 3
Another week, another basic lesson from our favorite rearguard: Atobe good, other men bad! Atobe is so good, he and his harem of girls can defeat the Juggernaut orc all by their lonesome. Other men can’t even get the job done even 24 individuals on the team. Last but not least, Atobe plans to buy his favorite lizard slave. But he’s doing this so she can get her human body back! Of course, of course! No isekai harem lead would ever do anything shady to his slaves!
Skeleton Knight in Another World S2 Ep. 3
The episode opens with a crowd gathered around a clock tower, staring up at the sky. A girl wails away on her flute while her brother scales the tall structure from the outside. When he reaches the clock face, everyone is thus impressed and drops a few coins in the kids’ basket. What nobody notices, however, is a shady man in a cloak observing everything quietly. Lemme guess… he’s going to try and sell these kids on the slave market? To be fair, the magical bird at the end of last week’s episode already warned us about this.
Sure enough, the next time we see the boy, the girl is missing. But the boy isn’t exactly innocent. During one of his many performances, he climbed too high and caused parts of the building to crumble and fall onto his sister. As a result, slavers have been using him. If he helps them spot prime candidates to kidnap, then they’ll pay for his sister’s recovery. This is obviously a lie, but what’s a dumb, desperate street urchin to do? Unfortunately for the slavers, they tried to kidnap the wrong dark elf.
Luckily, Arc and Ariane are here to resolve this local human trafficking issue in a single episode. I don’t think I need to detail how they do it either. Arc is a literal cheat code, after all. Sadly, our duo can’t fix the larger, societal problem, so we keep having this same subplot over and over and over. Seriously, it’s starting to get repetitive. Well, the magical bird shows up again, and this time, it compels Ariane to hurry back to her sister. Maybe we’ll get a reprieve from the slavery storyline? Ahhhh, don’t get your hopes up. Will we ever see the kid and his sister again? Probably not. Out of sight, out of mind. Slavery comes to a stop when you stop looking, y’know?
The most amusing part of the episode is when Ariane doesn’t hesitate to clock the kid for staying mum about the slavers. You normally shouldn’t hit children, but I think there are rare exceptions like… oh, I dunno, people (including children) literally being sold off to other countries. Now’s not the time to buy him ice cream in an attempt to curry favor. The dumbest part, however, is when they all leave the sister behind and defenseless in order to raid the slavers’ hideout. How careless can you be? But again, you need not worry because Arc is a cheat code.
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs Season 2 Ep. 3
Everyone gets their fortunes told. Marie is told she has already met and lost her soul mate. They can never meet again. Assuming that the elf chieftain truly has the power of prognostication, I can’t even imagine whom she might be referring to. Oh well, sucks to be Marie. Plus, if the old woman is right, then we can at least rest assured that Marie won’t end up in a relationship with her literal brother from a previous life. Anyway, Hertrude gets told that she will meet her soul mate. Uh-huh. It’s probably just Leon. Olivia and Angelica’s fortunes merely double down on Leon being their future husband. Last and very least, the old woman falls asleep before she can tell Leon anything. Ah well, he’s the harem protagonist of an isekai anime, so does he really need to have his fortunes told? Spoiler: he wins every fight and marries every woman. The end.
Afterwards, everyone hears Yumeria’s sob story, so Leon offers to have her become a live-in maid for his parents. Just a live-in maid, huh? He won’t lay a finger on her? We’ll see. But this assurance is enough to make a friend out of Kyle, so I guess mother and son are both equally gullible. On the other hand, Leon probably isn’t interested in the elf milf, because he still needs to conquer the queen milf (see above).
The rest of the episode is merely setup for the next major plot beat. Leon hands out ships and armor to the other male classmates, figuring that he can profit off of them when they come crawling to him for repairs. Meanwhile, Leon had to destroy a dangerous artifact on the way home, so he returns to the palace empty-handed. As a result, Marquis Frampton pays someone to frame Leon with conspiracy to commit treason. Hm, maybe handing out all those ships and armors wasn’t such a good idea after all. Ah well, Leon is super powerful, right? So why doesn’t he just conquer the entire kingdom?
