This show was just stupid fun. The insanely OP MC who just does whatever he wants. His maid who is a legendary swordswoman. The ultimate evil demon who gets tamed into something of a pet. Oh, and let's not forget the adventurer that falls for the MC's alter-ego, lol.
Has a season 2 been announced?
Oh snaps, I loved the original. And it's a sequel and not a remake. Joy!
Haha, yeah. It's a big giveaway that something is adapted from a Japanese Light Novel when the title is a full on description. Oshi No Ko and Blue Lock are also a manga adaptations, so also normal titles. Fun times!
Anyway, I'll definitely have to check out the manga now!
Oof, what a weird episode. The pacing, battle tactics, animation, etc all felt off.
I did like this exchange though:
Ars giving him the toy spoke volumes without using words. It makes his appearance later feel very natural and in-character.
But the battle itself felt very un-natural. Telling people to get in a circle formation to counter the cavalry... no, that's what pikes are for. And it wasn't like the cavalry was a surprise; they knew the castle had cavalry.
"Hey great strategist, should we get some pikes? You know, the most basic military infantry tactic against horses?"
"Nah, just stand in a circle with swords. They'll NEVER see that coming!"
Later:
"Retreat!"
"What about our infantry?"
"They have horses now!"
"Uh... where were we keeping all these horses? And if they have horses why are they infantry and not cavalry?"
"Pssh... i dunno."
Even Later:
"The enemy cavalry has speed hacks and can get in front of us!"
"It's because your horses have to carry all that heavy armor"
"But... your troops also wear armor."
"I know what I said..."
I feel this probably made a lot more sense in the light novel but translating that into animation didn't quite work out. Speaking of animation, some of it was bad enough to be distracting. I know that horses are notoriously difficult to get right in anime but this wide-angle shot felt especially off:
If the foot soldiers had just retreated normally without magically summoning horses from their horse pocket, then the enemy cavalry catching up would not only make more sense, but would be more dramatic when they split the retreating army in two rather than nipping at their heels (as would be expected). Maybe we fix the animation struggles too since people are marching instead of horses bouncing around like they're on pogo-sticks.
I would also have liked to see more of the hostage rescue. "Oh no, it's the enemy." "We're here to rescue you whether you like it or not. Check out my knife. It's a Benchmade." "Oh, okay, we'll go with you."
Oh nice. I like this silly and wholesome slice-of-life meets fantasy anime. And it doesn't even have a stupid name like, "That One Time I Got Sold to a Demon by my Wicked Parents but the Demon is actually now my Loving Grandfather... As Long As I Don't Let Anyone Know I'm Actually A Human As They'll Kill Me For Sure!"
That was a thrilling race, and this episode captured that suspense well.
Yeah, I think I would agree with you there. The race as a whole is absolutely thrilling. This episode wasn't BAD by any means, just nothing surprising happens. But hey, that's racing. And the conclusion is going to be mad epic.
No, women don’t think of anything except how to please their men… :-/ 😒
I remembered your words from last week the ENTIRE time. Bechdel Test Failure XD
Felt like an overall weak episode without two much happening. The Porsche GT3 drops a spot. The Ferrari catches up. Beckenbaur retakes the lead. Nothing really surprising there.
Some of the more interesting things happen outside the racing. As such, I'll just leave this pic of the Angels here.
This episode is basically all just setup for the race conclusion next episode. We see that in both the episode's title and the checkered flag in the preview. While this episode was a bit of a bust, next week's should be epic.
4 minutes into the episode and we get the scene I was waiting for.... Bilac totally freaking out at the Gold Crystal Scorpion Parts
One picture isn't nearly enough to convey how shocked Bilac was. She actually dies from shock and now Sunraku doesn't have an ancient craftsman anymore, hence the "Despair" in the episode title.
Okay, just kidding. Bilac's fine. The aforementioned "Despair" is because Sunraku cannot equip any of the sci-fi armor in the Inventoria due to Lycagon's curse mark.
It makes me wonder if Bilac might make Sunraku a sci-fi helmet or something. Either way, Sunraku is super bummed out about not being able to use sci-fi suits in SLF. To get over it, he does the next best thing: plays another game with Sci-fi suits: ~~Armored Core 9~~ Nephilim Hollow.
For an isekai, it's amazing how many different games we see aside from the titular Shangri-La Frontier. I'm sure some piece of information from Nephilim Hollow will become relevant to SLF.
Be sure to watch the SLF Minis after the credits (there's two). They're both good, although the second one reminds me of a joke from How I Met Your Mother.
Recalling Subaru’s arguably lowest point right before the speech was brilliant
I liked that too. I feel like Julius was saying, "you talked a bunch of shit but then actually made it happen."
I thought they were going to bring in bard girl to sing and lift everyone’s spirits, but I thought this worked better.
I was thinking that too initially, but you're right. This definitely worked better. At first his speech sounded... terrible. But then I realized it was actually perfect for Subaru. He's an ordinary person with few redeeming qualities. He has nothing special going for him except Return by Death. He was basically saying, "I'm a weak and pathetic person but because there are people I care about I will fight and I will win. B-T-Dubs, I also killed a Sin Archbishop. Did I mention I'm weak and pathetic? What's your excuse?"
What happened to “Don’t tell the Sin Archbishop your name?”
I'm guessing Gluttony has to know the name and face of the person to eat their existence. Subaru's name is already well known so just saying it again shouldn't be a problem.
Only ONE female character on the poster? Seems suspicious.
Look at you doing all the detective work once again!
Neat! How many chapters have been released total?
Very true. I was reading the Destiny's Crucible series (which is not a Japanese LN series... crazy, right?) and the author did a good job with this particular isekai because the MC is basically a smart Earthling placed down on a Medieval Times planet so he's constantly like, "I THINK this is how stuff like this works, but I'm not sure." It allows him to get things wrong. Unfortunately things got really boring in the 4th book and I haven't gone back to it.
But back to Aristocrat, the strength really is in the character development and political intrigue so I can let some tactical buffoonery slide. I mean, one battle basically boiled down to "My mage is better than your mage" so it's whatever XD