e-five

I have no idea how they're going to fit it all into three (I think that's how many are left?) episodes. Which sounds crazy after most people would think they've been dragging their feet for the last 21. I'm trying to save my retrospectiveness for the final episode but I do wonder if this is a really difficult arc to adapt to anime. It flows much better as a novel since it's just such a long series of events from the tournament starting until the end.

When I checked out the next episode preview last week I knew this was coming (flashbacks of what was going on with the heroes). Though I actually expected Makoto to not even land this episode, so that turned out to be wrong, only just.

There was some good foreshadowing this episode as well but I'll resist writing about it, but do love the anime keeps some of the finer details.

People finally get an explanation for Hibiki's outfit from the opening. "It's just because of stats, guys, I swear"

Didn't seem to matter to Io though, even with all their training and equipment he still shows his strength. But now he has Makoto in front of him, find out what happens next time on ~~Dragonball Z~~ Tsukimichi

I took screenshots of this convo as well 😆 Picked this game up when it went on sale for the multiplayer update, been having a fun time. Not too far into it though, been taking my time catching everything and ranking everything up first.

Ah, that sort of tells me what I need to know. If it had started to get more serious with the empire building / character development I would've wanted to continue with it but if it just goes into comedy / gag bits then probably not for me.

Haha, I picked up vol 1 of that as well to check it out since I couldn't find much info about it. I feel like the only sci-fi ~~isekai~~ (I guess it isn't technically one, but I mean sort of close / fish out of water) I think is really good is The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer but both the LN and WN stopped years ago and never made it West afaik. I read Reborn as a Space Mercenary instead as at least that is still going, though it does have its own flaws. Evil Lord was definitelyyyyy not exactly my cup of tea though I'm not sure if I should completely write it off, I'd be at least curious where it's going with the antagonist isekai god stuff since I haven't seen that often in a story before... Oh well, besides Death Mage Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Reborn as a Space Mercenary Vol 8 - Finished this one finally a few days ago, just in time since vol 9 came out so picked up that and will be the next one I read. This was one of my favorite volumes right below vol 6. I think the author does a good job with action scenes, both in space combat or on the ground, and describing them in easy ways to visualize which helps a lot.

Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra Vol 1 - Working through this one, having trouble sitting down and reading it. I want to like it, I think, as I liked the manga. I sort of see it as an alternative Overlord, except maybe less grim dark? Although that might be early on, it feels like being the "evil" faction is more like a cosmetic pack and set faction affinity. Not unlike a real RTS / Turn-based strategy. Like the zerg in starcraft sure seem bad but when you're just playing the game it's more just a different cosmetic for the same units. I sort of like it that way in this story, whereas Overlord was more cruel / suffering this has, started out at least, way more focus on nation and resource building. Edit: That's not to say there isn't some dark / psychological horror stuff, it just isn't the main focus.

Edit: Accidentally hit enter before I even typed anything besides a title out so have been editing this quickly to fill things in, caught myself off guard there 😓

A good episode, quite a cliffhanger to end on though.

Them off-screening all the mob fights... maybe good to save some time, I guess not really important? MCs team wins, move on. Yea, I guess so. I feel like I'd be very confused why the lady knight with Souei was blushing but it seems like maybe people can figure it out themselves, I feel like I certainly wouldn't without having watched the previous seasons any time recently.

Wait a minute, with the ice spell last week and the stage play this week... Am I in a gag anime?

There's a lot I forgot about the source material, including Shiki's theory that the attack on the empire was also a diversion based on his views of which hero is a long term threat rather than a short term one.

Also is nice that we finally get to see the demiplane residents actually do something after all the training they've been doing. Convenient to have a small army in your pocket.

And not sure how to feel about the goddess meeting. Perhaps sad he didn't get a punch in, but not for lack of effort at least? An interesting relationship where it seems they're clearly at odds, and vocal about it, but can't really do anything against each other easily too.

They've upgraded to hallway meetings and horseback meetings.

Jokes aside, the animation of the fights looked pretty decent this episode, or maybe I'm just action starved.

Having a unit of immortals looks to be pretty useful. And at least it seems more reasonable that Rimuru and Hinata don't just talk things out when fighting has already broken out before they get there.

Maybe my interpretation is wrong and the firework spell was aimed at the devices. I wish it was more clear, as in the WN it clearly states it hit Tomoe as well, and I wouldn't have expected her to have one. Here, we can't really see that but I'm not sure if that's just because of the view or a change. I assumed it had been a callback to the petrification stuff showing that Makoto could make people immune to things but, maybe not.

I'm sure you can tell I'm slightly biased here and overlook a lot of flaws 😆

It does feel kind of odd the demons can just march on both human capitals at the same time. Surely there should be like, a front line? Defenses? I suppose we're meant to think they got passed them, or somehow avoided them like teleporting, though teleportation seems like a big deal, I'm not sure what Limia king meant by "they appeared by star lake". Like, just spawned there?!

I can see what you mean in that a common complaint is to make one side seem smart, just make the other side act dumb. The hyumans do seem pretty lacking overall, though there are some who are at least realists like the princess. Rona always seemed like a pretty good strategist to me... but then again her first strategy is just "lol, hole in ground". I much more prefer all the other stuff like glamored demons showing up next to the world leaders which shows how far their reach/planning is

Look up at the sky! It's the aurora borealis! No wait, it's just Makoto shooting off a firework 🎆

Hopefully people are a little happier that things are happening, but I guess it's still very low action-wise. The mutants were never a threat at all to the main cast, and that's spelled out very plainly by Zara. They can just stroll through the streets and clear any out on their way, while the actual guards, mercenaries, armies, can't even handle a couple, and not without losses.

Can clearly see all the important people realizing just how powerful Makoto and crew are now, especially with Sairitz upgrading the honorifics used when speaking to Makoto. Hopefully means that Makoto will get doormat'd less often, but I guess we'll see.

The transmission restoration felt a bit lackluster in the anime, but I guess it's not that important. I feel like it wasn't really clear what he did, not that the novel makes it any clearer, but obviously I think Tomoe is supposed to be implying he didn't destroy the devices to disrupt telepathy, but instead shot a spell at every single person in the entire area to block or counter the device, that was my understanding at least, I could be mistaken.

And now we see that it was all a ruse! Oh my goodness, finally, this is what I've been waiting for. I love that this whole thing was just a distraction from the actual plot. Seems like the demons had a lot going on while we were stuck in Rotsgard, who knows what is happening in the rest of the hyuman world.

I didn't really like Aqua and Eris in the novel, but I actually completely flipped my opinion in the anime. Their comic relief is pretty good.