Good evening everyone, I hope you’re all well. We’re now seven episodes into this series and things are finally picking up speed. When I watched this episode yesterday, I noticed some changes made to the opening, so let’s go through those before we start talking about the episode itself. For starters, they slightly changed how they show the main cast, making it a bit more fast paced. Then the long shot of Clayman’s home is replaced by showing off all the attendants to Walpurgis, as well as a closer look at who Souei and Shion are fighting.
Geld’s ready to get his revenge.
We then get a little bit more strategy with Benimaru telling us about his skill “born leader.” The beastketeers then ask permission to eliminate the leader of the enemy army. This turns into three different fights. The gang splits up and Geld’s group very successfully lures the main army into a trap. I hope there’s a twist coming because personally I feel like all of this is way too easy. Regardless, three fights start and we get a little taste of each.
The first fight looks to be between Suphia and Gabiru and Milim’s followers. This fight has me curious because I kind of feel bad. Milim is being brainwashed and her followers seem to be having a rough time because of it. It wouldn’t surprise me if this fight ends in a stalemate somehow.
Phobio has to fight both Tear and Footman, who he has a grudge against from an earlier arc, and rightfully so. What has me worried is that Laplace has been shown to be on a similar level to Clayman, and arguably smarter. I don’t know how strong these two are, but they definitely seem confident. They acknowledge Phobio’s strength though, but I still don’t see Phobio winning this. Could he become a hostage that Clayman can use against Rimuru? Geld has been shown to be very strong though, so when he shows up to help I get a bit more confident.
I think this match-up was always going to be the most straightforward, even before Gobta joined in. I figured Albis was the strongest of the three and Yamza has been shown to be a bit of a coward and a scumbag right before the fight. He proves this by immediately breaking the 1 versus 1 he promised. Luckily everyone’s favorite Goblin Gobta is here with his squad. I saw someone on reddit say that the novels have a Gobta side story, which I’m very excited for since he’s one of my favorite characters.
Have some faith in yourself, Gobta.
I feel like I say that this is the last bit of set-up every week, and as much as I’m thoroughly in love with this show, even I’m starting to get a little bit impatient. I want to see Walpurgis and I doubt I’m alone in that. But good build-up makes for good pay-off, so I suppose we have to be patient for one more week.
And with my job done, I’ll see you all again next week!
Remember how last week I said that this would be the big battle. I lied. I can only apologize. Instead we get a little bit more world building and character introductions. And some fun ones to top it off. Before the episode really gets going we see the different groups go on their different missions. The army goes to Eurazania, Elalude goes home to Thalion, Youm and Diablo go to conquer Falmuth and Veldora gets explicitly told to stay at home and watch the kids. Then the opening sets off. I’ve been listening to the opening a lot, and it’s been continuously growing on me.
Diablo is so certain of himself, he said it twice!
Clayman talks to Yamza, who has heard rumours about Veldora waking up again. Unfortunately for a lot of the parties involved, they end up hearing the fake story that Rimuru made up. It surprises me that it didn’t leak what actually happened. On one hand it’s not been long so it somewhat makes sense, but the idea that not a single person at that meeting was either a spy or able to be bought surprises me. Gives me good hopes. And good on you Clayman, for not falling for his bluff by falling for his bluff. He’s not being built up as a particularly smart character.
Poor Milim, I really want to see her shine again.
Speak of the devil, we finally learn about why Milim has been working with Clayman. Demon Lord Frey tricked her into wearing a brainwashing magic item. The show portrays her as a little bit remorseful, but this betrayal stings. Milim is so lovely and trusting, and to be betrayed like that is awful. Especially seeing how Clayman treats her afterwards. He promises to make Sky Queen Frey the ruler of the heavens, which seems to be the reason why she’s working with Clayman, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she at some point takes off the necklace to release Milim on Clayman. We’ll see what happens when Rimuru gets involved. Clayman and friends still certainly seem to be underestimating him.
You should learn what friends are, Frey.For now, Clayman, for now.
Now here’s a familiar face. I don’t believe we’ve seen Leon Cromwell in action since Season 1. He’s visiting an ice themed demon lord, who we quickly learn is called Guy Crimson, the lord of darkness. He is a big shot, one of the strongest demon lords alongside Milim. He has a whole host of weird looking underlings, and he seems to be demon-themed. That’s honestly a better theme than clowns or harpies, so he’s got that going for him. Vampires have also gotten a bad rep, so he might be the coolest one out there right now. He’s also the guy with red hair that’s been hinted at in the opening. Both Leon and Guy don’t seem like particularly bad people to be honest. And Guy seems to think the same about Leon because he’s definitely interested. Unfortunately for him, Leon does not reciprocate.
I would be cautious too around a guy who has abs like that.
We get a lot more talk about Walpurgis, the expectations they each have and Rimuru’s existence as well as Veldora returning. And we meet Veldora’s older sister, White Ice Dragon Velzard, Empress of Ice. She’s teamed up with Guy, which is probably one of the reasons why he’s so strong. Having one of the four strongest dragons on your side will definitely help. My prediction is this will become some sort of counter balance against Rimuru if these two end up clashing in the long term. But Guy seems to be several steps above Leon, who himself seems to be several steps above Cromwell. And Leon has a very specific goal involving the summons. Maybe he can even come to an agreement with Rimuru. It also sounds like the two of them have figured out that Rimuru might be a reincarnation, seeing as he’s so against Leon continuing his projects.
Oh no, she’s hot.