From Overshadowed to Overpowered Ep. 5
Before Eftal can enroll, he needs to pass two exams. Needless to say, he aces both of them. Actually, he destroys them. It’s what you see all the time in anime series of this sort. Main character shows up, destroys the competition, everyone is shocked and awed. Yawn. Nevertheless, fans of this genre can’t get enough of this slop. Okay, so let’s take this to its logical conclusion: if Eftal is so damn skilled and smart with magic, he should be teaching. But no, the school decides to make him a “special elite student.” In other words, they’re going to pimp him out for PR. But isn’t this myopic? A child prodigy who becomes a well-known professor is way better PR than a student. People would want to come to your school in order to study under said professor. Nobody comes to a school because there’s a child prodigy. Nobody goes to Harvard because there’s a really smart freshman there. Moreover, Eftal is here for research, right? He wants to give himself magical aptitude or something…? The specifics of his goals don’t really matter. Point is, wouldn’t being a professor be more conducive to whatever he’s trying to accomplish? But no, this is anime where it’s all about being a teenager and living it up vicariously as said teenager. As a result, Eftal remains a student.
Eftal bumps into Merlin, because she’s a guest instructor for the time being. Somehow, she senses her old master in him — I mean, he literally is her old master — but she can’t quite accept that reincarnation is possible. Meanwhile, Eftal won’t come out and simply admit that he has reincarnated. Why? Beats me. He doesn’t really provide a decent explanation for his reluctance. He only says to himself, “If I could say that to her, it would make things so easy, Merlin…” What a bullshit cop-out. They just wanna tease this “will she or won’t she realize the truth one day?” subplot. Fine, he doesn’t want the rest of the world to know he’s the Lightning Emperor reincarnated. But surely, you can trust this information with the woman whom you once raised as your own daughter.
The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System Ep. 4
We still haven’t met clown waifu! You got Shion Wakayama for this role for nothing! Ugh, fine, let’s talk about the raid. The reality is, there’s very little to ever talk about. A show like Clevatess might not have a ton of character depth or development, but the plot is always churning. This isekai, on the other hand, seems to have neither at the moment. We spent an entire episode taking out some wights, and now we’ll take the vast majority of this episode to take out the raid boss. But at least the fights are good, right? Well…
The show is called “The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System.” Unfortunately, the “Game the System” part of the equation must come later — if it comes at all — because I don’t see any damn gaming. I’m not expecting Elymas to do something equivalent to a soul level 1 build that you might see Elden Ring gamers pull off. But damn, where’s the cheese? Where are the exploits? Where is the clever manipulation of in-game mechanics to give yourself an unexpected advantage? Something to show that you’re not just someone who puts in a ton of hours. No, you thoroughly understand this game. And again, maybe this comes later. But for now, none of the fights are all that interesting. Elymas does exactly what you would expect him to do: tank. He tanks the boss long enough for Gowtan to get back on his feet and kill the boss in one hit. Sure.
Grateful for the save, Gowtan not only recommends Elymas for the promotion (from F to E rank), our heavy knight also gets the rare shield that had dropped from the boss. Back at the guild, Elymas earns even more spoils for his effort. People continue to doubt Elymas, but Gowtan comes to the kid’s defense. They don’t continue grouping together, but at least Elymas has a friendly acquaintance. Sadly, it’s all about connections. And… well, that’s it. That’s the whole episode. I feel like I’ve just sat down and it’s already over. Sure, Elymas tells us that he needs to find this super rare skill book in order to make himself self-sufficient. Meh, that’s not really plot. Just hinting at what the next episode will be. So again, where is clown waifu?!
Hell Mode S2 Ep. 3
The kids clear a B-rank dungeon, then eventually move on to tackle an A-rank dungeon. Not much to say here, because the dungeons all look the same, the mobs simply stand around waiting to be attacked, and all dungeon drops eventually get sold for gold. They never discover anything cool that adds interesting lore to the setting, nor do they ever find an amazing, game-changing relic. Worst of all, the action is just so boring. Allen is portrayed as the strategic leader, but he only ever yells out basic orders like “Krena, attack the vitals!” Oh my god, you’re so right! This whole time, I was attacking the monster’s non-vitals!
The most interesting part of the episode is when we take a brief reprieve from dungeon grinding to pay a visit to some of the kids’ respective families. Not really a true visit, mind you. Rather, Allen has one of his bird summons deliver letters. We learn that Allen’s dad will become a chieftain of a new village. Meanwhile, his sister apparently has no talent whatsoever. Welp, no adventuring for her. Last but not least, Allen discusses the intrigue concerning Keel with Cecil’s father. I guess someone’s trying to scam the boy precisely because he’s a healer; those individuals are often tricked into staying on the front lines longer than necessary, because their talent is so sought after. But this is just a small part of the episode.
In the end, the kids get separated in the A-rank dungeon when some of them trigger a teleport trap. As a result, we get a cliffhanger where Allen and the rest of the group have to hurry on their totally-not-chocobos to save their friends. Yawn. I’ll be very, very surprised if anyone dies here. It’s not that I want anyone to die, but this show can’t build any tension to save its life.
