Well, there always has to be a villain.

— The mean girls try to accuse Catarina of bullying Maria, which is patently untrue. Nevertheless, our heroine believes that she has somehow triggered her doom flag. She actually thinks there’s a chance that Maria might agree with her accusers. It never once occurs to her that her friends would come to her defense, which is exactly what they do. Obviously, it has been well established that she isn’t very bright.

— In fact, they defend her by calling her stupid.

— Mary agrees.

— Alan agrees.

— Even her best friend from her previous life agrees. Ah, who needs enemies when you’ve got friends like hers? Chin up, Catarina!

— Even though this is just a recurring gag in the series, I feel kinda ambivalent about it.

“Instead of a guy being isekai’d, it’s gonna be a girl instead!”

“Ah, okay. A small twist, but a welcome one nonetheless.”

“Her harem won’t just consist of dudes! All of the girls will fall in love with her as well!”

“Oh nice, love for everyone.”

“And finally, I’m gonna make her the dumbest character to ever live!”

— When Maria threatens to turn the tables on the mean girls, they quickly run away with their tails between their legs, but Maria quickly notices that they’ve been tainted by the dark! Welp, it looks like we’re about to confront the show’s primary villain. Gotta to end on a high note, after all.

— During lunch, all of Catarina’s friends feel as though there’s something fishy going on. They get the sense that someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Unfortunately, our heroine couldn’t possibly be more carefree right now. Ah, to be so blissfully dumb.

— Afterwards, Maria decides to do a little investigation on her own, which is of course foolish. Oh geez, I’m the only person who can recognize that there’s a dark, malevolent force stalking my dearest friend. I better put myself in direct danger without my friends there to help me! Ah well, how else is this show going to manufacture drama, right?

— So to nobody’s surprise, Maria has gone missing. In fact, she’s been gone for three whole days. Ooh, the plot’s finally getting juicy! Well… not exactly. What follows is dry, boring exposition.

— Geordo shows up one night to tell Catarina all about dark magic. It can manipulate people’s hearts, amplify their negative emotions, it can only be acquired by sacrificing a person’s life, only those who wield light magic can detect dark magic, blah blah blah. Yeah, very interesting.

— Later that night, Catarina has a nightmare in which all of her friends are dead. Naturally, she’d trade her life for her friends’ any day of the week.

— Geordo had told her not to stray too far from her friends. She should never be alone. So what does she do the next day?

— She’s all alone.

— This is when Sirius suspiciously walks up to her. Ah, of course. The one recurring character who isn’t in her harem has to be the bad guy.

— All of a sudden, Catarina remembers something her former BFF had told her. There’s apparently a hidden route in which you get to conquer the bad boy! Wait, I thought Geordo was already the bad boy. Well, Sirius is the badder boy! Unfortunately, her former BFF wanted to tell her more about this secret route, but our heroine didn’t want to hear spoilers. Whoops. Man, if only her former BFF had somehow reincarnated as one of her friends…

— Welp, even Catarina agrees with her friends.

— Catarina idiotically asks Sirius straight out if he has dark magic, but it’s okay. After all, he just comes right out and tells her that he’s the bad guy. Welp, at least we’ve dropped the pretense.

— Sirius then declares that he hates Catarina. He even goes so far as to call her a hypocrite, but he doesn’t elaborate. Hm. I’m trying to imagine what he means, but I can’t really tell. Is he spiting her for not reaching out to him when he’s been so lonely? Or does he know that she’s only trying to avoid her doom flags?

— Also, it feels like Sirius’s hate isn’t really plain, ol’ hate. It feels like love that his been twisted into hate if you get my drift. Sirius even sheds a tear as his dark magic envelops Catarina. As a result, I feel like he’s going to end up in her harem if he somehow survives this arc. After all, despite what he’s done to Maria — and despite the threat that he represents to all of her friends — Catarina still pities him. She doesn’t manage to touch his heart, but that’s only because this isn’t the final episode. So y’know, we’ll see.

There isn’t always a diplomatic solution.

— Y’know, other than the very first fight against Hikawa, the Shuichi/Clair combo kinda sucks… in combat, at least. They had to trick Tadanori, Yota defeated the centipede monster, and now, the great ape is just too much for them.

— Madoka, the great ape, turns back into his human form and tells Clair and friends that they can either join him or die. Apparently, he thinks he and Clair are kindred spirits. He says he can see it in her eyes, but naturally, his eyes are focused on something else. I suspect that if Clair and friends actually took Madoka up on his offer, his gang of shitheads would just take advantage of the girls in the group. I mean, he even admits that they’re shitheads.

— So all they gotta do is team up with the bad guys? That’s it? Well, the catch is that at least one person has to die since Yota roughed up the centipede. Y’know, an eye for an eye and all that. Clair correctly points out that Madoka may have killed two of their friends, but he doesn’t care. Why would he? He thinks he has all of the leverage in these negotiations, so he’s gonna push to get exactly what he wants.

— Alright, it’s time to think of solutions that don’t involve teaming up with a bunch of potential murderers and rapists. Yota normally tries to act all smooth, but he’s apparently just a meathead. Even though he’s in no shape to fight, he tells the other that he’s gonna fight. That’s brave of him, but also stupid. He has no chance of beating Madoka.

— On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the cowardly Ikeuchi. He thinks they should just comply to Madoka’s demands, because he sees no other alternative. Clair takes a second to play devil’s advocate by agreeing with the creepy, voyeuristic “Nice Guy.” Her only objective in doing so, however, is to get him to understand that since he wants to sacrifice one of his own friends so badly — well, if they even consider him a friend after this — that sacrifice might very well be him. For some reason, Ikeuchi didn’t consider for a second that he might be chosen. Well, I know what the reason is: he’s just a selfish bastard. Even his love for Chihiro is self-centered. On the other hand, Clair is more considerate that she might seem. I personally think Clair is trying to be nice, but it just comes off as bitchy.

— We briefly cut to Madoka to get his very abbreviated backstory. Before he found a coin, he was on the lowest rung of society. As a result, his goals is to help losers like him achieve their dreams. Ah, but here’s the problem: even with the coins, they’re still shitheads. Look, being a shithead is a mentality. Madoka has brute strength, but that’s it. Once they run into someone with half a brain, they’ll be back at square one.

— Back with Clair and friends, conbini girl offers up a bold idea. Clair, however, correctly points out that too many things can go wrong. Plus, Miku has probably never taken a life before. I really doubt she could do it when the chips are down.

— All of a sudden, Sayaka says, “And if we kill [Madoka], we’ll be no better than him.” Really? Really? I’m normally a pacifist at heart, but if I’m being chased by killers, I’m not going to hesitate to defend myself. And we know they’re killers. The centipede showed them that poor girl’s decapitated head. Not only that, he probably would’ve raped Sayaka had he had the chance. Why would you want to take the “high road” in this situation?

— After hearing what everyone has to say, Clair decides that she’ll have to go with her backup plan. She goes to Isao and hands him a flower that she wants him to duplicate. Apparently, oleander is highly toxic, and by extension, the smoke that you get from burning it is also highly toxic. Our heroine had this trick in her back pocket from the very start. She’s not just smart, she’s prepared. She knew there was a very good chance that they would run into trouble. And she knew that there was a very good chance that the group couldn’t win via sheer strength.

— Shuichi wants to help her, but she tries to push him away. After all, he really gave her a hard time about Hikawa, so Clair is now trying to prevent Shuichi from dirtying his hands any further. She’s kind of a softie at heart. It’s easier to just sacrifice someone in the group — someone like Ikeuchi. She also doesn’t really need to consider Shuichi’s feelings. Instead, she could tell him to toughen up and face reality. Clair, however, tries to protect him, and I think he finally realizes that. As a result, he wants to lessen her burden. The guy now understands that peace is not always an option. But because he’s been so idealistic, Clair has had to make the difficult choices up until now. As a result, he embraces her and tells her that they will go forward together.

— Seeing Shuichi’s change of heart also helps Clair understand why her sister felt that she had to kill their parents. Even so, I wish this plot point would get fleshed out a little better. From what we’ve been told, I’m not convinced that their parents truly deserved to die.

— Clair and Shuichi set fire to the flowers, and the group immediately starts running. For some reason, Ikeuchi didn’t stick with them. Did he think the plan wouldn’t work? Ah well. He actually tries to defect to Madoka’s gang, but before he could spill the beans on the poisonous flowers, Sayaka’s hair thing works its magic. The show cuts to black, so I naturally have to wonder if Ikeuchi actually lost his life. The show hasn’t been shy about gore, so it would be kinda silly to suddenly censor his death.

— Madoka’s gang gradually succumbs to the poison, but instead of getting away, the ape tries to rescue his precious “nakama.” Welp, I can’t say I feel bad for him.

— Nevertheless, once the group is safe, Sayaka tells Clair that the latter is scaring her. Really? She saved your lives! You guys were up against murderers and rapists! What did Sayaka want Clair to do instead?!

— On the brighter side of things, Clair now feels that she’s the only one who can save Elena. Well, that’s good. ‘Cause earlier in the series, she would’ve killed her sister had Shuichi not interfered. Sadly, we have maybe two or three episodes left, and we still don’t know what Elena and her group are really up to. I guess that’s what the remaining episodes will be about, but I can’t see how this season can end on a satisfactory note.

— Speaking of the devil, right before the episode comes to an end, Elena goes to confront the Alien. She’s certainly pissed about something. Maybe she asked the Alien to completely erase Shuichi’s memories, but it clearly didn’t work?

Tohru finally gets to have a talk with Akito, and it goes about as well as you’d expect.

— No anime can ever celebrate summer without the obligatory fireworks scene, so here’s one huge pile of them.

— It feels as though anything and everything can make Tohru cry. Even the simple joy of lighting fireworks with her friends sets her off.

— I couldn’t help but laugh at the dumb look on Yuki’s face. Yup, he sure has changed.

— When Tohru goes to fetch Kyo and Momiji, she inadvertently eavesdrops on their conversation. Tch, that’s not very polite! Jokes aside, both boys admit that they’re both being selfish. Essentially, they’re trying to make as many happy memories with Tohru as they can before… y’know, Akito ruins everything. Is this really selfishness? Eh, I guess…? Some people might not want to spend time with you if they know there’s an expiration date on the relationship. That doesn’t sound like Tohru, though. Nevermind the fact that she’s definitely going to try and break the curse, because even if she couldn’t, she’d still try to spend as much time as she could with the Sohmas.

— Elsewhere, Akito lashes out at Shigure for his lack of kindness. I guess when he’s with her he’s the only person who is neither 1) an emotionless robot or 2) completely trembling with fear. He treats her like a normal person, and this lack of reverence comes across as unkindness.

— Kureno interrupts them to deliver some bad news. Akito will have to cut the vacation short, so she decides that she needs to see Tohru before she leaves. Naturally, none of the grown-ass men around her decide to do anything about this.

— Momiji tells Akito that Tohru’s probably asleep. When Akito wants to come into the house anyway, he actually stands his ground. Unfortunately, this merely earns him a right hook to the face. Hell, it even draws blood. Yo, that’s child abuse… not that anyone’s gonna do anything about this, though. After all, the Zodiacs are under her spell somehow. Simply standing in her way probably took a lot of courage for the rabbit. Sigh.

— So of course, it’s up to Tohru to step in and protect Momiji. The problem, however, is that who will protect Tohru? Here’s what I don’t get: she’s their god, but she certainly ain’t Tohru’s god. Nevertheless, the girl is frozen stiff as Akito literally grabs her face and yanks it closer. If someone I barely know even thinks of coming close to my face, I’d instantly recoil. But Tohru doesn’t do anything! Does Akito’s influence extend to regular humans as well?! Or is Tohru really that scared?

— On the plus side — if you can really consider this to be a positive — Akito gives Tohru the info that none of the other Sohmas would volunteer. Our heroine now knows that the Zodiacs will eventually go and live with Akito. Not only that, Kyo will be imprisoned as the scapegoat that they want him to be. Now that Tohru has this information, she can obviously try and do something about it.