In an interesting parallel with Rimuru and Veldora, Velzard decides to stay at home and watch the kids as well, as opposed to accompanying Guy to Walpurgis.
Now I haven’t read the manga nor the light novel, so all of this is just guesswork, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this upcoming arc is going to set up some light banter between Guy and Rimuru, and give us a little bit of an expectation that the two will eventually clash. But I also thought that Diablo was for sure going to double cross Rimuru and so far that seems like I’ve been wrong, so who knows. Either way, as much as I have been enjoying this exposition, and I think it’s really well done, I honestly can’t wait to see the actual confrontation. I also plan to start reading the light novel in the near future and I might do some reviewing of that on here as well, perhaps to remind some of you about what happened in season 1, since a lot of it seems to have slipped from my memory overtime.
But enough about me, what did you think of this week’s episode? Did it go by too slow or are you enjoying the lengthy set-up that will inevitably turn into a great pay-off? Let me know in the comments down below and as always; thanks for reading!
I like her, design, voice and demeanor all at once!
We’re already at volume 10, time really does fly when you’re having fun. I currently have access to 15 volumes in total, and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I say 15, but this most recent one hasn’t arrived yet, so let’s hope it’s here by the time I’ve gotten through the volumes up to 14. Maybe it’s a good thing I took one too many breaks. I wonder what series I should go through next. I have some ideas, but suggestions are welcome. I’m open to a lot of things, so books, manga and light novels are all possibilities! With that out of the way, let’s get back into it.
This volume introduces a lot of new characters, so it was definitely a lot of paying close attention while reading. I have to admit I don’t remember any of the names yet, but then again I still struggled with how to spell Cartaphilus until he was no longer really in the story. On that note, he’s currently in a slumber while Josef seems to just be chilling around and sleeping most of the time. We’re introduced to the Vice-Chancellor of the college, who seems shady as hell. The whole college smells of something weird, but I think the author wanted to make that very clear to us early on. Ellias wears a new face here, based on another person. It’s just somebody that he used to know. Musical jokes aside, I feel like we’ve seen that character before, but I could be wrong. She’s shown later on in this volume as well, seemingly someone who goes to sleep and wakes up in a different time period. That’s a pretty cool, albeit inconvenient ability, assuming you can’t really control which time period you end up in.
Something else that’s really cool, is that the Will o’ wisp from the graveyard is now Alice’s familiar. This makes her stand out even more among the college students, as alchemists generally have animal corpses or something of the like as their familiars, and not living neighbours. Ellias then goes on to teach a class on magic, which reveals that several of the alchemists have absolutely no talent for it. One even gets told he smells of rust. He seems like a nice kid though, so I wonder what’s up with that. Two of the other, seemingly arrogant, kids antagonize one of the neighbours and cause a fuss. Elias has to step in, and afterwards gets chewed out by Renfred. Not an experience he seems to enjoy.
Veronica has some mean girls energy, so I’m curious to see how that goes. Zoe Ivey looks like a main character, so I think she’ll become relevant to the story. That and she’s on the cover art, so that’s giving it away a bit. So is Alice, and I’m happy we’re seeing a little bit more of her. It’s the same with the girl we saw earlier, whose name apparently is Philomela. She’s part of the mean girls squad, but there seems to be more going on than meets the eyes. Is this going to be some classic high school drama in a more fantastical setting? I’m here for that. If it doesn’t drag on and has interesting enough characters, that is. At the very least a lot of their character designs are very nice. Not so much super strange or anything, they just seem to be well thought out. A little bit later we see that Zoe apparently sees something in Chise and Elias that the others don’t see. It makes me wonder if we’re going to see more mages, or even another Sleigh Beggy in this arc. There’s definitely some characters.
We snap back to a different place, now we’re in Simon Cullum’s home, who’s having a few visitors. The nun Gabriella seems to know quite a bit about what’s going on, but she also seems to be quite scheming. She tricks Ellias into visiting Simon while middle management is present and breathing down his neck. I can already see inadequacy in this kid. He seems like the type going exactly by the book and ignoring any subtlety a situation requires. He’s immediately going to talk to the manager, so that doesn’t bode well. And of course, as happens every other volume, Stella gets kidnapped again. I wonder what’s going to happen to her this time.
I really enjoyed this volume, although I feel like I might have to read it again just so I get a better idea of who all the new characters are. We also get some hints towards Ellias past, and the name Pilum Mirale. We also see who I presume is the time wizard and I have to say her character design is stunning. I can’t wait to see more of her. I love eccentric characters and I have a good feeling about this one. Tell me what you think of this volume in the comments, I really like the direction it’s taking and I’m very curious. I hope to see you all again next week for volume 11!
So as most of you will have noticed, I forgot to write a review next week. I even posted on twitter that it would be there a day later, and then I ended up completely forgetting about it. In my defense, I had a party and I had planned to play Dungeons & Dragons with some uni friends, so I hope you can forgive me. To make up for it, today’s review will cover a quick recap of what happened last week. I was also going to make this review longer, but after watching the episode I figured you guys aren’t looking for another wall of text about the same extended meeting.
Manga is still important. Can I just say that I love everyone’s outfit here.
