Well, at least it isn’t bikini armor.
The World’s Strongest Rearguard Ep. 8
This universe has a bizarre mechanic where the dungeon will periodically vomit out monsters in order to “address the balance.” Basically, the adventurers have been killing too many mobs outside the dungeon. So then what is the point in fighting back? Sure, you have to protect yourself, but won’t this just lead to the dungeon spitting out more mobs? Or have I got that wrong? In all likelihood, this is probably just a cheap bit of world-building that I shouldn’t think too deeply about.
The team splits up to protect the city and save people. Cue a bunch of generic action scenes and Atobe screaming basic orders. Be extremely careful, he commands! Oh, of course! Why didn’t I think of that! Here I was, just jerking off in the middle of the city!
As it turns out, there are ugly monsters and there are cute monsters. Guess what you can do with the cute monsters! You can tame them at a ranch and eventually summon them to do your bidding! Just make sure you give them one of your patented harem lead bear hugs! Never let cuties out of your grasp! Then you, uh, tie them up like so and ship them off to the ranch. Totally innocent.
Anyway, they fight a Named mob, which is just an even bigger, pinker version of the ugly mobs from earlier. Atobe ends up having to summon Ariadne, the… lady god thing they found in that so-called labyrinth. So… are there drawbacks to this? How often can they summon her? Does it require a lot of MP or what? No explanation. We get zilch. Instead, Atobe finds himself yet another girl to recruit in the aftermath. What are we up to? Three harpies and a merchant girl. Geez, how many ladies do you need to hump you at night before you call it quits?
His party’s heroics earn them the right to move to the next district without taking an exam. Atobe still wants to do it anyway, which pisses Elitia off. Uh-oh, sounds like trouble in paradise. I guess he’ll have one less visitor tonight. On the other hand, Igarashi puts on a maid costume and starts roleplaying by calling Atobe her master. Yeah, I’m not even going to get into this. Episode’s over, folks. Go home.
Skeleton Knight in Another World S2 Ep. 8
The party is headed for the southern continent, so they have to hop on a boat. Since we’re also chasing down Danka’s attacker, it’s also a Chiyome and Sasuke backstory episode. Pretty standard stuff, though: Chiyome was the sole survivor of an attack on her village. We even get a scene where her mother sacrificed herself to protect Chiyome. Sasuke then found the girl, took her in, and trained her, so on and so forth. He started off more of a big brother to Chiyome, but this is anime, so… you know. I know you know. I don’t need to elaborate. Then as soon as we’re done with Chiyome’s backstory, a kraken attacks. This is basically the problem with this show and every other show like it. The backstory was full of cliches, and now we’re fighting a kraken as expected. It’s all just very unoriginal. It doesn’t feel like this series is even trying to do anything new. The only slightly fun bit is when they arrive at the southern continent. Arc promptly sets up a food stand to serve grilled kraken. I’ll pass. Fresh calamari is supposed to be tender, but all the ones I’ve had were like chewing rubber.
As for Danka, he has apparently left town. But right before the credits, we see someone — probably Sasuke — carrying a bag that quivers as if something is fighting to get free. Hmmmm…
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs Season 2 Ep. 8
The main ship can only be powered by love, so we get to see a bit where Marie scores pitifully with each of the capture targets. We already knew this, though; we already knew she had no respect for them. I guess this is just confirmation. We also learn that the king has even less love and affection for the queen than she does for him. I guess this is the green light Leon needs to justify stealing her away. Last but not least, Olivia and Angelica try to drag Leon onto the device, but he’s being a lil’ pissy baby about it. Nevertheless, we learn that Olivia and Angelica dearly love each other. It would actually be somewhat subversive if they became a yuri couple and ditched the generic NPC protagonist, but you know they won’t. Olivia and Angelica’s top score simply provides further justification for the harem route, i.e. there’s no problem having multiple wives when the wives also love each other.
After this, a bunch of generic war scenes occur. The end result is Leon feeling as though he has been pushed to the limit. Basically, he is ready to kill. But the execution sucks ass, because the story doesn’t have the balls to make this escalation meaningful. What triggers Leon’s anger is hearing that Daniel’s ship got shot down. We quickly learn, however, that Daniel is fine, just unconscious. Hell, the show didn’t even have the guts to make us think he died. So like with a lot of shows this season, the payoff is completely unearned.
Next week’s episode is just titled “Livia,” so I assume she’ll finally awaken to her true powers. Good, just get this shit over with.
From Overshadowed to Overpowered Ep. 10
So this is the episode where we remove the special slave crest on Anastasia’s ass, right? Pfft, of course not. We have bigger things to worry about like… checks notes …a curse turning Merlin and Anastasia into littl-… -er girls. Okay, okay, Merlin is a woman, but you know what I mean. This is ridiculous.
