You heard her, folks. No butt stuff.
The World’s Strongest Rearguard Ep. 9
One of the gajillion girls — there was no chance I’d ever memorize any of their names — has the group playing the king’s game, but nothing saucy happens. What’s the point of having this shameless harem setup if you’re too scared to do anything with your girls? I guess folks like Atobe are just collectors. They hoard toys, then stick them in plastic for safekeeping. God forbid you actually play with your toys.
One of the other gajillion girls reveals her backstory: a monster captured her friend, and she’s desperate to save said friend. That’s it. That’s the backstory. Woo.
Atobe meets an elven witch who can affix runes to the party’s weapons. The witch is very impressed that Atobe collects is close to a demihuman girl. Yup, that’s how we beat discrimination: by entering into an inert relationship where you do nothing but observe them. No touchy, just look.
Atobe hits up the monster ranch to pick up his newly tamed harpies. While he’s there, he meets the biggest cowgirl ever. That’s what this show is: just a random assortment of girls for Atobe to eventually collect befriend.
To convince the harpies to trust him, Atobe literally kneels before them as if he’s proposing. Hah. Welp, three more demihumans for the collection party. What a great show.
Skeleton Knight in Another World S2 Ep. 9
The party finally meets up with Danka, and they learn that beasts keep attacking the nearby villages. We see a hooded stranger drop a bag that lures said beasts to the area, and it’s obviously Sasuke. I mean, c’mon, how can it not be Sasuke? Well, Chiyome asks Danka if he had perhaps been attacked by someone from her clan. He says no, because his attacker had the taint of death on him. Are you guys stupid? How does that preclude Sasuke whatsoever? All it means is that he’s dead and his corpse is now being puppeted by the villains. The party proceeds to rescue yet another village under attack. Ponta then discovers the source: the beasts are just trying to recover their lost (and now dead) child. This ultimately leads the party straight to the hooded stranger… who is none other than Sasuke. Quelle shock! Who could’ve seen that coming! But seriously, I just feel like this show is kinda stupid. It has a stupid plot filled with stupid characters bumbling around, trying to solve racism and failing. But hey, we sadly haven’t solved racism either, so I guess we can’t judge.
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs Season 2 Ep. 9
This episode oscillates wildly between wanton violence and goofy hijinks. The first few minutes are the anime at its most violent. Not only do you have Leon sniping enemy soldiers out of the sky, Frampton is on a rampage. Somehow, a politician manages to free himself from prison. He’s now taking out all of the palace guards en route to getting his revenge on Hertrauda. That’s when Vandel suddenly shows up and pops Frampton’s head like a zit. Literally blood everywhere.
So what do we see next? Julius doing his best Tuxedo Mask impersonation, thinking that his disguise has anybody but the dumbest himbos fooled. Naturally, his buddies have no clue whom they’re talking to.
Then we get to the big battle, where soldiers from both sides are dying left and right. But it’s okay, because love will conquer all. Oddly enough, I mean that in two different ways. Yes, love in both its goofy and serious incarnations. First, the royal ship shoots out a laser beam that is seemingly comprised of heart-shaped particles. It’s so literal, it’s almost funny. But the enemy’s gargantuan guardians heal up any damage they take, so the battle rages on. That means people keep dying. As the true saintess, Olivia has the magical ability to sympathize with literally every combatant in the area — she’s an Empath with a capital ‘E’, you guys! — and this slowly starts to overwhelm her. But when she thinks about who she really wants to protect, images of Leon (barf) start flooding her mind. At last, the girl finally awakens to her true power: love… the serious kind, not the silly heart-shaped kind. Basically, her true love for Leon quells everyone’s rage. Yes, people no longer feel the desire to keep fighting.
Well, almost everyone. The sisters are still pissed, and Vandel is still out there. You gotta save a final battle so Leon can at least look cool. But until then, here… have this ED where Hertrauda’s soon-to-be-dead imouto does a cute, silly dance! That’s my main beef with this episode. One minute, it wants to drive home the horrors of war. The next minute, it wants to be the silly and goofy show it has always been. And I don’t really like it. There’s a scene where the king, i.e., Julius’s father, is freaking out because he can’t find his silly disguise — the same disguise that we just saw Julius prance around in. Dude, what are we doing? We’re in the middle of a war right now!
Yes, I play the Yakuza series, which also bounces between stupid humor and tear-jerking melodrama. But the silly stuff is mostly confined to the side stories. The main story is not just dead serious, it’s sincere about it too. This show only has one plotline. There’s no side story to serve as a release valve, and trying to fit idiotic himbos into a war with thousands of casualties is a little off-putting.