Intrigue continued as Ramiris finally got to her warning. Clayman is trying to start a war by blaming Demon Lord Carrion and Demon Lord Rimuru for killing Myuran. Miuran? Mjurran? I’ve seen several translations in the subs, but I’ll be going with Myuran for the time being. Unbeknownst to him, Myuran is far from dead. Having said that, it’s just an excuse to slaughter the people in Eurazania, which Rimuru realizes too late, as they all assumed Tempest would be his target. Carrion is trying to ascend to True Demon Lord by doing something similar to what Rimuru did with the Falmuth people, if I understand correctly. This is the gist of what you missed last week, but I assume most of you reading this also watched the episode, and know this already. Moving on to this week’s episode:
You’re not wrong, but you’re also wrong.
We get a lot of dialogue from Raphael this episode and we’re once again reminded how terrifyingly powerful she is. WIthout her, Rimuru would just be a slime with some powerful friends, but her knowledge and ingenuity is ridiculous, it completely elevates Rimuru’s capabilities. This time around she teaches him a method to teleport entire armies across the world. I went through the reddit thread earlier to see what people were saying about Raphael, and one commenter said that Rimuru acknowledged in the light novel that Megiddo, his amazing but overpowered attack from last season, was probably easy enough to counter once his enemies learned about it. I’m hoping there’s restrictions in place for this mass teleport as well. I like my overpowered main characters, but there needs to be balance.
Oh dear.
Let’s move on to Walpurgis, shall we? This meeting between demon lords that is about to take place should be very interesting to watch. We’ve learned about several demon lords at this point, and Rimuru remarks that Leon Cromwell should be present. We could also learn more about Milim’s situation, and as a matter of fact, we get a little bit of insight into that later in this episode. The ones to look out for are Demon Lords Frey and Clayman, who seem to be on the same side with Milim, although why they are working together is unclear still. There’s also the vampire from a few episodes ago as well as the newly awakened blond lady working with Yuuki, who’s name I forget. We talk for a while as Rimuru decides on who goes where during this operation. Eventually they decide on him bringing Shion and Ranga, while sending Diablo off to Falmuth and leaving Veldora to guard town. I get the feeling that the author is planning to use Veldora as comic relief for a while, since he’s so powerful he would probably ruin the balance of the story if he showed up continuously. But I could be wrong on that.
Future Target, Leon CromwellWe meet these two forces of personality, working for Milim.
Yamza, one of Clayman’s strongest underlings is here with his army and they’ve been forced to take care of them. We learn thatt Hermes and Middray are not happy with this, and don’t believe Milim is doing this of her own free will. Yamza cuts off Hermes arm which gets quickly healed by Middray after Yamza is out of sight. I’m curious to see how strong these two are when they’re actually trying. They seem to be stronger than they’re letting on. Also, one of them is a melon, which is fun.
Same, where is she at?
After we finish at Milim’s camp Rimuru and Raphael get the idea to transport all the people in Eurazania to safety. The army isn’t the only thing they can transport, after all. They quickly go around and bring everyone to safety in Tempest, which is a smart idea. We are then introduced to the army, of which I will post several images below. Seeing scenes like these are always interesting to me, because I find that shonen anime struggle to kill off named characters, but don’t mind killing heaps of fodder. It always feels a bit dishonest to me when one named character dies and the entire army is in shock, but when Billy from Platoon 69 dies off screen no one bats an eyelid (looking at you, Naruto). We’ll see where this is headed. As much as Tensura is shaping to be one of my favorite shows in a long time, it’s not without its imperfections. Next week should be the confrontation that we’ve been preparing for for 5 episodes now, so that’s very exciting.
Eurazania’s forcesThe Goblin Riders, led by GobtaBenimaru and the ogres.The 4000 CGI Hobgoblins, who are probably going to end up as fodder.Geld and his high orcsGabiru’s squad tops it off, bringing the tolal army size to 20.000 soldiers.I actually like this, making the revived people like their own venegeful squad. I’m happy to see Gobzo alive and well!
And with that we have an overview of the entire army. I can’t wait for next week. Tensura has some very likeable characters, which I think is one of the points it really shines in. Ignoring the CGI troops which definitely look out of place, this episode got me excited as hell! I can’t wait, and I hope to see you all here next week!
Elias stopping Chise, but not as aggressively as in the volume.
Last week I took a different approach to writing these blook club reviews. Instead of writing as I go through the manga, I waited until I read the entire volume before starting. And I honestly prefered that method, so for the time being that’s how these will be written. Both last week’s volume and this volume were very good so let’s not waste too much time and get started, shall we?
Chise has gone with Josef/Cartaphilus to his laboratory. He wants to basically trade arms so their curses can counteract each other. It seems like an okay theory but nothing ever goes as planned. To test their compatibility they first exchange eyes. This is a rather brutal scene, with Josef ripping out his own eye effortlessly and then doing the same to Chise. I can’t imagine the amount of pain something like that would cause, but Chise goes through with it. I’m assuming some form of magic is helping out since wounds like that shouldn’t just heal immediately. Perhaps their respective curses make it so it heals immediately? This isn’t made clear but it seems like a logical enough conclusion that I’m not about to question it. After the treatment is done, Josef sends Chise into a dream as his way of being a dick. He really isn’t a nice person, but we will soon learn how he got to this point.
We get a glimpse into Chise’s past as she dreams of a time when her parents were still together. At this point in the story I’ve just accepted that I don’t remember as much from the anime as I thought because everytime we get to a new story I think back to it and I feel like I’ve seen it already. But it feels almost like I’m getting to experience it all over again, which is definitely not a bad thing. Chise and her mother were both Sleigh Beggy. Chise had always assumed it came from her father, but she was wrong. Her father has been protecting them but he’s reaching a boiling point. Eventually he takes Chise’s younger brother and leaves. Chise’s mother does her best to protect her, but with their curses this proves near impossible. Eventually her mother gets so fed up that she almost hurts Chise. Horrified by the thought of the possibility, she ends up taking her own life instead. Besides obviously a sad backstory, this also leaves the interesting possibility that Chise’s brother and father will eventually show up later in this story.