— When Tohru argues that the Zodiacs can’t be happy about this, Akito actually claws Tohru’s left cheek. First, wow, those are some sharp nails. Second, how can the girl just stand there and take it? What is wrong with you? How can you be so passive? There is neither fight nor flight. At the very least, press charges! I sure as hell would. Akito can beat up a kid, but what is she gonna do against a cop?

— Again, Akito isn’t Tohru’s god. In fact, if the former counts as a god, it’s a really pathetic one. Oooh, wow, you can only abuse your family and nothing more. Look at big boy Zeus over here! The fact that Akito is this insecure over a normal girl — a girl who can’t even stand up for herself while she’s being battered — obviously shows that she’s only weak, her grip on the Zodiacs are also weakening.

— As soon as Akito leaves, Tohru slumps to her knees as if all energy has been drained from her. Only then do the adults finally show up. Good job, guys. Way to protect your dear friend who has never done anything wrong. Pathetic. Shigure was there when Akito left; he has no excuses. Hell, maybe he even wanted this encounter to occur.

— And in the house, we see Hatsuharu holding Kyo back, but of course, if he really wanted to get involved, no one could’ve stopped him. They must truly believe that interfering would’ve done more harm to Akito, huh? But that belief in itself is also pathetic. Dad is hurting mom, but I’ll just make it worse! Let’s just stand around and talk about how it is difficult to protect the ones you love! Mm-hmm, that’s it!

— The next day, the incident has already been swept under the rug. Like an abused spouse, Tohru lies about her injury. The kids then proceed to light fireworks as if they couldn’t be happier. Of course, Tohru has her mind on more than just fireworks; she wants to break the curse. But that’s it. Two people were abused by Akito, and a tiny seed of rebellion in Tohru’s heart is all that we get.

Kids these days fall in love too easily.

— When we last left off, Doan wanted to kill Hina and friends because he intends to protect Alcia no matter what. It’s a complete surprise to find out that he is so attached to this country. It’s almost like he hasn’t had any character development whatsoever!

— Thanks to her friends’ help, Lynn manages to crawl away and escape on horseback. Unfortunately, Doan starts pelting her with rocks. One of them hits her hard enough to go right through her abdomen. I’m sure that’d probably kill me, but I guess it didn’t manage to hit any of Lynn’s vital organs.

— Doan could just kill Hina and Pele right now, but he lets her talk. Our heroine insists that Licht can’t possibly be dead. In fact, he’ll come and save them! Doan is so confident that Licht is dead, however, that he makes a bet with Hina. If Licht doesn’t show up by sunrise, then he gets to… kill them? You were already going to kill them!

— Apparently, Nana has just been hiding behind a wall. Odd but okay.

— When Lynn gets to Licht, she notices that he’s clean. Somehow, that means he’s not really dead. His heart has stopped, but that only means he’s… asleep? Don’t look at me. I don’t understand this shit.

— So of course, Lynn tries to wake the Legendary Ace up. She even tries CPR at one point, but she apologizes to Hina for doing so. ‘Cause y’know, her lips has to touch Licht’s lips! Anime can be so stupid sometimes.

— Lynn is losing energy thanks to all the blood loss. At one point, she tells herself that she can’t die before she tells Licht how she truly feels. But when she remembers that he already has Hina, she decides to give up. That’s so dumb. I thought she came here to try and save her friends. Is she honestly going to give up on saving her friends because her love confession wouldn’t matter? What?

— All of a sudden, everyone from Homhough is here. Why? How? No, really, how did they even know that Lynn was here and in danger? Why are the kids here as well? Why did this lady drag her fucking infant child here in the middle of the night?

— The villagers encourage Lynn to confess her to the “dead” Licht anyways. Again, I’m not really sure why her goddamn feelings are relevant. Priority one through a billion should be “Save your goddamn friends.” Then all the way at the bottom — at priority one billion and fucking one — is where Lynn’s love for Licht should be. But oh well, here’s the confession anyways!

— Unsurprisingly, Licht still doesn’t wake up. One of the ladies proceed to slap him around. Cool.

— Ultimately, Lynn tells Licht that she knows he loves Hina, so he should wake up and save her. Shoulda just started with that from the start.

— The sun comes up and Lynn falls backward only to find herself in Licht’s arms. Oh, now he wakes up. They just had to make it look as dramatic as possible.

— Back with Hina, she says to Doan, “So in your heart, you’re actually waiting for him to come back…” Huh? I guess Licht and Doan became buddies during the war. Nothing brings people together like like murdering millions of people, I suppose.

— So again, Doan is about to severely hurt Hina when Licht shows up at the most dramatic moment possible. Before they start fighting, however, Doan is nice enough to let Licht take care of a few personal affairs. Maybe I have the ugly bastard wrong. Maybe he’s actually a nice guy after all… nah.

— First things first, Licht hands Lynn over to Pele, because the girl needs a blood transfusion badly. Pele plays dumb at first, but Licht implies that he knows that the former is hiding his true identity. True identity about what? Are we really introducing this at the 11th hour? I guess so.

— Next, Licht turns to Hina and apologizes for ditching her. He even throws in a love confession for good measure. I like how Doan is just patiently watching from the sidelines. Yup, go ahead murder buddy, pour your heart out to the woman you love, ’cause I’m gonna kill you right afterwards.

— Hina kisses Licht — again, Doan is sitting through this nonsense — then doubles down on Licht being her Legendary Ace, because she chose him. Well, putting aside the fact that he’s hundreds of years old — and since he was her father’s best friend, she’s almost like his niece — it’s not like Hina really had a choice. Up until last week’s episode, Licht was literally the only male Ace that our heroine had ever met. So unless she is suddenly bisexual and wants to choose Sonohara instead, she couldn’t really choose anybody.

— Welp, I gotta give Hina credit for at least acting like a horny teenager when anime is typically full of prudish heroines. Her only problem is her timing.

— When Licht turns to fight Doan, he reveals that he was never alone during the war. Essentially, he’s only confirming the fact that he and Doan had some sort of working relationship. Were they close friends? Who knows? But they were close enough for Licht to make a promise to Doan — a promise to never bring down Alcia.

— This time, it seems as though Licht will have no problems beating Doan. So much for the latter being a hard counter, huh? But it makes me wonder why our hero is now having such an easy time with his opponent? Is he now powered by love? It’s love, isn’t it?

— Unfortunately, things are never quite so simple, because Sonohara finally shows up… as an enemy. You just can’t keep a yanderekko down. Oh well, I guess we have a 2v1 to look forward to. Then our hero still needs to confront Schmelman.

You can’t always have what you want, kid. Especially when the other side refuses to work with you.

— Wendelin finally learns the truth: the king wants him to take over simply because his family has been wasting the land that they’ve been living on. Still, I don’t really understand why a complicated plot is necessary. He’s the king. If he wants to replace a useless lord, he should just do so. Brantag says that doing this would strike fear into the other lord, because the king will go for them one day too. But so what? Isn’t that what meritocracy is all about? If you don’t perform, you get fired. Just fire Arthur and Kurt. But no, we gotta instigate a rebellion and then assassinate Kurt for some reason. Yup, that’s much less scary somehow.

— Amusingly enough, Brantag has remained sober in order to protect Well from any potential assassination.

— You normally add colored syrup to mizuame, right? Otherwise, it kinda just looks like eating glue.

— Wendelin obviously doesn’t want Kurt to die despite all of their differences. Not only that, Kurt’s death means Well’s nephews would also be stripped of their nobility. What I find most confounding, however, is that Amalie and her children will be kicked off of the land. Why exactly does this need to happen? Don’t families live together all the time. Hm, I guess this isn’t impossible in this universe.

— Later that night, the villagers intend to confront Kurt, because they want Wendelin to be the heir. Even without the village chief’s meddling, the people have had enough. To me, this is the most compelling argument. I don’t really care what his family wants. I don’t care what the king wants either. But these villagers have suffered long enough. Wendelin doesn’t even know what to do with all his money. Meanwhile, these people live a wretched life in the boonies. I obviously don’t support a society with nobles and lords, but if that’s what we’re gonna have, then we need to talk about noblesse oblige.

— Wendelin tries to find a compromise that won’t require Kurt to lose his authority. I think that’s just stupid, though. Unless Kurt undergoes a complete personality change, he’ll just keep abusing his people. Ultimately, the compromise goes down in flames anyway, because Kurt is far too blinded by paranoia to understand that his younger brother has his best interest in mind. Honestly, Wendelin is being far too gracious. His brother has always treated him like shit. I don’t think Kurt deserves to lose his life, but he certainly doesn’t deserve to remain in power either.

— Still, I don’t know why Wendelin doesn’t just flat out tell Kurt that he’s going to die if he keeps this up. Ah well, I doubt Kurt would believe him anyway.

— Amalie proves to be far wiser than her husband; she understands where the wind is blowing. She confesses that she’s been taking the kids to see Wendelin so that he might protect them if worse comes to worst. Oh, I’ve read spoilers, honey… you don’t have to worry about Wendelin protecting you and your children. Still, I wonder if she’s tried to talk some sense into her husband. He seems like he’d be abusive, though. Probably best not to even bother.

— Eventually, our hero decides that he has no choice but to just take over the land completely. Again, I can’t argue with that. Do it for the villagers. They deserve a better life.

— Wendelin and his team kick things off by opening a bazaar full of “exotic” goods. Like, y’know, mayonnaise. I like mayo just fine if applied lightly to burgers, but not used like this. The thought of eating all those veggies slathered in mayo makes me wanna gag, but to be fair, I haven’t tried Japan’s sweeter take on the condiment.

— There’s also fine clothes and farm equipment that probably doesn’t break after a day. Again, Kurt brought this on himself. He didn’t even attend the funeral in last week’s episode. He deserves to be overthrown.

— Wendelin also wins his brother’s most loyal followers over by offering them free training in the capital. That’s all fine and dandy, but I don’t know why he had to approach them like this in the dead of night. Way to scare the shit out of them.

— With Roderich’s help, our hero secures a house for Amalie and her children in the aftermath. Again, I don’t know why she can’t just live on the estate. Those are his nephews. Why would anyone object to an uncle letting his nephews live with him? Oh well, I don’t really understand nobles and how they operate.

— Last but not least, Kurt would hide out in this church to prevent the king from executing him. That’s assuming that he would even come peacefully. We all know he won’t.

— With nobody left on his side, Kurt decides to try and kill Wendelin himself. This is a rather foolish move considering how his younger brother is one of the strongest mages. Not only that, he’s surrounded by his retainers and yet another mage. But hey, cornered animals tend to do stupid things.

— Luckily, the bad guys will give him a helping hand. Apparently, this ocarina can help Kurt defeat Wendelin. Our hero have taken down dragons before, though. This ocarina better summon an army of dragons or Wendelin won’t even break sweat.

This shot looks pretty cool. It’s just unfortunate that everything leading up to it kinda blows.

— Now that the girls have made their way to Valery, the final boss, he obviously needs to deliver his villain monologue. This is where we learn why he’s doing what he’s doing. Unfortunately, his motivations are all over the place.

— So as we already know, he saw an “angel” one day. When he approached the crystal, however, it bestowed him with immortality and other special powers. He wondered who had given him these powers and why, which is kind of a silly question. He came in contact with something mysterious. That’s the answer. That’s how he got his powers. Nevertheless, humans have this need to craft grand narratives out of the most mundane events, so Valery’s deranged mind made him think that he had been chosen by God.

— Afterwards, he wandered the world and saw how it was consumed by greed. As a result, he felt that he needed to recreate the world. Y’see, that’s the problem right there. His idea of recreating the world is finding a weapon of mass destruction that will allow him to enforce his rule through fear. He hasn’t solved the root cause of greed at all. He’s just a bad villain.

