Damn, you can train your skin to not bruise? Now that’s amazing skincare.
Even Though I’m a Super Timid Noble Girl, I Accepted the Bet From My Cunning Fiancé Ep. 3
The first half of the episode is Pia spending time with Erin both at school and at the latter’s house. While it’s nice to see Pia branch out and strengthen a relationship with someone other than Rufus, their exchanges have been utterly banal. There’s nothing here that I find interesting enough to write about.
The second half of the episode contains significantly more intrigue. Rufus tells Pia that his father has fallen ill, but in reality, he was poisoned. Not only that, bandits apparently broke into Pia’s office in an attempt to steal her research. Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that she’s technically a doctor now. Y’know, the Ph.D kind, not the M.D. that we’re accustomed to. Rufus leaves his fiancee completely in the dark as to the maelstrom surrounding her. Sure, he doesn’t want to worry her, but where do we draw the line? Not only should a couple not lie to each other, she’s directly involved. She’s partly why they’re under attack.
On the other hand, can Pia truly handle the burden of knowledge? She freaks herself out enough about Caroline, the supposed heroine of the setting. Now that she’s befriended Erin, she’s not just concerned for herself. She doesn’t want to see her friend lose her fiance to this girl either. At this point, I almost want Caroline to be a red herring. We’ve seen more than enough shows where the heroine is actually the antagonist. The political drama concerning Rufus’s family should be more than enough. We don’t need to throw in an evil heroine on top of everything. As much as I enjoyed An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess, one of the few things I didn’t like was how Heronia was stuck being a stupid antagonist who could not stray from her path until she lost her familiar. I’m not interested in seeing Caroline reprise the same, overused role.
Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Ep. 3
This week’s episode is incredibly light on plot. The play is a huge success, so the princess wants to personally meet Nia. Other than that, however, our diminutive, pugilistic maiden spends most of the episode beating up the mafia. Y’see, news of those thugs getting thrashed last week made it back to their boss. I’m not sure how. Maybe they’re honest, lil’ boys who can’t tell no lies~ Regardless, the mafia boss sends his personal bodyguard to take care of Nia. But as you can see from the screenshot above, a direct punch doesn’t even faze the girl. So she beats him up, then she beats up even more goons. And that’s it. That’s the episode.
Oh yeah, I guess the maid is a creep now. I hate how anime can casually joke about a grown woman wanting to kiss a little girl. Nia won’t do it, but she should beat her maid up too.
The World’s Strongest Witch Ep. 3
Elmina sends Lorna into a dungeon, but she doesn’t just expect the girl to fail. She expects the girl to get trapped on the second floor with no way out. She even gives the girl a fake escape item. She wants Lorna to die, no? I don’t see how else you’re supposed to interpret Elmina’s intentions.
Naturally, Lorna sleepwalks through the entire dungeon thanks to the walkthroughs on the internet. She even defeats the dungeon boss due to the encounter being poorly QA’d (the boss can’t reach you if you hide behind the altar in the room). So Lorna gets a bunch of levels, a robe that lets her fly, and an item bag that holds 50 slots. Just another day in the life of the strongest witch, I guess. The show isn’t exactly riveting, but I suppose if you’ve played bad JRPGs before, there’s some charm to it.
Elmina is forced to pass Lorna, because she’s deathly afraid of the girl. Meanwhile, Lorna looks up Elmina’s info on the internet and learns that the woman dies later in the story. First, what story? Is this show supposed to have an overarching plot? I guess the special tree in the forest did assign Lorna a quest to save the world or whatever. But if there’s supposed to be a story, I hope it becomes much more prominent.
Second, Elmina is featured in the OP, so she’ll obviously become a friend. Lorna will probably save the girl from whatever threat she’s facing. But for me, it’s hard to look past the fact that Lorna was just supposed to die in the dungeon if things had gone according to Elmina’s plan. She technically had murderous intentions.
A Tale of the Secret Saint Ep. 4
This week, Fia has to work with the Fourth Monster Tamer Knight Brigade. All of the members in that corps have familiars, which she’ll be caring for. Even monsters need to take their medicine. Well, isn’t that grand? Fia has a familiar, too! Unfortunately, her familiar is a black dragon, which would cause an uproar. As a result, she has to tell Zavilia to disguise himself as a weak ass bird. On the plus side, the new captain is a jackass, so Zavilia gets to stand up for Fia by freely insulting him as a dumb bird. But that’s about it. This show doesn’t have any real objective or anything. It’s almost like a slice-of-life series. We’re just following Fia as she goes about her daily life as a knight-in-training, which has sadly not been very engaging. I guess you could say that her primary goal is to get strong enough to avoid being killed by her brothers’ descendants, but when was the last time we saw her train with a sword? In fact, are their descendants even a threat? Do they even exist?
Romelia War Chronicles Ep. 3
Romelia and her men save their first village from demons, but it’s just a bunch of monkeys, i.e., it’s gonna get a lot tougher from here. But there are still a few interesting moments to sift through. We finally get to see for ourselves that Romelia is a poor fighter, but she more than makes up for this weakness by being a good leader. Apparently, she once heard a voice from up on high, and ever since then, she’s been blessed with a power called “Grace.” Smacks of Joan of Arc. Problem is, things didn’t turn out so well for dear ol’ Joan. We even find out later that the bad guy is a cardinal conspiring with his daughter to take the throne. Hmm. Regardless, it’s not entirely clear what “Grace” does, but Romelia claims that even the Demon Lord didn’t stand a chance against it. Uh-huh.
Going into battle, the group splits up into three. Al and Ray obviously get to initially lead the other two contingents of men. “Initially” is the key word. Unfortunately, it seems like Ray has never seen battle firsthand, so he becomes a nervous, quivering mess before the demons. Romelia quickly demotes him and assigns someone else to lead. She then takes Ray aside after the battle is mostly won, then orders him to slay a weakened monkey demon trying to flee. It’s a test. No point being a soldier if you don’t have the nerve to kill the enemy. In the end, he manages to get the job done, but not without some mental struggle.
Still, this is one of those stories where demons are unrepentantly evil, so they cannot be spared. Normally, a fleeing or surrendering enemy soldier would be taken prisoner. It’s against the Geneva Convention to kill someone who is out of the fight. Plus, the higher ranked demons can talk, so they clearly have intelligence equivalent to humans. But they just can’t be reasoned with whatsoever? Yeah, like with Frieren, I don’t like that sort of thing. I think Othering our enemy is a bad practice even if it’s just make-believe. But it is what it is. The vast majority of conflicts in fiction boil down to a simplistic struggle between pure good and pure evil.