To get back at Josef, Chise ends up peeking into his history as well and forcing him to relive it as well. We learn about a happy gravedigger named Josef, who starts taking care of a strange person going by Cartaphilus. By all measures this person looks like they’re far past dead already but they don’t die. Josef tries to find a way to help this stranger, but ends up slowly driving himself insane while doing so until he comes to the conclusion that they should just merge bodies. This turns them into the Josef/Cartaphilus we see today. We also learn that Cartaphilus became this cursed because he threw a stone at Jesus. This doesn’t shine a great light on Christianity, but then again, neither do most bible stories.
Moving on, Elias has been extremely upset that he messed up so badly. Not so much that he regrets his methods, because from his perspective he did the right thing. What he regrets is the outcome. As a human, Chise has very different standards and reasoning from fae creatures. Luckily for Elias, he’s made some powerful friends and even Titania shows up to help him out. Elias and some others are sent to Chise’s side to help her out and they end up successfully helping her against Josef. The latter runs away, but with the help of Marielle, the witch, and Ruth she confronts him. He severely wounds her, but she manages to deal with it, and puts him to sleep. This chapter of the story ends with Josef wanting to stay asleep for a while and Chise taking care of him.
I have to admit that the cover this time around seemed a lot more neutral, so to speak. I couldn’t really find a theme, but maybe I missed something. If there’s a theme that you found that I didn’t, do let me know. Not everything has a deeper meaning, but it’s fun to speculate.
The upcoming chapter now starts and we see Chise and Elias getting ready to go to college. I guess it’s time for hogwarts? All jokes aside (and I don’t even like Harry Potter that much), When you’re dealing with magic, a school setting is great to introduce a diverse cast of interesting people without having to really reach far. Teachers, students and other people on the grounds leave limitless possibilities. I think that’s why Harry Potter got so successful and why we see so many manga and anime take place in school. I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming arc. The magic in this universe is fascinating and I feel like the characters are very well written. Most, if not all of them are very flawed, but in a believable way. It makes you root for them and also relate to them. But what did you think of this volume, and this arc as a whole? Did you like it? Are you excited for the next one? Please leave a comment and I hope to see you all here again next week!
Last week was a little bit of a slow week when it came to things happening. A part of it was just remembering what happened in the previous cour, and the introduction of Veldora to the main cast. Nearing the end the politics started with Gazel and Elalude showing up to talk to Rimuru about the current status quo. This week we jump straight into unfamiliar territory and are shown a building called The Inner Sanctum of the Holy Empire of Lubelius. Almost immediately the clown known as Laplace is thrown out of the building by who he claims to be a vampire. He then gets turned into more pieces than buggy the clown on a bad day. I have to admit I don’t remember much about the clown troupe and their motives except that it’s nothing good. If Tokyo Ghoul and Hunter X Hunter have taught me anything it’s that clowns are not to be trusted under any circumstance.After last week I looked up the opening Like Flames by MindaRyn on Spotify. It only got about 100.000 plays and is one of her more popular songs. From what I can find she’s originally a cover artist on Youtube? If I have that right then it’s cool that the anime employed someone like that for the theme song. It’s always great when newer artists get some recognition. And the song is great, so give it a listen on Spotify or Youtube as well!
Good Question Laplace. Is this the first time we hear about vampires existing in this universe?
After the opening ends we immediately hear a familiar voice. It’s the guild master right, that was in the big city? I can’t think of his name right now. He’s talking very casually to Laplace, I wonder what their relationship is. Yuuki Kagurazaka. So he’s working with the clowns? Or, as we’re about to find out, the clowns are more or less working for him. The Clowns’ boss’ soul was inside the Grandmaster (not Guild Master like I thought) and has now been transferred to a Homunculus created in Thalion. We’ve heard this name last week, it’s where Eren and her father are from. The former Demon Lord Kazaream is now Kagali, the office worker? Either way, it looks like the people in this room are going to pose a problem to Rimuru soon enough from the way the conversation is flowing. More and more demon lords are entering the fray.
Kagali, leader of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance
So to put all of this into perspective, Laplace, as well as Tear, Footman and Clayman are all part of this alliance and look to be it’s top gunners. Not to forget about Yuuki, who seems to be either on the same level as Kagali or even higher up. We also find out who slighted them. Leon Cromwell. He’s the one that summoned Shizu and the children, is he not? I really should rewatch the first season one of these days, it’s been a while. Or, I could wait for the first volume of the light novel to arrive. It was very hard to get a hold of one here in the Netherlands. It was sold out often on the websites I tend to use, but the other day I found one available so I ordered it immediately, ignoring the fact that I’m very, very broke right now. Back to the story at hand, I think this also explains why Clayman was wearing a mask in the opening theme. I always though he employed the clowns, but it seems like they might be more on the same level than it initially seemed. I wonder how strong that makes these clowns. Laplace could have their body sliced into pieces and return as if nothing was wrong, so they have at least some power. It looks like for the time being they want to find dirt on the Holy Western Church. That’s the organization that Sakaguchi Hinata works for, the powerful lady who almost killed Rimuru last season.
This doesn’t sound good. But this guy also looks very familiar.