— Valery then threatens to destroy a chunk of Tokyo, ’cause y’know, that’s what good rulers do. They murder indiscriminately. Luckily, Hakushu messed around with the big cannon, so it failed to do anything.

— For some odd reason, Valery refers to Hakushu as a False God. She doesn’t remember ever meeting him, but he claims he once saw her on the border between life and death. Was she the original “angel” that he saw? I can’t remember any other time he was between life and death. Meh, whatever. I’m so tired of this guy.

— Even though the Rage of Tunguska is out of commission for now, Valery has the ability to repair the ship outta… well, thin air apparently. It’ll take some time, however, so Leyla needs to keep the good guys busy for now. As a result, we now get her mini-backstory.

— Sadly, it’s also pathetic. Hell, it might even be more pathetic than Valery’s backstory. She considered herself ugly, so when Valery called her beautiful, she fell in love with him. She knows that she’s being manipulated. She even knows that he’s doing something terrible, but he called her beautiful! Again, I just don’t get it. Did Natalia never call her and Klara beautiful? I highly doubt that.

— In the end, however, when Valery proves to Leyla that she’s nothing more than a pawn in his schemes, she decides to turn against him. She forcefully yanks the crystal out of her chest, so I guess she always had the ability to be “unmanipulated.”

— Leyla goes straight for Klara to try and save her sister. Hakushu tries her best to block Valery’s attacks from getting to Leyla, but unfortunately, one of them gets through. What was the rest of the girls doing, though? While he was busy unloading his complete arsenal at both Leyla and Hakushu, what on earth was Sakura’s team up to? Sigh…

— Needless to say, Leyla ends up having to sacrifice herself in order to save Klara. She lives long enough to pull the crystal out of Klara’s chest, but as soon as she pushes her sister towards Sakura and gang, she is engulfed by an explosion. I still feel like this could’ve been prevented. I feel like Sakura could’ve done something to prevent Leyla from dying. But y’know, this anime series has been kinda lazy from start to finish. Valery is a terrible villain, so of course, the writers are gonna kill Leyla because they want their tragedy points.

— Thanks to losing her sister, Klara loses control of her emotions. At this rate, she’s going to go full demon if Sakura’s team don’t find a way to get through to her heart. But I mean, they did pretty much let Leyla die without putting up a fight…

— Oh well, next week’s episode will be the last one. I haven’t really soured on Sakura Wars as a franchise. If Sega puts out a new game with a larger budget, I’ll buy it on day one. Hell, I’ll preorder it just like how I preordered the soft reboot. I even hope that they somehow port the older games to current consoles, because I’m not gonna fiddle around with a Saturn emulator. But man, this anime sucks. It never should’ve been made.

How can you come up with a plan that doesn’t even involve one of the primary protagonists?!

— Roz wakes up to find her people raging outta control. Even though Mu told everyone that she’ll be back in seven days, she still left a huge mess for them to deal with. I don’t really know ihow bad I should feel for these children, though. Obviously, I feel a little bad. They are children, after all. But how complicit were they in Tommy’s evil plan to dominate the world? Shrug. The story never got into this.

— As for Nir, I guess she just crawled her way back to the friendly old lady and has been laying low since then. Huh.

— Speaking of underdeveloped subplots, what did those sisters really want? I thought they wanted to destroy the world. I thought they knew what that would entail, i.e. their own demise. But now that they’ve been saved by Denka’s message of love, they’re going to turn a new leaf? Feels kinda rushed like everything else in this series.

— Anyways, Denka has a new message. It’s a message that he should’ve tried to spread years ago, but it’s better late than never. Unfortunately, those like Nir are too consumed with hatred to be swayed. Maybe only Echo can convince her otherwise.

— Roz goes to see Denka because she wants to offer him her assistance. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t care about the fate of the world. Her primary concern is to help her dear friend Mu. People like her always crack me up. Those like Denka put themselves in this position by betraying the Gnomes back then, but to say that every single person deserves to die is ridiculous, no? For someone who’s all about empathy for the Listeners, why doesn’t she have empathy for innocent humans who have nothing to do with this conflict?

— But moving on, Roz tells Denka that Mu is trapped in a cage, i.e. Jimi’s old Equipment. They think that if they can just free her from the Duel Showman, then the old Mu will come back. I don’t really know why they believe this. Plus, from a narrative standpoint, you know it can’t work. If it could, then Echo would be useless. It’s his job to save her, however, so this plan is sure to fail. Kinda saps the episode of its suspense, huh?

— Also, how come none of these people have asked the most obvious question: “Where’s Echo?” Why would they try to save Mu without Echo?

— Elsewhere, we finally revisit Bilin and Kevin. The girl blames herself for this mess. She’s the one who encouraged Mu to go on her trip of self-discovery, so she feels that she’s ultimately responsible. Eh, Tommy’s truly to blame, but oh well. Luckily, Kevin manages to talk Bilin down for now.

— Kevin reveals that he hasn’t just been sitting on his butt for the last ten years. Apparently, he’s been working on something that will allow every Player to pool their power. Only together — like one musical Spirit Bomb — will they be able to stop the Duel Showman. I want to know why Jimi’s Equipment is so much stronger than everyone else’s Equipment, but meh… maybe its powers are being amplified by Mu being the King of the Listeners.

— We go right back to where it all started: Liverchester. Right before disaster strikes, Echo’s sister even sees a vision of Mu telling her to run away. So beneath the whole King of the Listeners persona, the old Mu is still there… but of course, we knew that. Otherwise, there’d be no one for Echo to save. At the same time, however, where can Echo’s sister really run to? If the King of the Listeners gets exactly what she wants, isn’t it futile to try and escape? Won’t humanity be fucked either way?

— Mu shows up right on schedule, so the Players proceed with their plan. At first, it does appear to be working, but again, they’re operating on the premise that freeing Mu from her “cage” is all that it takes. Well, Mu’s free now… and it doesn’t look like she’s any friendlier.

— An evil-looking Equipment surrounds Mu, and her counterattack pretty much leaves the Players in shambles. Since Kevin told Roz that he would take responsibility if the plan failed, he offers to stay behind and protect everyone while they try and escape. Bilin, however, isn’t happy with this, so she slaps him across the face. I guess it’s one of those implied “I love you so I won’t let you die without me” kinda deal.

— We also still have Nir who was never part of the original plan to begin with. She just wants her revenge. So together with Bilin, the two girls try and reach Mu. It’s kinda foolhardy, though. If the combined powers of hundreds of Players couldn’t stop Mu, why would two individuals be able to?

— Not surprisingly, they both get swatted out of the sky like a pair of annoying flies.

— Luckily, Echo has finally decided to show up. I wonder what he’s been up to for the last seven days. Maybe it took him that long just to run here.

— Judging by the previews, next week’s episode looks to be the last.

There’s nothing quite like judging a show by its premise and a short, two-minute PV.

Shows I’ll pass on

Lapis Re:LiGHTs
Dunno what this is. Probably something vapid like idols. I know a guy at work whose Slack avatar is some girl from The Idolmaster. Yeah, I don’t take him very seriously.

Muhyo to Rouji no Mahouritsu Soudan Jimusho 2
It’s the sequel to something that I’ve never heard of. I already have enough junk on my plate to catch up on.

Shows I’ll take a look at

Deca-Dence
I’m more amused by the fact that the studio behind the show is named NUT. Anyways, the PV looks okay, but it’s also 90% action. I’m not gonna get my hopes up for a deep plot. Also, I hope the girl doesn’t end up falling in love with the old guy. I pretty much dropped Arte for that reason and that reason alone.

Dokyuu Hentai HxEros
I guess if you think you’re not quite horny enough to jerk it, this show might get you there. It feels like I’ve seen this show before, though. Wasn’t there an anime where the main character had to grope his harem in order to do battle? Hell, there were probably tons of shows like that.

Enen no Shouboutai: Ni no Shou
I still need to marathon the first season, which I’ll probably do this weekend. Or next weekend. I dunno, it’s whenever I feel like it. The PV makes this look like just another mindless shounen, though.

Gibiate
The PV gives off retro vibes, but nothing sucks the joy outta me more than heroes fighting giant insects. C’mon, gimme something fearsome to look at. For example, Blood-C sounds cool on paper, but when you actually sit down and see the goofy-looking monsters that the heroine goes up against, it’s just so lame.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park
I tried to look for a PV on Youtube, but I ended finding the live action adaptation instead. I know nothing about this show. It probably won’t interest me much.

Kanojo, Okarishimasu
Lemme guess, the main girl starts out hating the main character, but she slowly develops feelings for him over the course of the story. But since this is just going to be a one-cour adaptation, nothing substantial will develop between them, so the romantically-inclined among us will be left with nothing but blue balls.

Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha
Ah yes, another overpowered demon lord with girls fawning all over his dick.

Monster Musume no Oisha-san
Despite my years and years of watching degenerate anime, I’m still not turned on by furries. Naturally, monster girls don’t really have a chance. This will probably bore me, but I’ll give it an episode or two.

No Guns Life 2
I felt like the first season ended randomly. Even if it was a split cour, I feel like you should try to end on a high note in order to leave the viewers wanting. No Guns Life isn’t bad, but it also doesn’t make me want to watch it. I’d be perfectly okay in a world in which it never continues.

Peter Grill to Kenja no Jikan
So a guy already has a girlfriend, but he still can’t maintain healthy boundaries with other girls. Boy, that sounds like a fun watch.

Re:Zero Season 2
I never finished the first season, so I’ll try to do that first. But to be honest, I remember Subaru being super annoying, so I doubt I’ll stick around for long. I don’t care how high its MAL score is, because those people also loved Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.

Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of the Underworld Part 2
The last time I tuned in, Kirito was busy climbing a tower, and we got nothing but dull exposition and uninspired fight scenes. Also, I vaguely remember Kirito insisting that some woman combed her hair and put on make-up just for attention. Since then, all out war has apparently broken out, and the Americans are somehow involved. Ooh, how can I not get in on that juicy commentary?

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Kan
I think Hachiman sucks, so I hope he ends up with someone just as annoying. Like Yukino or whatever. Yui’s too nice for his self-sacrificing ass.

Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!
I’ve read the manga for this show. There’s nothing unique here. Basically, the love interest has really big boobs. The only upside here is that this isn’t a harem. It really is just a story about one somewhat loner guy and an annoying junior who won’t leave him alone.

Shows I definitely want to watch

Um… yeah, there’s nothing. This pantry is completely empty.

Welp, that lineup is kinda depressing. Anyways, a few shows this season ended up being delayed due to the pandemic. If I get the chance, there are two that I want to continue watching: Appare-Ranman! and Fugou Keiji: Balance:UNLIMITED. They seemed okay. And of course, I’ll still follow Tohru in her quest to end the dumb Zodiac curse.

Didn’t we already get an episode that was all about Miyuki? Well, here’s another one.

— In the first short story, Miyuki is still despairing over what he saw last week, i.e. Kaguya having a casual conversation with Yu. Normally, this would be no big deal, but it is to him! She’s been avoiding him lately, so it’s just not fair! Ah, to be young and insecure.

— Are you really not allowed to drink juice at dinner? I did as a kid.

— I can understand why Kei is annoyed with her brother. After all, they don’t really have a typical siblings’ relationship. With the mother out of the picture and their father being so unreliable, Miyuki probably feels that it’s up to him to give Kei the proper guidance that she needs to become a proper adult. Proper guidance, however, is often seen as nagging from the other party. Nevertheless, Miyuki won’t relent. Even if this damages their relationship, he probably feels that the ends justify the means. Well, I sympathize with him, but I don’t agree. At the end of the day, he should really get on his dad’s case. He’s still a kid, so he should be a kid.

— I wonder what their mother’s story is. To leave your husband is one thing, but to abandon your children is rather heinous. But sometimes, there is no story. Sometimes, people are just simply selfish.