From Overshadowed to Overpowered Ep. 11
Removing the slave crest from Anastasia’s ass requires drawing an elaborate spell on what looks like just 25% of her body, so why did she have to get fully butt-naked? One of those robes that opens in the back would’ve sufficed. But we know why: so the show can inundate us with lurid shots of a would-be sex slave’s body.
Anyway, Eftal draws out the contract god, and it’s Seiryu. Then they do battle. Eftal drops utter nuggets of wisdom like “Heavy attacks should be dodged!” Of course! How didn’t I realize this sooner! Every time I play Elden Ring, I just eat every single blow! Well, now I know!
But there’s nothing else to talk about. It’s just mindless action interrupted by Eftal explaining how he’s able to stand toe to toe with a god. I don’t give a shit about that, so I’m going to end the write-up here.
The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System Ep. 10
I guess it’s human nature to want to rub our haters’ faces in our success. As a result, Ruche’s former party returns from a fruitless farming session to immediately see her reap her rewards. Clown waifu is filthy rich now thanks to her exploits with Elymas. They even get the bounty for inadvertently clearing the dungeon. Oh yeah, they get a free promotion to D-rank. Cline, the guy who kicked Ruche out of the party, now debases himself in a poor attempt to win her back. I mean, c’mon, did he really think it would work? The other girl is chill, at least. She didn’t really defend Ruche when Cline cut the girl out of the money split, but at least she’s rolling with the punches.
I don’t mind our duo living the high life for a brief moment and ordering extravagant dishes. 8000 gold is nothing when you just got tens of millions of gold as a reward. I also don’t mind Elymas sticking with their 80/20 split. He did offer it up to convince her to join him. But it’s a bit weird how Elymas is already acting like their time together will be over soon. Plus, there was never a chance in hell that clown waifu would accept the lion’s share of the reward.
Elymas eventually returns to the crone in order to try and sell their loot at a high price. At first, both sides are unwilling to give an inch. Elymas knows he has to work with the old woman in the future, so he doesn’t want to appear weak right off the bat. But that’s when clown waifu suggests trading all of their drops directly for the skillbook that Elymas wants so badly. Basically, she’s sacrificing her share of the money for his sake. Eh, I get why. She’s grateful that he believes in her, he helped raise her level, they’ll keep working together, blah blah blah. But I don’t like it. It’s like when she followed her previous party’s advice and put all her points into luck. Now she’s doing the same thing again by over-investing in Elymas. It’s just not wise, and Elymas shouldn’t let her do it. Obviously, he is the pure-hearted protagonist who would never betray his clown waifu, but it’s the principle, man! Nevertheless, Ruche and the crone seal the deal, so Elymas gets his super important skillbook. As they like to say, happy (clown) waifu, happy laifu.
Elsewhere, we see Malice — who names their kid Malice? — walk into a jail cell and murder a prisoner. This is apparently how she farms XP. Rather than grinding for it on monsters like normal folks, they let her execute the convicted in front of other nobles. The crowd, however, is mortified by what they see. What the hell are they doing here then? Sheesh, go home. Moreover, I had to laugh at GoHands giving us multiple angles of Malice before she performs the grisly deed. Kinda excessive, no?
Judging by the previews, it looks like Elymas and Ruche will have a potentially violent encounter with his father and Malice. But why, I wonder? Is it because news of his success has reached them and they can’t stand it? Pfft, probably. Haters gotta hate.
As a parting gift, have a silly clown waifu reaction face.
Hell Mode S2 Ep. 9
Seeing Allen bark out orders and strategizing how best to defend themselves against a massive siege, it would’ve been nice if we had seen the kids study military science during their time at the academy. Literally just one or two scenes would’ve sufficed. But all we ever got to see was them grinding dungeons and dungeons nonstop. Back in the present, all we get are generic battle scenes, and they’re barely even animated.
It would vastly be more interesting if the show actually got into the nitty-gritty of military science. For instance, the demon lord immediately mobilized four million troops. How is he doing it? Where are the resources coming from? How are there so many demons? How do they even manage to build enough ships to carry all these soldiers across the ocean? But this show’s world-building is ass, so… shrug.
Ultimately, there’s nothing for me to say here. We simply see Allen’s army of summons take out hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers. That’s it. That’s the war in a nutshell. Then after they successfully defend themselves, they have to prepare for even more battles to come — like sending his summons out to scout the enemy. Yawn…
Watching this show is strangely making me look forward to the next Fire Emblem game. I actually think that series has terrible storytelling, but compared to this anime, it might as well be War and Peace. But hey, Dogora finally gets to play an active role! That counts for something, right?