It turns out both this guy and Kagali are involved in creating the majority vote. It’s thanks to them that big actions require a vote amongst demon lords. But it only requires three votes, which dates back to the time of when there were only seven demon lords. There are a lot more now, as far as we’re aware. It looks like the clowns and Yuuki are allied to Demon Lord Milim and Demon Lord Frey, as well as the aforementioned Clayman. This conversation, and the fact that Milim attacked the beast nation last season makes me wonder if this conversation we’re seeing here actually happened a little while back and is the reason Milim attacked them. If not then I’m curious if Milim did something like that of her own accord instead, since although it’s been made very clear how dangerous she is, she also still seems like a lovely person at her core. We’ll see as the season progresses I suppose.
not the socially awkward Diablo from Isekai Maou
Shuna introduces everyone at the meeting of the important people and monsters. Veldora casually walks up and things are about to get wild. “Is this another one of your subordinates?”
Oh how wrong you are Gazel. The name Veldora terrifies everyone at the meeting, and rightfully so. He’s too handsome to be left alive! Lucky for all the rulers, Veldora is more interested in his manga than in harming anyone in the vicinity. I know many anime and manga try to have attractive characters, but I always find that Tensura absolutely nails this. Everyone looks interesting and attractive. Rimuru shares his backstory with the rest of his adventuring party and tells the two rulers how Veldora was revived. They are, understandably, not happy about the evil dragon being reborn. Luckily they end up choosing friendship, and Rimuru now has two great allies. To be fair, Gazel was already on friendly terms, but this could have gone south.
Rimuru, buddy, I don’t think it’s praise.
The meeting continues and Rimuru recounts his runin with Sakaguchi Hinata, who is one scary holy lady. It’s too bad that their fight is mostly based around a misunderstanding. And it makes sense that the other people at the meeting know her as someone kind who helps other people. So her attacking Rimuru like that is purely based on some false information she was fed by a certain someone. Rimuru figures it out almost immediately, but without the scene earlier in the episode I would not have realized that Yuuki was behind it. It’s interesting to try and figure out what his motives are, since he seems so casual about everything. The scariest villains are the ones that seem unassuming, aren’t they? It’s a good thing we have a whole haul of villains here, and they’re all jumping the line to try and get a chance at fighting Hinata. They don’t know what they’d be in for, but I like their guts.
A trio of over confident monsters right here.Sure buddy, we believe you. Go back to your manga.
As Rimuru announces, this concludes the debate on Hinata and the church. This is where he mentions the anonymous tip from earlier. Yuuki is the only one who knows he killed Shizu that has a chance of betraying him. Both Rimuru and Raphael seemed to have gotten to the same conclusion. I still wonder if he ends up being a villain or an ally in a sense. These kinds of people are dangerous regardless.
Bonk!
Ramiris shows up near the end to predict Tempest’s doom. Didn’t we just get through this last season? I’m sure Rimuru will figure out a way to deal with this, he’s calm and collected like that.
Maybe not that calm and collected
Another great episode, adding a lot of mystery to the entire situation. It’s still a bit strange to switch from last season’s Tensura Nikki back to the more storydriven main storyline. It’s great though, because I do like that things seem to be moving ahead fast. I’m curious what Yuuki’s motives are, which side Hinata will eventually end up on, although I think she’ll be defeated by Rimuru and then join him after he manages to explain himself. Next episode is called Ramiris’ warning, which admittedly tells us very little about what will actually happen, but I can’t wait. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this week’s episode, and if you think you know what Yuuki’s motivations are. (Obviously no spoilers if you know from the source material)
Normally I write these reviews in tandem with reading the manga itself. I tend to read a chapter and then write down my thoughts. Today went a little differently. I went to visit some friends for a nice day of Dungeons & Dragons. I play a human monk based on my short story Firedancer Elena, which you can find on my website as well. I know, you didn’t ask. My friend that was hosting lives a couple towns away, so I had to take a train ride there. I decided to read this volume of The Ancient Magus Bride on the train on the way there. I also brought my chromebook so I could write the review on the way back. This would give me some time to think about what I read and perhaps write a more cohesive review of it.
And this volume was intense, so it was probably a good choice. The theme of suicide and wanting to live or die has been big in this manga and I would say it’s been a driving force for the main narrative. Chise is certainly not a happy person when we first meet her, and this changes a little bit overtime, but the sadness is definitely still there even in this volume. She speaks about her pain very openly in this volume though, and she talks about how now that she finally wants to live she’s suddenly going to die any quicker. Poor Chise.
On the topic of her newly acquired curse, we get a little bit more insight on that as well. Dragons use magic just like humans do, but the way that they use it is very different. It’s a much more natural process for dragons, like breathing is for humans. We are then told a story about someone absorbing a dragon’s heart to gain its powers. What Chise did to save the dragon, although it had very different intentions, was similar to this practice. Unfortunately the strain of absorbing something like this from a dragon is much more than any person can take, and the curse will eventually take her.
Lucky for Chise, the lady that collaborated with her at the auction last volume is apparently part of a coven that might be able to help. She comes over to invite Chise and Elias over to one of their meetings. They initially decline, but after thinking it through they decide that they can at least hear the witches out. The only way they would help is by Chise joining them, which neither her nor Elias want. What changed their mind was realizing that the alternative was Chise dying without a solution at all. So they follow the ritual and appear at the coven where they talk. The intention was to use Chise to help the leader of the coven with one of her problems, but the leader herself doesn’t agree. After some talks, Chise and Elias end up leaving empty handed.