— Kei wants to ask about Miyuki’s girl troubles, but she also doesn’t want him to think that she cares. So naturally, she gets nothing out of him. It’s too bad, because she’s the only one here who can give him a young schoolgirl’s perspective. On the other hand, their father has an odd ability to get people to talk to him. Too bad he doesn’t actually have any decent advice to give.

— Huh, do both parties really need to sign divorce papers in Japan to finalize it? That’s kind of a pain in the ass.

— In the end, it takes the combined efforts of both Kei and their father to give Miyuki the help that he needs. And eventually, Kaguya does come around. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.

— In the second story, we find Miyuki spazzing out in front of Chika. Apparently, this is his rendition of the soran bushi dance.

— Chika gets mad at the president’s incompetence as usual, so she initially storms off. This leaves the door open for Kaguya to step in as coach, but her intentions prove to be less than innocent.

— Interestingly enough, Chika can’t stand to see Miyuki switch coaches. I guess she’s playing the jealous mother who has lost her son’s attention to some girl. This results in a tug-of-war between the two girls that somehow teaches Miyuki how to properly do the dance. As you can see, there’s really not much to say here. It’s just a silly slice of their daily lives.

— We take a brief break from all the Miyuki stuff to focus on Yu. Apparently, he got suspended for stalking a girl and beating up her boyfriend. Obviously, this isn’t the true story. The Yu we know isn’t like that. Knowing how these stories often work, he was probably trying to protect her but he refuses to reveal why he did what he did. And to twist the knife even further, I bet the girl doesn’t even know that he helped her. Y’see, he also helped Miko back then, but he kept it a secret. So there’s something commendable about that.

— Lots of people only do good things for attention. Hell, right now, we have social media influencers pretending to be part of the BLM movement by staging photo ops. So when a person does a good deed without reaping the benefits, we know for sure that they’re a good person. They’re doing it because it is the right thing to do, not because they stand to benefit. It’s like Kant’s shopkeeper example.

— But I’m not entirely on Yu’s side, though. Okay, he beat up a dude probably to protect some girl. But was that his only solution? Did he have no choice other than to make himself the bad guy and nearly get kicked out of school? Therein lies my problem with anime characters like Yu and his ilk. They can sometimes tunnel-vision so hard that they don’t see the big picture. Granted, I don’t know what the big picture is. I don’t know the full details of what happened back then. Nevertheless, I can’t help but be skeptical. Yu did a good deed, but some of these anime boys are gluttons for punishment. But why? What can be so great about being hated? Well, y’see don’t need validation from their peers if they can get it from another source. They are characters within a narrative. As such, these self-sacrificing anime boys can draw validation from the audience. And this is why I’m not on Yu’s side. I feel as though anime boys like him try to maximize their pitifulness just to get us to like them, and I’m not keen on that sort of cheap characterization.

— I guess I’m not really mad at Yu. It’s just an annoyance that I have with anime storytellers.

— In the final story, Miyuki’s dad shows up to the sports festival, and well… teenagers are often embarrassed by their parents. Miyuki tries to hide his father, but he just ends up putting the old man in Kaguya’s path.

— Speaking of Kaguya, she wants to cheer for Miyuki, but she can’t bear to do it around her classmates. As a result, she retreats all the way back here just to be able to openly cheer for him. That’s kinda… pitiful in a way.

— But because she’s all the way back here, she ends up bumping into Miyuki’s dad. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who he is.

— Sensing that this girl might have a meaningful connection with his son, the old man starts to troll her. Well, there’s no easier way than by insulting Miyuki. In a way, he’s not wrong. After all, he should know his own son very well. Still, like a deluded k-pop fan, Kaguya instantly jumps to her president’s defense.

— In the end, however, there’s really nothing all too interesting here. Kaguya tells Miyuki’s dad that Miyuki changed how she viewed the world, but we already knew that. But this is all the confirmation that the old man needs to discern that the two kids have romantic feelings for each other.

— Right before the episode comes to an end, Yu actually cracks a smile when he hears people cheering for him. That smile probably won’t last, though. After all, it looks like someone from his past is about to pay him a visit. Maybe we’ll get a Yu-centric episode next week.

Every time something happens, we need to hear from every single member of the harem.

— For some reason, Catarina is back in the real world… though it’s probably not a real world if you catch my drift. It’s probably a fantasy constructed from her memories in order keep her imprisoned within her own mind. That Sirius is one crafty fella!

— I want a taiyaki pillow. Hell, I’ll just take a plain ol’ taiyaki.

— Back in the fantasy world, Catarina is in a coma, and according to the doctor, she will eventually wither away and die if she never wakes up. Needless to say, her harem is distraught.

— This is where the anime starts to exasperate me. Everyone shares their regrets over their inability to protect Catarina, but the problem is that harem is ginormous. As a result, I have to listen to all of them one after another. That’s Geordo, Keith, Mary, Alan, Nicol, and finally Sophia. That’s six different people going on and on about how much Catarina means to them. If Maria could offer her thoughts and feelings, I’m sure she would!

— The only person I’ll focus on is Geordo. According to him, his world was grey until Catarina brought vibrancy and color to it. It’s definitely nothing original. Nevertheless, Geordo’s backstory did somewhat pique my curiosity. Why was his world so grey back then? For a harem series, My Next Life as a Villainess doesn’t really do a good job in fleshing out its characters. That’s probably because the harem is too goddamn large.

— Eventually, Sophia hears her previous self calling out to her. Y’know, the girl we only k now as Acchan. So what happens next? All six harem members telling us how they won’t give up! All six harem members telling us how they’ll stay by Catarina’s side no matter what! Jesus Christ, the episode is already more than half over.

— I love how the goddamn game is featured more prominently than Catarina’s own flesh and blood.

— Back in the “real” world, Acchan has a frank conversation with Catarina about how she has people who still need and love her. She adds that this world — as in the “real” world — is no longer her world anymore, so she needs to go back. Okay, sure. If you have to choose between your new life and a fantasy constructed from your memories via dark magic, the choice is obvious. But I can’t help but wonder what Catarina would do if she could honestly choose between her old family and her new one. If Sirius could hypothetically send Catarina back to her old life, would she really decide against it? Didn’t her family love her too? Didn’t she love them back? In fact, I’m a little disturbed that she’s not torn up about leaving them for the second time.

— Meanwhile, each member of the harem is now taking their turns telling Catarina to wake up. It’s such a chore! All six of them one after another!

— In the end, Catarina regains her memories, so the “real” world starts to crumble around her. And for some reason, Acchan here can tell her where Maria is currently imprisoned. Maybe Acchan was the only thing that was real. Meh, I don’t really know anymore, but it’s also not worth getting worked up about.

— As soon as Catarina wakes up, she and her harem immediately march over to the old storage house and frees Maria. Well, she looks healthy enough. For a villain, Sirius sure is kind enough to give the girl food and water… and I assume he even lets her do the business when she needs to.

— Speaking of Sirius, he is currently conflicted. Apparently, he doesn’t want to be evil, but a voice inside his head is urging him on. He has a painful memory of his own mother telling him to avenge her, but memories can be so unreliable. It’s possible that the malicious presence has altered his memories. In any case, it looks like Catarina will end up saving Sirius and add him to the harem like everyone else. Kinda boring, but not unexpected. This isn’t a particularly deep show.

Shuichi has changed, but is it for the better?

— The story continues with Elena confronting the Alien. He uses specious reasoning to absolve himself of any responsible. In his mind, he simply gave people power. What they do with it is completely out of his hand. That’s not really true, though. It’s like giving guns to children. Those kids may have pulled the trigger by their own “free will,” but it’s still irresponsible to let them have guns in the first place. And to an highly-evolved species like the Alien, we humans are kinda like children.

— Elena threatens to kill the Alien, but I guess it wouldn’t matter anyways. Something happened in the past that has irreparably altered the course of history, and killing the Alien won’t make a difference, right? On the other hand, if the Alien is no longer around, no one new will gain any powers. That might simplify things for Elena’s group. Well, it doesn’t matter what we think, because Elena ends up not killing him anyways.

— Back in the forest, Shuichi feels conflicted over what he and Clair had just done, which is understandable. He’s not a monster. He’s not soulless. Even if killing Madoka’s group was the only way to defend themselves, few people — especially kids like Shuichi — would ever want to take a life. All Clair can do, however, is offer silent support while Chihiro looks on as a third wheel.

— The group is now divided, because honestly, they’re just kids. I like to think most people would react much like how Sayaka does here. She thought she and her friends could play as heroes, but reality is much more grim. As a result, they want to back out, and that’s totally understandable. Even a lot of adults wouldn’t have resolves strong enough to keep pushing on.

— Clair, however, is different. She has already faced tragedy by losing her family. Until she met Shuichi, she was all alone with her feelings of powerlessness. Now that she finally has a chance to do something — to potentially save her sister — she obviously not going to back out now. But the other kids don’t understand her history, so they see her as a cold, uncaring monster who can kill without any hesitation. She killed for them, though. Who knows what would have happened to them if they had joined Madoka’s group. Even if they fear her, I just think they should be a little grateful.

— Later that night, Shuichi confides in Clair, revealing how he ultimately came to the conclusion that he had to kill the other group. Even though he probably did the right thing — that he needed to fight back — killing a bunch of people is never a decision that one can take lightly. What he did earlier that day will be with him for a long time. In response, All Clair can do is apologize for pulling him into this mess. Maybe she only saw him as a useful pet or tool with no autonomy of his own. She would make all of the decisions, and as a result, she would shoulder all of the moral culpability. He can be her gun, but she thought she would always be the one pulling the trigger. But Shuichi isn’t neither a pet nor a tool despite his monstrous appearances, so Clair is getting more than she bargained for.

— To be fair, Clair didn’t originally pull him into this mess. It’s more accurate to say that she pulled him back in when Elena had gone to such lengths to spare him. At least, that’s what I assume. I assume that he didn’t want to lose his memories. I assume that he didn’t want to spare himself while the rest of his old friends continue the fight. After all, isn’t this why his urge to keep fighting is slowly resurfacing? We’ll see, though. After all, we still haven’t learned what his old friend group did, and why they’re now trying to clean up their own mess.

— Clair asks if Shuichi will eventually go back to Elena, but with his impaired memory, that’s not a question that he can answer. Nevertheless, he claims that once he discovers that answer, he’ll truly be able to “become one with [Clair] for the first time.” Huh. Why is she so important to him? I know why he’s important to her. He saved her life, and he lends her his power. But why does he care this deeply about her? She forced him to help her. She then forced his hand and killed a person. When did the switch flip? When did she become so important to him? And once he remembers his old friendships — and perhaps his old relationships — will he still feel the same way about Clair?

— In any case, Shuichi has put Clair back into a teasing mood, so that’s something. She’s probably down to mess around too if he wasn’t such a typical innocent anime protagonist.

— Apparently, Chihiro goes to the same school as Shuichi and Clair. But even though she gets to meet him one-on-one, she doesn’t really say what she wants to say. I guess a part of her is still conflicted about what to do next. People like Chihiro aren’t typically decisive.

— Shuichi soon learns that Abukawa has gone missing. After a while, he comes to the realization that the guy might have been a part of Madoka’s group. Basically, everything has a price. He saved Sayaka’s group, but he may have killed a friend in the process. But was Abukawa really a friend, though? After all, he was involved in a gang of murderers. There was a side to him that Shuichi never saw. I don’t think he ever really knew Abukawa. If he did, they probably wouldn’t have become friends.

— Our hero eventually tries to get some answers out of the Alien, but that’s obviously a fruitless endeavor. In fact, the Alien turns things around on Shuichi and offers the kid a way out. He can turn Shuichi back to normal, and he can just walk away from this conflict. Shuichi’s smarter than this, though. Sticking his head in the ground isn’t going to make the conflict go away. It’s going to keep growing, and hell, it has already leaked into his private life when Abukawa died. Eventually, more and more of his innocent friends are gonna get involved. Something like Nana. If Shuichi wants to make sure that classmates like Nana never have to suffer, then he can’t really back out.