What follows would normally be considered a comedy of errors, but there is nothing comedic here. Merlin and Anastasia need to get into her office, so they almost get caught by the school guards, they overhear Merlin’s students badmouthing her, then they enlist help from Maria multiple times. And what’s the big payoff? Getting to have a naked dip in the hot springs with Eftal. I thought this stupid diversion would take maybe half an episode at best, but no, From Overshadowed to Overpowered actually devotes an entire episode to this bullshit. Only at the end do we get back on track, but time’s up so you’ll have to wait until next week if you want to see Anastasia be free.
Oh yeah, Eftal finally asks why the magic in the world has considerably weakened. Well, something happened when they humanity tried to investigate a peculiar monolith amidst even more peculiar-looking ruins. Yeah, yeah, the buildings look like they come from the modern day. Just whatever. Until From Overshadowed to Overpowered does more with this, it ultimately means nothing.
The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System Ep. 9
I’ve complained about this before, but they really overdid it with the opening recap this week. It takes literally four minutes before we’re back to where we should’ve started — four minutes and twenty-five seconds to be exact. I’ve never seen anything like this. Then it takes another three minutes for Ruche to convince Elymas to let her fight by his side. The entire time, the dungeon boss is just floating there. I guess it’s too much of a gentleman to attack. Gotta let our heroes have their breakthrough moment, y’know? EIther that or this is secretly a turn-based JRPG. Anyway, we’re over seven minutes into the episode by this point. I’m thinking, “Oh, we’re skipping the OP to leave more room for storytelling, right?”
Unsurprisingly, it takes basically all episode for these two to clear this encounter. Ruche can one-hit the boss, but she needs to roll a six on an attack. Cue dramatic running, jumping, and flipping… only for clown waifu to roll a four. Elymas thinks they’re screwed. It’s over! It’s never been so over! But then Ruche surprises him by — get this — attacking the boss a second time.
Elymas should be celebrating with clown waifu, but he has to sit there and think about things. Gosh, I was underestimating Ruche just like my old man underestimated me! Then they discussed their drops, which includes an extremely rare and valuable skill book. And just like that, the episode is over.
Next week’s episode is titled “Negotiation,” so lemme guess: it’s going to take an entire episode for Elymas to haggle with the crone who sells scavenged items. The funny thing is, I actually thought to myself, “Oh, we met her just a couple of episodes ago, right?” Nope. I had to go back and check. Elymas met her back in episode five. This whole situation with Ruche — meeting the girl, convincing the girl to join him, farming rare loot with the girl, then clearing the dungeon with the girl — took four whole ass weeks to tell. Good lord.
I know this show is continuing in the fall. How much do you think we’ll cover by episode 24 or whatever? At this rate, it can’t be much.
Hell Mode S2 Ep. 8
As a reward for saving, well, pretty much the entire elven kingdom, Allen gets to talk to their “deity” Lord Rohzen. He’s more like… a game developer, though — this game’s developer — because Allen starts begging for his team to get upgrades. He initially wants them all to be on Hell Mode like him, but that’s a no go. Lord Rohzen isn’t high up on the totem pole. Maybe he’s just a junior developer. So fine, Allen wants to give his friends the ability to promote their classes instead. Still a no-go… unless they exchange all of their EXP for it. So basically, it’s like one of those JRPGs where you have to start over from level one whenever you change jobs. Sure, whatever. As long as you get to retain your skills, it’s not that big of a deal.
What’s funny to me is that Allen is having this conversation out in the open. No one else has any clue what they’re talking about. I’m glad, however, that he doesn’t keep hiding everything from his own party. If there’s one good thing about this episode, it’s Allen finally revealing the truth to his friends. Hell, he even tells them that he used to be a 35-year-old before he died. Maybe that’s why this isekai has been strangely lacking in terms of romance. Call Allen whatever you want, e.g. a poopsocker who has terrible taste in games and needs to touch grass, but maybe he isn’t a pedo like a certain other isekai hero*? Well, the series ain’t over yet, so we’ll see. The elven princess is down to marry Allen, and they are the same age. On the other hand, she looks and acts like a child so eh… Anyway, I only wish the rest of the party had more depth to them. Yes, they want an explanation from Allen, but they also readily accept whatever the hell he tells them. There’s no pushback from anyone. They’re just so flat and uninteresting as characters.
Does Allen negotiate anything for himself from Lord Rohzen? Not really. He just requests a talent for his little sister — a minor one that gives her a 1-star class. Wait, doesn’t this make her eligible for the war effort? Or is that just for nobles? Well, by the time she’s old enough to fight, Allen should have defeated the Demon Lord, so no worries, I guess?
What follows is a bunch of poorly-animated war scenes. I’m not gonna cover them. All you need to know is that the Demon Lord’s army has suddenly regrouped and decided to attack one of the elven cities. This will probably be the final battle for the elven front. I’m curious about the queen’s bodyguard, though. He looks pissed, especially when they talk about Allen getting all of the magic stones. What’s his beef? I even wonder if he might have possibly leaked info to the other side, but that might be going too far.
*It sucks, ’cause, like, the other show is way better at storytelling, way better at world-building, has animation that doesn’t make you cringe, so on and so forth. It’s just superior across the board… except for the pedo thing.