Elias is then approached by the witch, Marielle again, who tells him a way to cure Chise. There is no way to cure this without anyone dying, as far as she’s aware, but there are ways to fix it if the safety of another person is not important. So Elias in his desperation decides to kidnap Stella and use her as the sacrifice. Ruth helps him out by not telling Chise what he’s doing, and they get started on the ritual. Chise is forced unconscious but with the help of her memories of Nevin she manages to wake up again and rushes to the room where Elias is starting the ritual. After giving Elias a good punch she helps Stella out of the room, but quickly realizes that Josef, also known as Cartaphilus, has a hold on Stella as well. He offers Chise a way to cure her curse that wouldn’t require Stella’s sacrifice. After Elias betrayal this seems like her best option, and she takes his hand.
Creepy Josef
Before my thoughts on the cover I do want to take another moment to talk about the theme of suicide or moreso lacking a drive for life. It’s easy to call them the same thing since they often stem from a similar mental state, but they’re different responses to the same problem. One is more intense than the other, but each are extremely valid in their own way. It’s a topic that isn’t talked about enough and I say that knowing it gets talked about a lot more nowadays than it used to. I can unfortunately relate to Chise’s lack of drive to move on with life. Not at the moment, luckily, but I’ve been in that mental state before and I undoubtedly will return there at some point. What’s important is acknowledging that this is not a healthy mental state and then trying to work on improving it. That’s easier said than done, but I do want to offer my respect to the author of the The Ancient Magus Bride for handling such a delicate topic so well. It’s not magically over when life goes a little better, and Chise reflects that. The road to recovery from serious mental health problems isn’t easy, quick or glamorous, but there are many people fighting this battle and we need to let them know that they’re strong enough to do their best. Okay, back to the manga now.
I’ve spent a little bit of most of my discussions talking about the cover art. Depending on the kind of series you’re reading, the cover can give away a lot about the contents. I think this one is best studied in hindsight though. The front cover (or back cover depending on how you look at it from a western perspective) has Elias and Chise heading in one direction on the platform. The back has Josef going the other way, and also features what looks to be Ariel. I’d like to think this is a nod at the fact that Chise and Elias get a lot closer during this volume, only for Elias to completely ruin that near the end, and Josef (I’m going to keep calling him Josef instead of Cartaphilus) is there to pick up the pieces. As with every volume before, I’m very excited to see where this story is going next, and if you feel the same, I hope to see you here again next week for volume 9. Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot to me!
Last season I considered covering the anime Tensura Nikki on a weekly basis. I ended up deciding against it, since it’s a slice of life anime and I figured there wouldn’t be a ton to talk about. In hindsight I think there was more content than I expected, but there’s no use wondering what could have been. Now that Tensura Nikki has ended, and the second cour of the main Tensura series has started up I want to visit this show weekly. You can expect a review of Tensura Nikki tomorrow*, and if you want to hear some of my opinions about the first cour of Tensura please have a look at my review of one of the episodes, which is when my opinion of the show went from really good to top tier. Are you excited to watch this episode? Because I sure am! Let’s get to it!
Look at this happy ball of energy
We start off right where the previous cour ended off, with the revival of Veldora in humanoid form. In case we forgot, Rimuru ascended to the demon lord last cour and found out how to remove the barrier that was keeping the dragon locked up. I was thinking what would happen when he returned, but it’s good to see that the nerdy awkward dragon is just as wild a personality in this form. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen with them. Also, Rimuru has gotten a new ultimate skill called Veldora, as well as Uriel. Four ultimate skills has to be cheating, doesn’t it? But enough about that, we get to the opening.
Women in a suit look so good ❤
I find that walking animations are often hit or miss in opening sequences like these. I can’t say the ones in this opening look particularly good. Having said that, the crew in their new drip look absolutely fire. It’s followed by some characters that I don’t recognize, which is very exciting. We see Souei fighting what looks to be an undead dragon, and Shion is fighting with someone we only see in a reflection of her eye. The creepy clown trio is still there and even Hinata Sakaguchi is showing up in this opening. Finally, Rimuru is walking towards glowing red magic. That can’t be good, can it? The song itself sounds fine, I think I’ll have to hear it a couple more times to see if it really gets me excited to watch the show, but so far it didn’t impress too much.
Quick note: The opening is already growing on me as I’m finishing up this post the next day
This is Episode 37: The Visitors. Pretty standard title, but has it been 36 episodes already? I guess that adds up, I should go back and watch the earlier episodes again, for science. Would be fun to do a review about them as well, leave a comment down below if that’s something you’d be interested in. Veldora is so extra and I love it. Is he going Super Saiyan? Can they do that without breaking copyright laws? Maybe he read one too many manga volumes in Rimuru’s memory. Either way, back to town we go and to introduce Veldora to the gang. I can’t imagine them being too surprised to see the ancient dragon of the forest in the flesh. Treyni is the first one to recognize him and welcome him back. Man, I can’t get over what a character he is, it’s amazing. This show just gets better and better.