— Interestingly enough, had he taken the Alien’s offer, things might have turned out really badly, because Madoka’s right hand man wants revenge. Luckily, he kept his powers, so he has no problems dealing with one pathetic samurai wannabe.

— The guy was really after Clair, ’cause he assumes (rightly) that she is the mastermind behind the poison flowers. Still, Shuichi was with her every step of the way, so he’ll take on the burden of silencing anyone who might come after her. He even gets a call from Clair towards the end of the fight, so she gets to hear him kill someone. For the first time ever, he does it on his own. Again, she got more than she bargained for by pulling Shuichi back into this conflict. She wanted his support in her mission to initially track down her sister, and the price was turning Shuichi into someone like her — someone who can make the decision to take a life. He even tries to reassure her right before pulling the trigger. But like he said, this is the only way they become one.

— Oddly enough, Shuichi says that while he’s not the main character in this story, he’s going to finish it. I don’t know what he thinks a main character is, but that sure does sound like a main character.

— Elsewhere, the Alien thinks back to his first encounter with a human. It turns out he never really wanted to find his friends. The idea to grant people’s wishes also wasn’t his. It all came from Honoka, one of the girls in Shuichi’s original friend group. She probably got the idea from a book or manga, and didn’t consider the potentially dire consequences that such an idea could entail. After all, it’s pretty obvious to most of us that there are people out there with some messed up desires. You wouldn’t want them to find a coin.

— So what exactly happened to Honoka? Beats me. But we cut to this guy with the crazy anime hair. He’s protecting the crashed alien ship from coin collectors, and when he calls forth his power, a sad-looking Honoka comes out. Is that her? Or is that just a copy of the original Honoka? Either way, she looks like she wants to be freed from her current state.

— It’s kinda weird to drop such a major revelation in the 11th episode, though. This season is just about over, right? So we’re destined to end on a cliffhanger with no satisfying resolution in sight. Tch. This is why anime adaptations of ongoing manga series can be such a pain.

With Kyo now realizing that he loves Tohru, it’s about time he sort things out with Kagura.

— Before we get to the juicy drama, everyone comes home to Yuki’s brother making a big mess. Shigure can’t mad, because he apparently forgot to lock the doors. Well, they kinda live out in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not so bad. Japan’s crime rates are relatively low anyways. I’m more amused by the fact that Tohru still greets Ayame with a bow. I mean, that’s just her personality, but is she always going to overlook it when people are dirty and sloppy? I sure hope her future husband can clean after herself.

— The next day, Tohru goes to see Kazuma privately to ask him more about the curse. He essentially explains that the Sohmas don’t have the will to disobey Akito. It literally pains them to be reprimanded by their “god.” I get it, and at the same time, I don’t. It’s like when your parents express their disappointment in you. It just makes you feel super bad, doesn’t it? Aw man, I didn’t wanna make my mom sad! So I have to imagine that Fruits Basket is taking this idea and taking it to the extreme. Imagine disappointing your god… if you believe in that sort of thing. It hurts. The disconnect for me, however, is that Akito is lousy both as a god and as the head of the family. But like I’ve said before, that’s a me kinda thing. Some people feel that no matter how horrible they are treated, family is family. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water. Again, you can see the parallels in Fruits Basket. Akito abuses the Zodiacs, but they can’t help but obey her.

Obviously, I don’t agree that family is everything. It helps that I’ve always been isolated from most of my family when growing up, so I don’t even have bonds to break. I guess I could’ve turned out like Kyo, i.e. lashing out at people for not accepting me, but instead, I just didn’t care. And I grew up and became an adult, I realized that I can create my own family. I don’t need validation from people who have never cared about me. And this is what the Sohmas — especially Kyo and Yuki — will have to come and realize in order to break their bonds with Akito. They can make their own family. Tohru might not be related to them by blood, but their bond with her should be stronger than their bond to an abusive “god.” Not surprisingly, Kazuma encourages Tohru to continue being herself in order for her bonds with the Sohmas to strengthen.

— Kazuma weirdly asks Tohru why she feels the need to do so much for the Sohmas. Isn’t it the right thing to do? If you know your friend is going to be confined just because he’s some mythical cat, wouldn’t you wanna right this injustice? Hell, I’d personally call the cops, ’cause that’s some messed up shit.

— Interestingly, Rin also drops by Kazuma’s place to ask about the curse. I don’t know why she doesn’t want Tohru to get involved, though. Oh no, someone wants to help! How terrible!

— The other major story involves Kyo and Kagura. The summer trip has made Kyo realize how much he cares about Tohru, so he needs to set things straight with Kagura. It would’ve been easier to just ignore the problem, so I guess I should give him credit for addressing her properly. Kagura seems to sense that the end is nearing, so she insists that they go on a date before he closes their door on them as a potential couple.

— During the date, Kagura drags Kyo back to the place where they used to play as kids. We then learn how they first met. Basically, her intentions weren’t wholly innocent. She befriended Kyo mostly because his existence alone made her feel better about herself and her circumstances. I don’t know how much you can really blame a child, though. She wouldn’t even have to feel bad about herself if she wasn’t affected by the stupid curse to begin with, so really, it’s just an unfortunate set of circumstances all around.

— Anyways, when Kagura saw Kyo’s true form, she naturally ran away. Again, it would be unreasonable to hold a child to such a high standard. She compares herself to Tohru going after Kyo, but she’s being a little unfair to herself — a little too harsh. Not only was Tohru much older than Kagura was when she first saw Kyo’s true form, Tohru had also spent a lot of time bonding with Kyo. They’ve been living in the same home. They go to the same school. They share the same meals. It’s just not the same. Let’s put it this way: if five-year-old Tohru had seen Kyo’s true form back then, do we honestly think she would’ve embraced him? Maybe, but even if she did, is this any indictment on Kagura for reacting like a normal child? Tohru’s just weird; she’s like a saint. You can’t hold yourself to that standard.

— Nevertheless, Kagura has carried this guilt with her to this day. She confesses that she tried to fall in love with Kyo in order to absolve her of that guilt. In response, Kyo rips the band-aid off. He tells her simply that he will never fall in love with her. He also never resented her for what happened in their past. In essence, he’s freeing her from her guilt.

— After taking a moment to reflect on her feelings, Kagura then admits that she ended up truly falling in love with Kyo anyways. So that’s that. She now gets to mourn her first love, and they can both move on from the past.

— A rather bittersweet episode, but I liked it more than recent ones.

When Hina heard that Doan murdered children during the war, her reaction cracked me up. I don’t even know why. I guess when the episode is so boring, even something this minor can be entertaining.

— Starting from the top, Sonohara cackles with glee, because according to her, Licht can kill her again. But then later in the episode, she says she’s happy because she can now be by his side. So which is it? I don’t even know anymore.

— Doan starts to blame Licht for everything. Because he defended her from bullies, she only ever felt safe with him. By abandoning her during the war, he made her go mad… again, this is according to Doan. I mean, that’s kinda rich coming from him. After all, he’s one of the people who bullied her, and now he’s trying to be sensitive about her feelings? Get outta here.

— Then Doan tries to blame Licht for everyone in Class 1-A committing suicide. Because Licht made everyone believe in pacifism, his classmates decided to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the children. Oh, what a shame! Like c’mon, these arguments are dumb as hell.

— This entire time, Pele is trying to save Lynn so that she won’t lose Licht to Hina. Um, one, she already has. Two, why is Pele actively trying to sabotage himself? I guess he likes her so much that he’s willing to give her up.

— Anyways, it looks to be lights out for Licht until Jail finally shows up to lend a hand. And of course, he’s always busy adjusting his damn glasses. In fact, he’s adjusting his glasses even when Sonohara is shooting at him.

— For some reason, none of Sonohara’s bullets can hit Jail even though his count is now only 1. I dunno, maybe she could try shooting more than just hot air. But jokes aside, apparently she has no convictions like Jail. Yep, that’s how bullets work. You have to believe.

— All Jail has to do afterwards is scold Sonohara, and voila, she’s no longer yandere! Amazing!

— It’s now time to focus on Licht and Doan. Remember how our hero had no problems with the ugly bastard near the end of last week’s episode? Remember how Licht was gonna walk away with an easy victory until Sonohara showed up? Well, none of that matters now, because Doan is apparently strong again.

— But first, we need some pathos. Apparently, Licht has one other major “weakness”: he can’t kill children. As a result, opposing armies sent children to assassinate him during the war. Doan ended up having to step in and… yep, that’s right: kill the children. How fucking dumb is that? Look, I don’t care if Licht can kill children or not, because at the end of the day, they’re still children. You’re telling me that the one-man army somehow can’t knock the knife out of the child’s hand? Or just run away with his super speed? He really needed Doan to murder every single one of those children for him? C’mon.

— Basically, Doan doesn’t want another war. Licht, however, thinks they can do better with his newfound friends. So the two of them keep fighting like a pair of meatheads. But like I said, Doan is apparently strong again. He proceed to literally create a black hole (even though that isn’t what a black hole looks like), which then swallows Licht up. The episode thus ends on a cliffhanger…

— …but Licht can be seen in the previews for next week’s finale, so yeah, great cliffhanger, boys. Oh well, just one more week and I’ll be free of Plunderer. Thank God I dropped Tower of God. I can’t imagine having to keep blogging both of these shows in one day.

Even though I already know that this anime sucks, this ending really takes the cake.

— What do the bad guys want in return for Kurt’s assistance? Just favorable negotiations when it comes to parceling out the undeveloped land. Yep, it boils down to real estate. This reminds me of how the central conflict in Yakuza 0 was over a super tiny plot of land.

— The next day, Wendelin confronts Kurt in the forest. Y’know, away from everyone who might get hurt in the ensuing battle. Except, however, there is no battle. You’ll see.

— Kurt rants and raves about how he should be able to call the shots because he’s the eldest son. The problem, of course, is that he has been calling the shots. They’ve been letting him call the shots for years now, and all he’s done is screwed himself. The sad part is that it doesn’t seem like anyone has even bothered to sit the guy down and reason with him. Not his dad, not his wife, not the king, and certainly not Wendelin. Well, I suppose our hero did try, but it was a little too late.

— Still, you can’t even get invested in this story, because the anime takes the lazy way out by making Kurt comically evil. Wendelin asks if Kurt is willing to put his own family in harm’s way. The answer? Yes, yes he is. Kurt replies that he can simply marry a new wife and pump out more children.

— Brantag sure is nonchalant about a flute that can apparently summon an army of dragons.

— The guy starts playing the flute, so you might wonder, “Why not just stop him now? Why not prevent him from playing the magical flute?” Well, they can’t. Kurt is magically protected by the very same flute. Like I said, this story is very lazy.

— Instead of dragons, however, Kurt ends up with a bunch of silly-looking ghosts. It feels like I’m watching Scooby Doo.

— It turns out the flute summons malice or whatever — dark energies that can turn you into a zombie. As a result, Kurt essentially kills himself to become this hulking monster. He has been led astray.

— For some reason, Wendelin is frozen in place. He initially can’t bring himself to act against his brother, which is just plain stupid. First, it’s not even his real brother. Lest you forget, this is a fucking isekai and Wendelin isn’t actually a 16-year-old kid. He’s a salaryman from Japan. Second, Kurt has treated him like shit from the very get-go. There were never any fond moments to look back and reminisce upon. The idea that Wendelin is emotional here is just ridiculous. It has no grounding in anything.

— It’s up to Elise to step in and protect her future husband. This seems to knock some sense into Wendelin, so he eventually joins her in purifying Kurt or what’s left of him. They don’t really finish the job, though. For some reason, Kurt’s hateful spirit turns into this sperm-like thing, invades the bad guy’s lil’ shindig, and proceeds to murder everyone. And that’s that. In a span of five minutes, all of the villains go down. That’s it. No more conflict left.

