While visiting Luria’s land of Aensland in Kaleneon, a young Ilumgard Hopleys makes a promise to fight with her someday. Here, in the present, he’s using real weaponry, heavy plate armor, magical medicine, and some kind of mysterious amulet. The fix is in, so the ref allows all this as Jin, Yuno, and Izumo are the three of Makoto’s students to win rock-paper-scissors and fight in the team final. Ilum also trained with and befriended Hibiki, which makes sense as he’s part of the nobility of Limia and as Limia’s Hero, she is the personification of his ideals. But when fate brings Ilum and Luri ..read more

In a way, Rudy’s story is over. He’s struggled and wallowed in pain and anguish and failure, but now he’s happier than he’s ever been. He has a wife and a beautiful home. He has friends and allies beyond count. The only thing missing from an otherwise ideal life is for him to be reunited with his family. To that end, Paul sends him a letter reporting they have a solid lead on Zenith, so he’s sending Norn and Aisha to live with him. Both Rudy and Sylphie are excited for the chance to not only have a more lively home, but “practice” having kids before having their own. In turn, Paul can rest as ..read more

When Kousaka declared the concert band would be going for Gold, that meant she would be taking no prisoners when it came to preparing for that goal, starting with SunFes, which is now only a few days away. She stops the marching formation to point out individual first-years who are coming up short, and does not provide a shoulder for them to cry on … and cry they do. This creates friction that weighs on the first-years’ de facto leader Yoshii Sari, AKA Sally-chan. From her morning where she prays at a shrine with a sigh, to her reaction to Reina’s strict criticism of her more fragile peers, s ..read more

Yori and Himari have made a habit of sharing their time on the rooftop, and Himari is not shy about telling Yori how she loves her singing. Yori finds her thoughts of late are dominated by the painfully adorable Himari. When she pats her head, Himari blushes, but when she takes off, Yori blushes even more. She’s not sure what she’s doing, but she knows she likes Himari. She encounters Himari waiting outside her class at lunch, and on Aki’s urging they exchange contact info. This is how Aki learns that Himari is the girl Yori is into (and we later learn that Aki is still into Yori herself). S ..read more

When she’s online, VTuber Watase Kiwi is a charismatic superhero adored by all. She even receives cash tributes for her awesomeness. But in the real world, she appears to be a lonely girl in a dark room. When she signs off, she has no need to put on airs, and her flesh-fangy smirk turns into a resigned frown and sigh. Kiwi’s childhood friend Mahiru presents her with a drawing of JELEE-chan, the avatar for her, Kano, and Mei’s new collaborative multimedia project. Kiwi is glad to help produce a music video for a new piece Mei has composed with Kano’s lyrics. At the same time, Mahiru has decid ..read more

Like last week, this episode is a bunch of people sitting around discussing things. Rimuru and his original Majin crew plus characters like Gabiru and Geld feature heavily, but the familiarity with these charming characters were all this episode had going for it. This descent into nitty-gritty administrative drudgery just isn’t fun to watch. Rimuru is utterly passive and static this week, and even has an unsettling thought that all the people around him might not even need him anymore. They’re making all the right decisions on their own. He does, however, eventually make the decision to hold ..read more

Mizunokouji Asuka’s parents deserve jail time for the abject neglect they’ve subjected to their daughter Asuka. At the same time, Asuka has quickly risen to become one of my favorite Urusei Yatsura characters. That’s simply because she’s such a chaotic force of nature, even more so than anyone else, due to her superhuman strength and obsession with her “Big Brothers.” Because she fundamentally misunderstands what “big brother” is, she believes it’s okay to bathe and sleep with Ton. When his nose spurts two-thirds of his blood, her solution is to embrace him so tightly she crushes his ribs. Ev ..read more

Rin sets off on her trusty 50cc at 3:30 in the morning when it’s still dark. She notes that her parents are less wary of her going out on her own, probably because she’s more experienced now. But she also heeds her gramps’ words: “you have to be most careful when you’re used to it.” Rin’s solo leg of the trip ends in Senzu, where she meets up with Ayano, who has twice the displacement but is still wrecked by the rough roads. After a rest and a drink, the two mount their steeds and begin their trip to meet up with Nadeshiko at the campsite, but they’re in no particular hurry. As should be exp ..read more

A commenter in the ANN forum on this show made a very good point that made me want to reassess the show so far: this show is clearly aware that Hananoi’s more obsessive behaviors are problematic. Fortunately, while he does loom over her at the end of last week’s episode, he ends up collapsing due to his fever from waiting in the cold for Hotaru all morning. Hotaru calls his grandma and goes home, and feels awful for asking Hananoi to do something that means so much to him, just to see if she’d feel anything. I think she’s being a little harsh on herself, but like Hananoi, that’s something she ..read more

After a successful sale of pocket lighters at Wiz’s shop, Kazuma & Co. prepare for a formal dinner with Princess Iris. As the only noble among the party, Darkness takes point in this venture, and impresses upon everyone how their usual repartee isn’t going to fly in front of royalty: one wrong word or look and they could literally lose their heads. As you can imagine, things don’t go that well. Aqua tries to whip out a card trick and drinks too much, Magumin does her Crimson Demon schtick, and Kazuma’s look and tone insult the princess. It’s only thanks to Iris happening to like the sand ..read more