The show wants us to feel bad for the kid, but I don’t care. I don’t care at all.
— Pfft, this show can only wish that it has anything as interesting as a game of chess (and I don’t even like chess).
— Like the post’s title suggests, Julia has a basic backstory. She wanted to be loved by her parents, but she eventually lost them. In her adulthood, she tried to find love, but failed. She thought Seiya would be different, but he also abandoned her for… well, we know why. The gist here is that the girl has abandonment issues.
— What I don’t get is why she needs a place to stay for free. I thought she was a hostess, was she not? Nevertheless, she needed to freeload off of a single mother.
— I like how in fiction, people always let themselves in even if no one answers the doorbell. I probably wouldn’t even try the doorknob. Don’t people care about privacy.
— Unfortunately for Julia, she didn’t get the warmest welcome. But yeah, this was how she met Ryuuou. The kid is left to his own devices all day, because his mother has to bring in the dough. They have a rather nice and spacious home, huh? You wouldn’t think that the mother is deeply in debt, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
— At first, the atmosphere is frosty between Julia and Ryuuou. After all, the kid doesn’t give a shit about her. He just wants his mommy. Julia, however, is grossly determined to ingratiate herself with a young child that she barely knows. Again, she has abandonment issues. She wants to be needed.
— So Ryuuou likes to sit around and look up info on torture devices. That’s not a red flag at all!
— Eventually, the kid challenges Julia to a counting game. I actually just encountered a variation of this in my current playthrough of Strange Journey Redux. Basically, you’ll always win if you go first. The game lets the player go first, because you need to figure out the trick to winning. Obviously, Ryuuou offered Julia no such concession.
— Why did she put on the stupid SCM device? ‘Cause she wanted him to be her friend! What a joke.
— So he makes her his slave, and his first order is to make the woman strip. I mean, if all he wanted to see is if she would obey his orders, he could’ve just commanded her to bark like a dog or something. But no, obviously the woman needed to strip.
— Ryuuou eventually drags Julia to the red-light district, and we soon find out that his mother is prostituting herself.
— Oh hey, it’s this creepy fuck again!
— The creepy fuck tells Ryuuou that he’ll only let his mother go if the kid pays off her debt. How much does she owe? $100 million yen, apparently. I really doubt that, but the man is probably lying. But yeah, this explains Ryuuou’s backstory. Again, it’s just as basic as Julia’s. As soon as I saw that “Ryuuou-sama” was a shota-kun, I knew that I was in for something lame. The story wants us to sympathize with his plight and all that, but I just can’t help rolling my eyes at how straightforward this has played out.
— Later that night, Julia embraced Ryuuou ’cause she’s sick. No, really, she is. Her issues came to a head at that moment, and she currently clings to the kid, because she doesn’t want to be abandoned again. Even though she’s already his slave, she wants to obey his every order anyway. To show her devotion, she even got a tattoo (which we’ve already seen in past episodes). She thinks that if she bares her soul to him, he won’t ever throw her away. Yeah, good luck with that.
— And now we’re back to the present.
— Julia acts as if the other slaves’ opinions of Ryuuou would change if only they knew his true motives. Yeah, right. It sucks that his mother has to prostitute herself, but we really don’t know the whole story and neither does he. Maybe she wants to be a prostitute (unlikely). Maybe she doesn’t actually owe all that much money (maybe). It’s not like Ryuuou’ll ever reach out and talk to her about any of this, though. Not until the story’s about the end, anyway. ‘Cause honestly, if they put their minds together, they might be able to work out a solution that doesn’t involve hurting other people. They might. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s worth trying. But the kid’s not going to do that, because both he and ostensibly the story’s writer has crafted this narrative in which he is on some noble mission to become his mother’s savior.
— Plus, whatever the case may be, the idea that you would hurt six people just to save your mother is untenable to me. Of course, he’s just a kid, he’s emotional, and a lot of us would do whatever it takes to save our mothers. I guess I just can’t agree with that. I would never sacrifice an innocent person just to save any family member. Not a chance.
— Anyways, it’s time for Ryuuou to face off against Fujiko. Like I’ve said in the past, the person who comes up with the game always win. So… we already know who’s going to win here. There’s really no need to watch the rest of the episode, but fine, let’s humor ourselves.
— It’s just capture-the-flag. If you fall over, you are disqualified. Ho-hum.
— Fujiko thinks that if she wins all of Ryuuou’s slaves, this will impress the guy that she likes. ‘Cause that makes sense.
— Predictably enough, the rapist is still rapey, so I didn’t feel bad that he got stuck between Ayaka and Seiya.
— Fujiko’s team nears Ryuuou’s flag, but it’s surrounded by a pool of water that also has an electric current running through it. Now, I’m not an expert, but… why isn’t Julia dead?
— Anyways, the point is here is that Fujiko can’t command her slaves to hurt themselves. The only reason Julia can hurt herself is because she would’ve done it anyways without the SCM nonsense. As a result, Ryuuou wins. Game, set, match, blah blah blah. I’m so bored.
— Julia regains consciousness, and it looks like Ryuuou hardly even cares about her… but maybe he’s just tsundere!
— The kid’s army is bigger than ever.
— Meanwhile, Eia has a dog, a worthless fuck, and some random girl that we know nothing about.
— But there’s a third faction!
— And it’s probably led by the dog’s mortal enemy. Great. Apparently, stealing super important research data has bestowed him the ability to look like a greasy pimp.