— In the aftermath, Wendelin learns that all of his planning has gone to waste. Because Kurt just had to go and murder all of those nobles, all of the blame has fallen on his shoulders. As a result, his wife and children can’t even live peacefully in the capital. Gosh, if only a high-ranking noble would just marry her and protect her children! Oops, we’re outta time though!

— All of a sudden, Wendelin decides to become class conscious. All of a sudden, he now feels like a stranger in strange land who can’t believe that nobles would treat others this way. Later that night, he even tells Elise that he feels as though he hasn’t accepted this world. This pisses me off. For eleven goddamn episodes, Mr. Salaryman barely even felt a culture clash when this should’ve been an ongoing conversation from day one.

— Wendelin, however, isn’t going to do anything revolutionary. He isn’t going to upend society or even challenge it. After all, that would take conviction, which he does not have. Like every other braindead story out there, the solution to bad nobles is to simply replace them with good nobles. See, the system isn’t bad! It just has bad people. Uh-huh.

— The king will grant Wendelin another reward in addition to the undeveloped lands that Kurt had previously presided over. As a result, Wendelin wants the ability to bestow the rank of nobility to two people of his liking. See, I thought our hero was gonna find two deserving people. But no, he intends to bestow those titles to Kurt’s two sons once they grow up. In other words, nepotism. Like I said, not a lick of conviction.

— In the end, we’re right back to the very beginning, i.e. watching Wendelin and friends work on that undeveloped land.

— For some reason, Wilma went and found a giant banana.

— Last but not least, a big feast is the fitting way for every isekai to end.

— This was a boring show with even more boring animation. I would not lose any sleep if it never got a sequel. Funny enough, the light novels have some ardent defenders, but I’m not gonna bother with that.

When we last left off, Klara was about to go berserk. As such, it’s up to Sakura to try and bring her back from the brink. Like I said in the title, nothing here is what we haven’t seen before.

— Sakura embraces the girl even though the latter bites her hard enough to draw blood. We are then transported to a mystical plane where a naked Sakura approaches Klara’s metaphorical heart, i.e. the crystal cocoon. It’s all too familiar and thus all too boring.

— Once Klara returns to normal, it’s now Valery’s turn to reveal that the fight ain’t over just yet. So like every JRPG villain, he has multiple forms. First up is this half-crystal incarnation of Valery. He’s too fast and nimble for any of the girls to keep up with. Unfortunately, he barely gets any fighting time, because he has yet another form to show off and we only have one episode.

— Seijuro has arrived with backup from the other Combat Revues, and they proceed to lay waste to the Sevastopol with their combined firepower. It’s just funny, however, that some people have been left out. Yui has Xiaolong, Lancelot has Arthur, and last but not least, Elise has Margarethe. None of those three are in present in the anime, though. Maybe their voice actors were unavailable. Or maybe the studio just didn’t wanna pay them.

— Anyways, the Sevastopol goes down with Valery in it. This, however, simply allows him to merge with his fallen ship and become this giant, hulking monster. Great. And somehow, this final form can summon forth hordes of demons. Sounds bad, right? That’s when Klara shows up in a mecha of her own. In the Tenjin, yet another top-secret weapon that Sumire’s company had secretly been working on, the girl manages to defeat every single demon that just came through those portals. What? Doesn’t that make her really powerful? That’s what I would assume, but the power levels here are kinda inconsistent. She kinda doesn’t really do much for the rest of the episode. Kinda.

— Valery then charges up a big laser to destroy Tokyo, so of course, everyone pools their powers together to block it. After neutralizing the attack, Sakura and Klara then combine their mechas in order to beat Valery. Now, you might have expected something cool to result from this, but no. It just looks kinda… awkward.

— Even with their combined powers, Sakura and Klara can’t exactly beat Valery outright. So of course, Leyla’s spirit or whatever shows up to restrain him. ‘Cause she loves him. I don’t really get it. I mean, sure, some people fall in love with really sick people, but the show barely developed Leyla as a character. Like I said last week, it was literally “I’m so ugly but he called me beautiful!”

— So in the end, fuck all that technology. All you need is one plucky gal and her mother… I mean, sword. Eh, same thing.

— To the very end, Valery doesn’t understand why they are disobeying god, which just makes me think he’s really stupid. For a god, he’s pretty lame. All he has is fancy lasers. And even then, he wants to kill everyone who doesn’t follow his orders so yeah… no big surprise that no one wants to obey you.

— In the denouement, we see that Klara has officially joined the Imperial Combat Revue and thus joined them onstage. This is one of the things that disappointed me about both the game and the anime. I honestly expected to see more performances especially in the game. The Imperial Combat Revue were pretty much in shambles before Seijuro showed up, and even then, it took them a while to whip themselves into shape. I really wanted to see more of those growing pains. But instead, Anastasia showed up, Claris wrote an original stage play, and it was just smooth sailing for the girls from there on out. Even in the anime, this is nothing new. We’ve seen this exact same song and dance in the first episode. For a show about a revue, I expect a little more variety. Basically, I wanted more singing, acting, and dancing.

— I’m not a Sakura Wars veteran by any means. I’ve played a grand total of one game. Nevertheless, I get the feeling that the series’ strengths lie within the slice-of-life stuff with the girls. The anime, however, assumes that you already know everything that you need to know about the main team. I guess Hatsuho kinda got the short end of the stick within the game, so there’s a chapter in the anime devoted to her throwing a tantrum over Sakura being the captain. Nevertheless, the focus is mostly on Klara, and I don’t know if she’s really charming enough to carry the series by herself.

— We then see Hakushu spread her wings and take off to destinations unknown… but she has an orphanage to run, so probably just back there. I guess she really was the demon that Valery originally saw? This still doesn’t really explain to me why he thought that she was disappointing, though. I feel like that subplot was never fully realized.

— Then right before the episode comes to an end, we see someone looking over a crystal as it dissipates back into Shadow Tokyo. Is… is that someone Leyla? She survived? Why wouldn’t she be with her sister? Wasn’t the whole point of this side story that demons and humans could coexist? Didn’t she want to find place where she could live with her sister peacefully? Isn’t that place with the Imperial Combat Revue? Unless, of course, Leyla is still dead somehow and we’re just staring at a ghost. Meh, whatever. I’m tired of this show.

— I’m also disappointed that there’s one giant loose plot thread from the game that the anime never bothers to address. As far as I know, the original Sakura and her team (minus Sumire for obvious reasons) are still stuck in Shadow Tokyo. We didn’t save them in the game, and that’s not even brought up here. Maybe they’re reserving this for a later game or something, but it seems kinda silly to me that no one is actively trying to save them.

Welp, time for the final performance of the night.

— The finale starts out exactly as you might expect it to. Echo is calling out to Mu, but she denies that existence of herself.

— Meanwhile, everyone is worried. After all, they got their butts collectively kicked, so there’s no way a single boy and his self-made Equipment can get the job done, right? Well, Roz disagrees. The Equipment itself is just an extension of the Player. Your true strength lies within your song and how strongly you believe in it. Echo loves and accepts Mu whereas everyone else just wanted to stop her rampage. It’s corny, but have you ever paid attention to the lyrics of most love songs? They’re corny as hell.

— But Echo, that’s a tautology.

— For Mu and the Earless, they are going wild because they’re tired of being persecuted. Boy, that sounds familiar. Obviously, destroying the world isn’t right. Obviously, nobody wants to resort to violence that ends up hurting innocent people. But when you push a group of people into a corner, you shouldn’t be surprised if they suddenly lash out. And if their violence is the only reason you’re now paying attention, that says a lot more about you than it does about them.

— Mu bids the world goodbye and starts destroying it. The Players nearby can protect refugees within their vicinity, but I wonder how many people ended up dying in these big cities. But let’s be optimistic, since this isn’t a depressing anime with downer message. Let’s pretend that everyone safely evacuated.

— Eventually, Echo finds it within himself to push back against Mu’s destructive song. But this isn’t like a beam war in your typical shounen. Instead, his song combines with hers and creates a resonance. The end result pacifies all of the rampaging Earless and halts the violence.

— Somehow, Tommy shows up long enough to talk about how humans and the Earless are really no different. I guess being absorbed into the King of the Earless has given him a change of heart. Kinda amusing, but ultimately meaningless. He never really had much of a presence in the story. He simply served to put Mu in this terrible position.

— To finish the job, Echo gathers even more speakers so that his song can penetrate Mu’s walls and reach her heart. In doing so, he gets to have a one-on-one conversation with her — the same conversation they should have had back in Londinium. Maybe if he had never put it off, Mu wouldn’t have fallen under Tommy’s influence. Ah well, we’ll never know.

— In any case, Mu’s back to her old self, but she ends up falling into that very same pit that Echo had fallen into back in the first episode. This time, it’s his turn to dive in recklessly and save her. I can’t help but think of something George Lucas once said. It’s like poetry! It rhymes! But to be fair, most songs are structured so that a melody or phrase is repeated…

— My, my, my, what a declaration.

— Afterwards, a warm light bathes the world. I guess this is what love looks like, because even Nir is happy now. She no longer wants to get her revenge.

— Suddenly, we see Jimi say a few lines. I’m still not exactly clear on what happened to him that day or where he’s been since then. Maybe he’s actually been long dead. Maybe humanity’s true folly is sitting on their butts and doing nothing, because they’re content to wait for their savior to pluck them out of their misery.

— Obviously, we shouldn’t fear others just because they’re different than us. Jimi also reiterates, however, that we shouldn’t deny that those differences exist either. For example, lots of people think that the solution to racism is to simply be colorblind. This approach empirically doesn’t work. Discrimination still exists, and by teaching people to ignore the differences between us, we’re just making it harder for people to recognize bigotry whenever it shows up. Rather, we should embrace the differences. Jimi’s message isn’t anything new, but obviously, this sentiment hasn’t exactly sunk in for humanity in general. Sure, it’ll work in this anime, because it’s a made-up fantasy world where everything works out for the best. Reality, however, is not so understanding.

— Jimi also says that the first Player-Earless cycle has ended. So this conflict is doomed to repeat itself?

— In the aftermath, the Earless have taken on a much more human-looking form, and they’re now coexisting peacefully with humans.

— Kevin is back in charge of Londinium, but he has enough spare time to further his relationship with Bilin. I was never, however, exactly clear about their relationship. They have the same last name, so I’ve always assumed that they were a married couple. This is the first time, however, that they’ve been overtly romantic with each other.

— As for Denka, his floating Equipment has been repaired, so I guess he’s gonna go on tour again?

— Roz’s city is now teeming with life, which is neat… I guess. I’m not sure what to make of the Dada sisters, though. They’re now even more Dada than ever. Yeah, you’re seeing it right; the sisters have somehow turned into talking monoliths.

— If you thought the Dada sisters were weird, Lyde and Ritchie have somehow been brought back to life. No, I don’t get it either. I mean, it’s not like Tommy’s back, so not everyone gets a second chance at life.

— Echo is now a legend, so naturally, he has his own entry within the Players’ Almanac. People also come from all over the world to visit Liverchester. It’s like a pilgrimage, I suppose. The mayor hasn’t bothered to clear out all of the trash, either. The dump is now part of the city’s sacred aesthetic. In fact, I wonder if the world still sends all of their trash to the city…

— Kids also visit Swell’s bar to learn more and share stories about her brother. I believe the girl with the platinum hair is the one who actually met Jimi when he briefly showed up. I’m not sure what significance this has, though.

— Last but not least, Echo and Mu are still on an adventure to see the world, and the boy is still as clueless as ever. The boy is no longer a Player, though. After all, he only became one because he had a mission to save Mu. Now that he’s accomplished that, he no longer needs to be a Player. What’s lame, however, is that he has no memories of what happened that day. Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the two kids are together again.

— Overall, Listeners has a certain level of charm, but I really wish it could’ve been twice as long. I feel as though Echo and Mu’s relationship could’ve used more development. Not only that, I would’ve liked to have seen more of the world and learn more about the supporting cast. The story felt kind of rushed, so I never really formed an emotional attachment to anyone. Oh well, the soundtrack was decent at least.