He’s such a kind Tsundere Dragon overlord
Now then, it’s time for a toast. We did finish a pretty harrowing arc right before the end of the first cour, after all. With everyone being safe and alive again, it does feel nice to be back here. I’m not a huge fan of characters dying only to be revived again. Here’s a little spoiler for my own stories that I’m writing, I will only use this very, very sparsely, and generally in such a way that there’s either a heavy cost involved, or strong hints ahead of time. I digress. I think the way Tensura handled reviving people was fine. Rimuru quite literally and metaphorically had to sacrifice his humanity. Slimanity? Sliminess? You know what I mean right? He killed an entire army of humans on his own to ascend to something greater. I hope there are big repercussions for doing so, and it’s not just a powerboost. If it is a powerboost, he’s going to need it to survive Shion’s cooking. I can’t believe she got a master chef skill. Gordon Ramsay is shedding a tear of pride right now.
A little infidelity is fine, apparently.
I don’t trust Diablo. I think most people would agree with me that he’s shady. I really hope he’s just a power hungry demon working for someone he considers to be powerful enough to work under. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he backstabs the gang at some point. Also, Gabiru got a promotion. No one is impressed by the fact that Rimuru is a Demon Lord now, to Rimuru’s own surprise. And here we get the first mention of, what I assume to be, the main villain of this part of the story: Clayman. He’s been a thorn in their side for a little while now, so it’s about time they go on the offense. I like that there’s a very clear map hanging around in the meeting room as well. I don’t remember who lives where in this continent though, so I should brush up on my knowledge. Fuze shows up a little bit late to the party. At least he’s very committed to going down to the ship. You’ve got to respect that. Poor Fuze, ready to die for the cause only to find out that Rimuru singlehandedly wiped out an entire kingdom’s army. And then Dwargon even shows up!
It’s Thorin Oakenshield! I mean Gazel Dwargo.
I like that the saint, now turned in to Raphael, seems to have more of a personality than before. I hope this ends up turning into something important later on in the story. She’s got sass for sure, which I like. And who are these new people showing up? Apparently a homunculus from the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion. Is this the first time we’re hearing about this place? I certainly don’t remember hearing of it before today. They seem shady. And about a second later the guy snaps at Rimuru. Makes me wonder who his daughter is. I bet it’s Eren, but I could be wrong.
Nice landing 10/10
There we go, I couldn’t think of another blonde girl that would really fit in this place. Luckily it was just a misunderstanding. It’s good to see that Elalude, Eren’s father, is very powerful. It makes me wonder about Eren’s potential. He’s the Archduke of Thalion, so he’s definitely important. Is this where Rimuru is about to forge some big alliances? Next episode we get to see a big meeting with all these people who just showed up as well as Rimuru’s cast. Is it me or was Veldora strangely absent for the second half of this episode? I wonder if that was a coincidence, since meetings don’t seem to be his speed, or if he was already doing something.
Look at our ominous little slime, red eyes have never not been cool.
The ending sounds great immediately. It’s nostalgic with a hint of foreshadowing. Rimuru looks intimidating with those red eyes. With the first episode now behind us, I’m ever more excited for the rest of the season than I already was. How about you, what did you think about the start of this season? Please leave a comment and a like and I hope to see you here again next week for the next episode!
*As usual I spoke too soon, I need more time to go indepth on my review of Tensura Nikki. It’ll be there in the near future though!
This volume’s cover art, are they looking at the train coming up?
I know that it’s been a little while since we last did one of these, but I finally got the chance to sit down and read volume 7 of The Ancient Magus Bride. In the meantime I did manage to catch up on some other series I was a little bit behind on, namely Made in Abyss and Eden’s Zero, so I didn’t spend the past few weeks without any reading, but this was put to the side for a little while. Now then, let’s get to it.
Let’s start with the cover. I believe I’ve talked about every cover so far, so let’s keep that consistency going shall we? We see the gang at a train station. Is this hinting at them leaving for somewhere? There’s also a rabbit with goggles, so that’s neat. On the back we see Renfred, Alice and Cartaphilus. I guess they’ll be relevant again this volume. Elias is still having a tantrum and hurting Chise while doing so. Luckily for Chise, the spirit of winter helps her out a little bit and together with her and Ruth they manage to calm down Elias. I love how a lot of the spirits have a selfish side to them. I wonder if the spirit would have helped if not for the gifts given. The chapter then ends with Cartaphilus stealing two dragons. This can’t be good.
After Chise brings a tired Elias home she sings him a lullaby before he goes to sleep. Unfortunately, Chise, as she should realize by now, is magic. So she accidentally laces the lullaby with magic, putting Elias to sleep for a long time. She’s now going to talk to Angie to see if she can help her fix this. Luckily Angie has some ideas and goes to work while Chise catches up with Angie’s husband, David. He gives us the perspective from a mortal, who will die long before his wife and daughter. He tells us he thinks it’ll be lonely, and I agree. If you want to date someone who will die long before you, that’s something you’d have to seriously consider and steel yourself for. David tells Chise that they both should avoid dying early, and I agree with the sentiment. Chise then hurries back to wake up Elias.
The next scene has Renfred and some of his alchemist friends having some drinks when they’re informed by Merituuli, Lindel’s familiar, that there is trouble. We then jump back to Cartaphilus being in pain. We then jump back to Chise waking up inside a dream and meeting Cartaphilus. There’s a lot happening here, but Cartaphilus insinuates that Chise has died. They talk for a little bit and he gets continuously more and more confused by his lack of memory. He then reveals his name is Josef and asks Chise to save him, before shunting her out of his dream. When she wakes up she learns that it’s been two days and trouble is afoot. All of the alchemists from before, Renfred, Alice, Adolf and Torrey are all at their house. This can’t be good. When they ask for help, Elias initially refuses, and he’s right. Chise’s condition isn’t good and it’s not their responsibility. But Chise stands up for herself, showing even more character growth and tells him that he didn’t worry about that before, and now he suddenly does. Thus Elias capitulates and they help the alchemists.
