Peach Boy Riverside #10 – The tide of battle is turned by fortuitous factors: Frau and Carrot having more power in reserve than they originally let on, Sumeragi declaring that lol, j/k, he was only testing Sally, and by a friend showing up and suggesting that Hawthorn might do better fighting with an actual sword. Or even better, an actual holy relic. And speaking of holy relics, it turns out Frau isn’t the only fallen angel hanging around.
After the dust has cleared, reason starts to reassert itself as the survivors work out that this was all due to a misunderstanding and decide to drop the matter. Todoroki is even willing to admit, seeing how Carrot is alive and has been befriended by humans, that there might be something to this coexistence thing. Not so much that he’s willing to work side by side with them, mind you, or admit to how exactly he got the impression that Carrot was dead in the first place. This turns out to be a poor choice for him, but a lucky break for Sumeragi. Then again, he still has a chance at being revenged, since Sumeragi forgot to check exactly how many friends Todoroki brought with him.
As much as Sumeragi still sucks at strategy, he is very good at being an emotionally manipulative creep. Despite being attacked and blocked from helping her friends, a few minutes later Sally is all ready to try to recruit him as an ally again. PSA for impressionable young people: The dude who sucker-punches you and then immediately tries to laugh it off is not your friend and never will be.
Sumeragi’s final comment to Todoroki reveals what Peach Boy Riverside is up to with all the Christian borrowings. Sumeragi is another fallen angel, implying that more of the ogres are too, and the mysterious “First” that he gets his orders from is none other than Lucifer himself.
(Crunchyroll — Bahamut Anime Crazy — Laftel)
Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica season 2 #6 – As Iroha keeps trying to make her way to Nemu, allies of all sorts are converging to help her. Kuroe holds off the minions of Magius for her. Mifuyu is roused to action by Felicia and Sana. Yachiyo and the girls from Mitakihara jump into her quirky classic foreign truck to ride to the rescue. And inside the amusement park, the last of the visitors from Mitakihara, Sakura Kyōko, helps Iroha blast the way open for them.
Yes, there are a lot of characters in this show. But with everything moving in the same direction right now, this episode wisely doesn’t try to remind us a whole lot about what the people we haven’t seen in a while were last up to. The important part is that Iroha needs to get to Nemu, ideally before the witch to end all witches shows up.
Tōka presumably doesn’t know that Nemu wanted to meet Iroha and isn’t going to be pleased when she shows up. Does Nemu have any power to even fight Tōka with, or will Tōka be willing to humor her? I’m guessing that at least the second answer is no.
(Funimation — AnimeLab — Wakanim — Aniplus Asia — Animate Gamer — bilibili — Crunchyroll — HIDIVE)
Sonny Boy #8 – Yamabiko recounts how he arrived on the island thousands of years ago, was changed into a dog by a girl he was deeply devoted to, and never left her side even as she and every other inhabitant of that pocket universe sickened and died. The sickness is first claimed by someone calling himself War, but then War turns around and blames Yamabiko for unwittingly imposing a rule that everyone else ran afoul of. Anyway, the point is that Nagara should heed his warning about trying to hide in paradise and get out there and explore new worlds.
A single creator writing and directing a show can bring a unique vision to life, but having no one else to impose any kind of editorial process and lead to that vision being messier than it needed to be. Here is an example of where things could have been improved by someone saying, “You could stand to explain this bit better.” The overall meaning of the story is clear, but a narrative that has depended so far on letting the viewer understand the rules of each world needs to make sure this one could be understood as well.
(Funimation — Wakanim — Bahamut Anime Crazy — bilibili — Laftel)
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun season 2 #20 – After a crazy couple of days at Clara’s house, Iruma learns that his powerful friends in the demon government have gagged the press so that it’s safe for him to venture out again. Next, a trip to another theme park with a demon girl who’s learned everything she knows about dating from a terrible shōjo manga. How could this possibly go wrong?
Actually, it all seems to go fine for Iruma. It’s only to Ameri that it becomes a series of small disasters. One by one, her carefully crafted plans misfire, and she’s so wrapped up in trying to get the next thing right that she fails to notice how Iruma seems to be enjoying her company anyway.
At least she can see it as a small win when she manages to oversell a minor injury at the end of the day and achieve her secret goal of being princess-carried. But really, it seems like this would all go much better if she could give up trying to be a delicate shōjo heroine.
(Crunchyroll — Shahiid Anime — Bahamut Anime Crazy)
Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU #11 – After ambushing and beating Teppei to death, Satoko then lures Keiichi over and ambushes and beats him, then feeds a story framing Keiichi to Ōishi to rile him up and sends him off to kill a few people himself, and somehow this takes an entire episode.
Good news: we’re finally to the end of this arc and there are a maximum of four episodes left during which SOTSU will finally have to get to the point! Bad news: we still have to get through a replay of Satoko disembowling Rika.
(Funimation — Wakanim — Bahamut Anime Crazy — Laftel)