Alright, time for Yu’s pitiful backstory.

— These kids have way too much spirit. I just can’t relate. Yeah, they tried to hold pep rallies at my high school, but it’s different. It’s just different. Community service in Japan appears to be compulsory; your school strives to be a force of good. In American public high schools, however, they only pay lipservice to that sort of thing. On the other hand, they sure as hell will make you attend the pep rally for some meaningless football game. So yeah, I never felt pride in my high school, and I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like.

— Yu feels like a humongous dork because he’s out of his element, but he’s having fun nonetheless. That’s ultimately what matters. But just when it seems as though he’s about to turn the corner, someone from his past suddenly shows up outta nowhere to rain on his parade. And just like that, his day is completely ruined. As if a switch had been flipped, all that pep has been completely drained from his body.

— Nevertheless, the show must go on. In fact, Yu is thrust into the leading role, because his senpai went and got himself hurt. As a result, Yu will have to run the final leg of the relay race. He tries to be positive about it, but painful memories from his middle school days are threatening to unravel everything. He’s just in a daze. Sigh… fine… tell me his backstory.

— So it’s pretty basic… Yu was a loser, but one of his classmates was really nice to him. She was probably his first love or crush, because most social losers are wont to fall in love with every woman who is nice to them. I mean, just listen to how he referred to her back then. Yeah, I know, he’s a kid, but that’s still putting a lot on one person’s shoulders.

— Unfortunately, she already had a boyfriend. Damn, in middle school? Kids these days! And to make it even worse, her boyfriend was a huge playboy who was cheating on her behind her back. Damn, how much tail can a middle school kid really get?

— Yu initially tried to reason with the guy, but Kyoko’s boyfriend not only didn’t show any remorse, he tried to use his own girl to get himself out of this mess. Not surprisingly, Yu lost it and just wailed on the guy. When all of their classmates showed up — and this included Kyoko — Yu couldn’t properly explain himself. And just like that, everyone just assumed that the loser was doing loser things. So even though he tried to protect Kyoko, she ended up hating him. It’s kind of like the white knight’s fantasy backstory, isn’t it? How hard did you try to protect the girl you liked? You protected her even though she hated you! Ooooh.

— The rest is stuff we already know. Yu got suspended, he had to write an apology letter but he couldn’t, yadda yadda yadda. He never knew (and still doesn’t know) that Miko spoke up for him.

— It’s not that he shouldn’t have stuck his neck out. It’s that he chose the dumbest thing he could possibly do in that situation. Do I feel bad about Yu? Honestly, not really. His intentions were obviously in the right place, but I am wary of anyone who gets that violent at the drop of the hat. I’m not saying that violence never ever has its place. When someone’s life is in imminent danger, sure… you do what you gotta do. But he just lost it when there were a million things he could’ve done instead. It almost feels like someone just wanted to justify taking their rage out on one of the popular dudes who could get any girl they want. Welp, can’t do it in real life, so let’s do it in fiction!

— Putting chains on his door is a bit much.

— Back in the present, Miyuki goes and picks Yu up. This time, his circumstances are completely different. He actually has people on his side (even though Miko did fight for him). And as cliche as it sounds, this is what friends are for. This would’ve been a sweet moment by itself. After all, not only did Miyuki recognize that his kouhai was in trouble, he went up to Yu in the middle of a rally just to reach out to him. He wasn’t remotely self-conscious about it. But then we get a flashback about how the student council had done extensive detective work to figure out the true story behind Yu beating up Kyoko’s boyfriend. And just like that, my suspension of disbelief is out the window.

— But hey, Miyuki gets to look like a badass.

— As Yu readies himself for the relay race, Kyoko is heckling him from the sidelines. She’s honestly still hung up on her ex-boyfriend dumping her. Good lord, it was a fucking middle school relationship. Not even a high school relationship! A middle school relationship. How goddamn dumb is that? Was this kid Adonis at 13 or 14 years old? Did he piss out boba tea? Did his farts smell like strawberry crepes? Who on earth doesn’t get over their middle school boyfriend? That makes her even more pathetic than Yu.

— With his friends’ help — and his club cheering him on — Yu finds the strength to move on. He then proceeds to give it his all in the race. Even Miko is cheering for him. Knowing this show, they’ll do some “opposites attract” nonsense and have her fall in love with him at some point. But will Yu return her feelings? Well, he has a track record of going after girls who are simply nice to him, so I dunno about that. Miko seems like a hardcore tsundere.

— Yu ends up losing by a hair, so again, he’s about to fall into a pit of despair. But this time, Miyuki hangs back to let the cheerleading club do their thing. The first person to approach Yu is the girl in the club who is always nice to him. Yep, she’s probably whom he’s gonna fixate on. Eventually, however, the rest of the club rallies around him, so for the first time, Yu actually sees them as individuals and not these weird, faceless extras.

— Meanwhile, Kyoko is proud of what she did today. She’s proud to hold onto a grudge and heckle Yu just because her fucking middle school boyfriend dumped her. Guess she wasn’t so nice after all. I mean, people’s true colors come out under duress, and clearly, she’s broken.

— Puh-leeze, ignorance is never worth protecting.

I heard that it was a good game. Katarina should try it one of these days. Y’know, mix it up a little. Can’t be playing visual novels all the time.

— Alright, let’s just get Sirius’s backstory out of the way. You know it’s coming.

— Sirius is not actually Sirius. His real name is Raphael, and he was living a peaceful life with his mother until the bad guys showed up. In reality, he’s the illegitimate son of a philandering marquis, and his wife is not happy about this one bit. As a result, his mother ends up being murdered so that a mage could acquire dark magic. The dark magic would then be used to transfer memories from the marquis’s sickly son over to Raphael, thereby allowing the real Sirius to continue living. Obviously, that’s not gonna work. Did nobody consider the fact that Raphael wouldn’t actually lose his current memories of himself? Like c’mon, is everyone in this universe as dumb as Katarina?

— What’s also interesting is how dangerous this world really is. Y’know, behind all the sunshine and rainbows in Katarina’s life, there’s a seedy underbelly full of adults murdering each other. And when they’re not busy murdering each other, they’re using their rank and status to coercively rape their servants. This aspect of the story, however, hasn’t been explored at all until now.

— With her last breath, Raphael’s mother told him to avenge her… which doesn’t seem like a very motherly thing to do. But as you can see, his vision here is clouded with dark miasma, so his memory of this event has been tampered with.

— The mage who performed the ritual ended up being betrayed by the marchionesses, ’cause y’know, adults are evil.

— Back in the present, Raphael talks about how he plans to destroy everything that the marchionesses holds dear. I’m not sure I understand what any of this has to do with Katarina and Maria, though. I must be missing something…

— He also calls Katarina a hypocrite for trying to save his soul. I’m… not exactly sure why that makes her a hypocrite, but okay.

— Like most goody two shoes, Katarina continues to approach Raphael anyway. She even claims that she’s the villainess. Boy, that must have been confusing for her friends to hear. Villainess? Wha? Who? What are you even talking about?

— Ultimately, Katarina’s ability to unconditionally love everyone reminds Raphael of his mother. So just like that, the dark magic that has had such a strong hold on him is shattered. He suddenly remembers his mother’s actual last words. Boy, that easy, huh? Well, it’s kind of a cop-out, but Raphael isn’t truly evil. In fact, you would argue that he isn’t evil at all. He’s just tainted! What would Katarina actually do in the actual face of evil, though? Well, we’ll never know. Not in this season, anyways.

— Alright, so if Raphael isn’t truly evil, then why is he doing evil things? Well, it’s because that dead mage has been haunting him ever since! An evil adult was behind this all along! Argh, damn those evil adults!

— And in just mere moments, the dead mage is going to go away for good. Raphael simply takes Katarina’s hands and declares that he no longer needs the dead mage. Just like that, the evil spirit is exorcised. Whew, slow down, guys. You’re gonna wear yourselves out at this rate!

— It’s kinda funny how the harem pretty much didn’t do a damn thing. They were just here to watch, I guess.

— With still half an episode left to go, Katarina is back to fretting over her fate. After all, she’s a big ol’ dummy who still hasn’t figured out by now that none of her friends are gonna kill or exile her. But whatever, just play along with the child.

— At the graduation party, our heroine hands Nicol a big bundle of veggies. Well, at least they have more practical value than a bunch of dead flowers. She’s so considerate of his bowel movement.

— Thanks to Katarina’s influence, everything has turned out perfectly. We even get to see Geordo and Alan performing on stage together.

— Nevertheless, our heroine stupidly assumes that she has somehow triggered the reverse harem route… not for her, but for Maria. Unable to take the suspense anymore, she goes and confront Maria directly about whom the latter loves.

— Naturally, Maria has only one answer: it is and has always been Katarina. But of course, our heroine doesn’t catch on. She doubles down and tries to clarify her question. Despite the fact that she has plenty of female admirers, Katarina is oddly heteronormative. I wonder if she even knows that homosexuality is a thing. Sure, she’s going off of the game’s original script… but she hasn’t played the game in years.

— Maria reiterates that she only loves Katarina. The latter even recognizes that this is one of the lines from the original game, but she’s too dense to put two and two together. In the end, the rest of the harem drops by to pledge their eternal love and allegiance to Katarina. Seeing all of these people fawn over her is almost too shocking to take seriously… if I thought that Katarina wasn’t just simply dumb.

— After the party, Raphael even makes a return and adds himself to the harem. Welp, we’re getting a little boy heavy. Time to add a few more girls to the mix, don’t you think? Unless, of course, you count the maid…

— That’s that. That’s all she wrote, folks. Well, not really…

— Geez, they announced the second season hella fast. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Sure, a lot of shows ended up being delayed due to the pandemic, but this anime somehow ended up garnering the most views for my blog this season. Does it deserve the attention? I dunno. I don’t think so. Outside of the fact that its harem is inclusive of both boys and girls, the show doesn’t actually do anything well. The animation is average, the romance is by-the-numbers, the characters aren’t unique, and the voice acting is nothing to write home about. It’s not the worst isekai-slash-harem mashup, but so what? In not-so-kind words, the show is gimmicky.

— But despite all my gripes, I’ll probably still end up blogging the second season. Not like I got anything better to watch! What was the last time I was excited to blog a show from start to finish? A Place Further Than The Universe? Meh, probably.

Everything is a complete mess simply because no one can properly communicates. Tch, it figures.

— We finally get to learn a thing or two about what had happened to Shuichi’s precious friend group. Back when they were just wee children, there were six of them: Shuichi, Elena, Naoto, Aiko, Kaito, and last but not least, Honoka. We already know that Honoka would go and make a wish to the Alien a few years later. What we don’t know is what she wished for. Well, right off the bat, we get a huge clue: Naoto said that Aiko hasn’t been herself lately. At the time, he sometimes felt as though she was someone else completely.

— The group held a small reunion one day, but Honoka was the only person who appeared to have not shown up. Well, we know why that is. She’s turned herself in Aiko. The group, however, was clueless. They talked about how Honoka’s father had killed someone, and unfortunately, the community turned on the rest of the family. Then just like that Honoka “disappeared” one day. I have to presume that her father was punished for his crime and thus sent to prison. But even if he wasn’t somehow, Honoka had nothing to do with her father’s mistakes. But what can I say? People can be stupid and nasty.

— Aiko — who really isn’t Aiko — told her friends that they should just move on, because Honoka wouldn’t want to be found. That was mistake number one. Like c’mon, if you were going to be that cold about your own disappearance, this would obviously be fishy.

— Shuichi, Elena, and Naoto seemed rather passive back then. I suspect that they had their misgivings about Honoka’s disappearance and Aiko’s slight personality change, but they weren’t going to do much about it. Kaito, however, couldn’t let it go. He just had to look into it. Eventually, he found himself standing before the Alien.