Chise makes a quick phone call and finds out that one of the dragons is sold at the auction soon. They all gather up and go to the auction, where Chise catches up with the man who helped sell her. That’s a weird sentence to write. Regardless, Cartaphilus or Josef used a proxy, so they have no eyes on him, but there is one dragon here, so that’s good news. Renfred and Elias talk about Chise, and how Elias is dealing with the invites to the college. It’s been hinted at for a while that that is where the story might go, Chise visiting the college, but Elias is not a fan. We’ll see what comes from it in the long haul thought. Then the main narrative arc of the volume goes into full drive with the auction. Chise is approached by a mysterious woman who wants to help her if she provides a liter of dragon blood. That doesn’t seem like a terrible deal to me, but what do I know. As the auction goes on, the dragon ends up going berserk, getting out of it’s bind. In a desperate attempt to fix the situation, Elias and Chise get on the back of the poor dragon, who is confused and in pain. Elias gets thrown off violently and Chise decides to use her full power to calm the dragon down. The last panel shows her in dire straits.
All in all this was once again a very good volume, although it felt almost like a novel at times. There was a lot of exposition, and one of the beauties of manga is how it can sometimes convey a lot of information without using a lot of words. I’m curious to see how Chise will get out of this predicament as her arm seemed to have grown into something weird at the end. Seeing as there’s at least 8 more volumes to go I doubt it’ll be too life threatening. But what did you all think of this volume? Are you still reading along, or have you read way ahead because of my slow pace? Let me know in the comments down below, and leave a like if you want to see more of this kind of content!
Here we are again for the second (and last) quick reviews of the season. I admittedly didn’t watch a ton of shows. There are a few on my plan to watch list, but we all know how that tends to go. Here I want to highlight three good shows that I think might have fallen under the radar a little bit (maybe Hige wo Soru less so). I have the summer off (eternal student since I can’t seem to pass my courses, woohoo), so expect a lot more quick reviews at the end of next season. There’s also some lengthy reviews coming for other shows that aired this season. Now then, let’s get to it.
Seijou no Maryoku wa bannou desu
This show caught me off guard. I love a well executed Isekai, but I am also painfully aware that a vast majority of the Isekai shows are not particularly interesting. With this one I expected it could go either way, but instead it took a nice middle ground. Takanashi Sei is summoned to a fantasy world to become their saint. Except she wasn’t the only woman summoned from earth, and the other girl was more to the prince’s liking. Fortunately, this does give Sei more freedom to explore the world and her own passions. She spends her time learning herbs, cooking and eventually magic. As is obvious from the start, she was the real saint after all, and starts developing strong healing powers. The isekai-aspect of this show is more interesting than the most bland ones, but it’s still not great. But my opinion on Isekai as a genre is coming in the near future in a separate post, so stay put for that. I would recommend this anime if you’re looking for a calm slice of life show.
Hige wo Soru
I’m a surprisingly big fan of age-gap romance stories. This never really used to be thing, but I was introduced to the manga’s My boy in blue(P to JK) and Love so life and my life has never been the same. Having said that, what I like about both of those stories is how tastefully the thing is handled. None of the characters involved ever cross any questionable lines and it’s a lot more of a wholesome series more than anything. This show follows a salaryman who finds a high school girl sitting under a lantern in a box one day. She then goes to his house to stay there, and offers to have sex in return. Yoshida-san, our main character and all-around standup guy refuses, and lets her stay for free. They slowly build a relationship. Now before I continue, I will warn you that this next half will contain spoilers. If so far you’re already planning to watch it, skip past this okay?
Are we all set?
Very well.
What I enjoyed about this narrative is that they don’t get together at the end. They leave it a little bit ambiguous for sure, but I was very worried that she was gonna turn 18 and suddenly it would all be okay for them to date. Instead Yoshida stays a perfect gentleman until the very end, and part of me hopes he ends up with someone else. I just feel like the dynamic they have as almost a father-daughter is so much more wholesome than it ending with her falling for him. The whole point of the show seems to be that he is not like all those other men who abused her. So I was pleasantly surprised by this anime. If you like this kind of story, I do recommend it. Also, post-timeskip Asami is looking kind of cute, or is that just me?
Sayonara, watashi no Cramer.
This brings us to the third show we’re looking at today. Out of every show I’ve watched this got by far the lowest ratings and that is a bit surprising to me. This is a soccer anime, but it feels more like a slice of life comedy with sports thrown in to keep a narrative going. Don’t get me wrong, the soccer part is very important to the characters themselves, but I never feel invested in the few soccer matches we do see them play. What carries this show is the characters and how funny they are. Each of the Warabis (the team that we follow) that have a decent amount of screentime has an interesting personality. They’re all passionate about soccer but they’re also a bunch of self-centered idiots. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their interactions play out, and the show definitely seems to get better as the season went on. If any of this sounds interesting to you, please give the show a watch.
Now then, I hope this gives you a better idea what to watch from last season. I didn’t watch a few shows that were very popular (Fumetsu no Anata e, Vivy, Combatants will be dispatched & Eighty-Six), but all of those are on the list, and I might revisit them for a quick review in the future, if I ever end up watching them. But enough about me, what did you think about these three shows? Did you agree with my opinion or not? Are there other shows you’d like me to talk about in these quick reviews? Please leave a comment and a like. And as always; thanks for reading!