— He then gathered everyone except Aiko to have a talk with the Alien. Why not bring Aiko along too? If he knew that Honoka had become Aiko, why not confront her right there and then? Why not hear her out? Why not let her say what she had to say? Because that would be communication, and communication might actually help. We don’t want help. We. Want. Tragedy.

— So the Alien revealed that he had granted Honoka’s wish and turned her Into Aiko. He didn’t explain it, though. After all, he didn’t have to. In fact, he didn’t really have to tell them anything. But he decided to give them incomplete information. If the Alien had told everyone what Honoka had told him, i.e. why she wanted to turn into Aiko, maybe disaster could’ve been averted. But we already know that the Alien is happy to see what humans do with his wishes, so even back then, he had no reason to spoil his own fun.

— Afterwards, Kaito insisted that if Honoka had done something, then they need to enact justice. That’s an if, though. A very big if. He didn’t actually know what she did. I can understand jumping to conclusions about someone you barely know. Ah, this stranger might have killed my childhood friend Aiko, so I’m burning with rage! I’m so mad that I can’t even think straight! But Honoka wasn’t a stranger. Honoka belonged to their group of friends just like Aiko. More importantly, Kaito wasn’t brimming with rage. He wasn’t on the verge of committing a crime of retributive passion. He was calmly discussing the matter with his friends while sitting on a goddamn park bench.

— But the mistakes just kept piling on. Naoto thought about the real Aiko and how she was doing. As a result, he realized something. He realized that she was being bullied heavily at the time. With that crucial bit of information, he seemed to have guessed that maybe Aiko had killed herself, and as a result, Honoka was just trying to replace her. BUT DID HE SAY ANYTHING TO THE GROUP? Of fucking course not. He simply told Kaito that he thought things should stay the same. Shuichi and Elena then seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Naoto, so they also told Kaito the same thing. How fucking stupid was that? Oh yeah, you wanna enact justice, Kaito? Well, lemme just sweep the issue under the rug even though I have critical information that might prevent you from doing something incredibly stupid. Ugh.

— Needless to say, Kaito didn’t accept this answer. He must have thought that he was the only sane person within his group of childhood friends. Aiko had disappeared, Honoka had turned into her, and there was a chance — a very small chance — that Honoka might have been responsible for Aiko’s disappearance. I mean, this ended up being wrong, but he just latched onto the idea, and nobody tried to talk him down! They were just like, “Well, duh, Honoka isn’t hurting anyone as Aiko, so let’s just leave it be!!!” Fuck, you guys were dumb.

— Honoka then went and visit the place where Aiko had died, and Kaito seemed to have followed her. She didn’t tell him what really happened to Aiko. She only said that Aiko “doesn’t even exist anymore.” But to be fair, Kaito asked only two questions. First, he wanted to confirm whether or not the Aiko-looking girl was really Honoka. Second, he wanted to know if Honoka could go back to being Honoka. He didn’t demand any further explanation. He didn’t ask, “Why would you go and kill her? She was our friend!” He didn’t ask, “Why can’t you turn back to Honoka?” He didn’t ask, “Why doesn’t she exist anymore? Is it because you killed her.” I mean, I feel like I would have a lot more questions for Honoka! If I was in his shoes, I would at least want to understand why one dear childhood friend would do something so horrible to another dear childhood friend. Didn’t he owe Honoka that much? Didn’t she deserve to be heard? But no, he just went and did the stupidest thing he could do: he started strangling her. Maybe this is just who Kaito really is. He already had the rope prepared. Again, this wasn’t a crime of retributive passion. This was premeditated murder. He came here with every intention to kill Honoka. Maybe he has always had a boner for murder and this stupid series of tragic events triggered his bloodlust.

— Soon afterwards, they oh-so-conveniently found Aiko’s suicide note. Naoto clarified to Kaito that Honoka had not killed Aiko. Rather, Aiko had killed herself, and Honoka tried to take her place in order to protect everyone’s happiness. But this is what I don’t get: Naoto had a feeling that Aiko had killed herself the other night! Why didn’t he say anything then? Why say it now? Well, you know why: HARDCORE TRAGEDY POINTS.

— Kaito then started walking to the Alien in a daze. He started rationalizing to himself that he was the only one who didn’t accept the current situation because he couldn’t just let Honoka disappear. What? What? You just killed Honoka, my guy. You made her disappear, you dumb shit. Oh my god, this episode is pissing me off so much that I now want to kill!

— When he got to the Alien, he made a wish. We don’t exactly know what he wished for, but considering how Honoka is now his Stand or whatever, he probably dragged her ghost ass back from the afterlife. After all, an urban legend started to spread around that time. Apparently, you can bump into Honoka on any given path, and if you can’t answer her question, you die.

— Kaito then said, “You can all disappear.” Who? Everyone? This world? The entire human race should be punished because he jumped to conclusions? Because he didn’t let Honoka explain herself? Because he committed murder like a goddamn idiot? What a joke.

— Anyways, back in the present, Clair has paid a visit to the very same cram school that Shuichi and her sister once attended. She isn’t that much younger than either of them, though. I wonder why she didn’t go to the same cram school. Maybe there was a age cutoff point.

— In the now derelict cram school building, Clair spots the very same doll that looks like Shuichi whenever he transforms. I’m not sure why this is significant, though. We already know why he has that form. Plus, there’s something bugging me. If this weird bear mascot was something that Elena was really into, shouldn’t Clair have known about it? Were they so far apart as sisters that she didn’t know what cartoon animal her sister was into?

— Speaking of Elena, she gets another phone call from Chihiro. That’s where the episode comes to an end. Welp, we still have one more episode to go. I doubt Shuichi and Clair are gonna confront Kaito in a single episode, so I really have no idea how the show is gonna end without a massive cliffhanger. Maybe that’s exactly what we’re going to get. I personally don’t find that very appealing.

This week, we take a break from the kids. Yay!

— The spotlight turns its attention to Mayuko, a.k.a. Tohru’s homeroom teacher. Apparently, she has always had a thing for Hatori, but of course, she couldn’t act on her feelings. She couldn’t possibly steal her best friend’s man. But that was over two years ago! That’s practically ancient history! Kana is married to a different man, and she doesn’t even remember her relationship with Hatori!

— I dunno, I just find it weird that so many people related to Tohru are ending up with the Sohmas. Her best friend is in love with a Sohma, and now her teacher. And we all know she’s gonna end up with one by the end of the story. Who else wants to hop on the Sohma train? C’mon, any other takers?

— I love how when Mayuko first met Hatori, she had such a… miserable-looking expression on her face. Was that how she really looked at the time? Are her memories accurate?

— Hatori’s morose expression at the time is equally hilarious. What is wrong with you two?

— Anyways, she fell instantly in love with the guy. All of it. She wanted all of it. The whole kit ‘n caboodle. Still does, in fact. Even after all these damn years. But naturally, she never acted on her feelings. And for some reason, Shigure asked her out. Everything he does comes across as sleazy even though he’s probably really not a bad guy deep down. After all, his relationship with Mayuko was bone dry. What did they even do together? Just read?

— She would try and mimic romantic gestures with Shigure, but if you’re not with the right person, it just doesn’t feel right.

— Anyways, we already know Kana’s story. She pretty much had a psychotic breakdown because she couldn’t protect Hatori from Akito. I guess I’m a selfish person deep down, because I would never blame myself if I was in her shoes. I would only blame Akito. Who hurt him? Akito. Who injured his eye? Akito. Who is crazy enough to flip out because Hatori wants to marry someone outside of the family? Akito. So yeah, if I was in Kana’s shoes, why on earth would I ever blame myself? Instead, I’d tell him to run the fuck away. But she didn’t. And he eventually had to erase her memories. I guess her lack of mental fortitude shows that they weren’t meant to be? Eh… I dunno. The whole situation is kinda ridiculous.

— Eventually, Kana moved on because she kinda had to. I mean, her relationship with Hatori was literally erased from her mind. But Mayuko never did. She could’ve pursued Hatori, but it seemed like she felt too guilty to do so. She couldn’t possibly imagine taking her best friend’s former man. I’d be more worried about the crazy ass Sohma family, but that’s just me…

— Back in the present, Shigure is back to his scheming ways. Even though he ultimately wants what’s best for everyone, it’s not very nice to mislead people. Nevertheless, he ordered a book just to arrange a meeting between Hatori and Mayuko. But more importantly, he lies to her about Hatori’s current relationship status. For some reason, he tells her that Hatori is dating Satsuki. I guess this is the only way to shock Mayuko out of her doldrums. If everyone’s moved on, then she needs to as well.

— Mayuko says she hasn’t bothered to date in the past two plus years because it would just make her feel lonelier. Well, I agree, and at the same time, I don’t. If you date the wrong person, you’ll feel lonelier. But it’s not easy to find the right person. Since this is pure fiction, Hatori is right there for the taking. All Mayuko needs to do is to summon up the courage and go for him. But reality isn’t so simple. And hell, this applies to everything in life. You can try to make friends, but if you don’t make the right friends, you end up feeling lonely anyway… except you’ve now expended all that effort for nothing. It just makes you not even want to bother.

— Anyways, Hatori eventually drops by the bookstore, so Mayuko gets to see him for the first time in years. I don’t really know how love can persist like that, but meh… it’s all fantasy.

— When he gets back to the Sohma estate, he gets an earful from this old lady for even daring to leave Akito’s side. I don’t even remember who she is. All I know is that she’s got a cult-like personality.

— The next day, Mayuko’s mother suggests that maybe she should just marry Shigure. Man, that’s sad on two levels. First, she must not know her daughter that well, because Mayuko barely dated Shigure. Second, I guess we’ve got a Christmas cake thing going on, because her mother is afraid that she’ll end up alone. But that’s just the way it is in some people’s minds. They honestly believe that it’s better to be with someone you barely know — someone whom you might not even be compatible with — than to be unmarried. They think that love will just come one day, and even if it doesn’t, you can pump out kids and love them instead.

— When Hatori shows up again for the book, Mayuko can bear to talk to him in front of her mother, so she drags him out to a nearby bridge. They make some small talk at first — and Hatori even does his best attempt at a joke — but Mayuko can’t help but bring up the fact that Hatori still seems so unhappy. If he has moved on and gotten himself a girlfriend (which he hasn’t), then why does he still look so sad (well, we know why).

— In response, the guy just nonchalantly states that happiness isn’t for him. Bruh.

— Welp, outta nowhere, Mayuko starts loudly bawling. In public. In front of everyone. Like with most scenarios that play out in Fruits Basket, I kinda get it and I don’t? Like I would never get this emotional with someone I haven’t seen for two years. But at the same time, I’m not Mayuko. If I have been suppressing my true feelings for the past two years… and if I am still holding a torch for someone whom I was never in a relationship with… then I guess I might react the same way?

— In any case, Hatori is touched that Mayuko would care so much about him. And seeing someone like her — someone who is normally so reserved — suddenly start crying, it makes him feel as though he should be able to be honest with his own feelings as well. ‘Cause hey, sometimes the good doctor needs to cry and cry freely like that boy he saw at the Sohma estate.

— He also clarifies to Mayuko that he doesn’t have a girlfriend. And with that out of the way, he goes and invites her out to lunch. So… that’s nice, I guess. They can both move forward and move forward together. In fact, Mayuko goes and spoils the story for us by revealing that the two of them will end up becoming a couple one day. Just not now, though. Not while Akito is still batshit insane.

— It’s kinda funny how these women keep ending up with these abused and battered Sohma men. Hatori doesn’t think he deserves to be happy. Kureno thinks it’s completely normal to never step outside and see the world. And, well, we already know Yuki and Kyo’s sob stories.

— I dunno, I just feel kinda weird about the whole thing. Basically, Hatori met Kana at wrong time. Or maybe they should’ve kept their relationship a secret for a little longer (like Ayame and that seamstress he works with). If either of those things had happened, then there’d be no happy ending for Mayuko.