天下制覇

Shut the hell up and die.

So, Tokyo MX had the premier broadcast on the tail end of prime time on Friday. Then, CBC and MBS both broadcast the first two episodes as a special on Saturdays, and at least according to Syobi, will be continuing right along with episode 3 next week, thus moving the premier broadcast to the already clusterblintzed Saturdays. Lovely. I hope that’s wrong and CBC/MBS will be replaying episode 2 next week just because Saturdays are a mess already and it seems a waste to grab a quasi-prime time slot and not have it be the primary broadcast, but… well… I guess we’ll see. Bleh.

Also, I got tired of waiting for a decent raw to appear through normal channels, and figured that the cheagles and Luke in Engeve are probably best experienced in minimal resolution anyway.

Impressions:

Well, I’m glad that they merged two of the most abhorrent scenes in Abyss into just one bad one, so there’s that to be thankful for at the very least. I had also forgotten (or possibly blocked out) the fact that Anise was voiced by Momoi, so this episode was relatively unpleasant all around. At least we got to see Jade for about a minute, though I am absolutely certain that he did not have Indignation for the Liger Queen boss fight. Not like you even needed it for that pushover. We also got our first taste of the technobabble just to come. I kept waiting for a conversation like:

"What’s the fifth fonon?"
"Fire."
"So why don’t they call it the fire fonon?"
"…"

Overall, not the best of episodes, but that’s pretty much exactly what I expected. We’ve still got a little ways to go before Luke grows up and stops being a spoiled brat and actually takes some responsibility for himself, and Tear is… well… Tear. At least she’s easy on the eyes. There was plenty of Luke blushing to make Hinano happy in this episode too, though in true Luke form, almost all of it was because of Ion. You fight off those rumors of homosexuality, Luke! You can do it! Tear had some cute moments with the cheagles too, but they didn’t outweigh the fact that there were cheagles present. Thank god we’re down to just one for the rest of the series and that Luke will physically abuse Mieu for at least a while.

At any rate, now that Jade’s in the party and the God-Generals are attacking next episode, things should be aaaaaaaaallllll better. I really am interested in how they’re going to use Anise and Tokunaga (her doll). The OP sort of showed it, but distance shots are one thing. Watching that beast spazz out of control in an actual real shot is another altogether.

Brief Summary:

The Tartarus chases the Dark Wings across the bridge, but they detonate it. Seeing the warship, Jade figures out they’re in Malkuth and headed towards the wrong capitol. They leave the coach at the nearby farming town Engeve where Luke immediately gets in trouble by grabbing and apple and telling the merchant to sod off when told to pay. He’s dragged to the town chief who is in a meeting with Jade Curtiss, an officer of the Malkuth empire. The ‘missing’ Fon Master Ion also comes in and reveals that the thefts in town of the food supplies are from a pack of cheagles living in a nearby forest. Luke gets off the hook and Tear pays for the apple. Outside, they run into a small girl (Anise) wearing the markings of an official Fon Master Guardian, meaning that Ion is here of his own will. At the inn at night, Luke asks Tear for a pen and paper, telling her that he needs to write down his memories in case he loses them again. He also says that tomorrow, he’s going to drag the cheagles to justice as revenge for being called a thief.

In the cheagle forest, they find Ion under attack. He casts a huge spell and kills all the monsters, then collapses. He wanted to find the cheagles and figure out why they were stealing food. He joins up with them (in the process, Tear reveals that she’s Van’s sister, which Luke immediately forgets) and find the cheagle hive. The elder cheagle tells the that they have to steal food or be eaten by the ligers. The ligers are only there because one of their tribe accidently torched the liger forest. To negotiate with them, the elder sends the culprit with the party. They find the liger queen, but she’s pissed and attacks. Jade shows up and Indignations her before the battle gets anywhere. Luke’s not happy that they killed the liger and its eggs, but Tear tells him to suck it up since the ligers would have destroyed Engeve. Jade gives orders to Anise while the others report back to the cheagles.

The little rats basically give Luke Mieu as a servant to his annoyance. As they’re leaving the forest, they’re surrounded by Malkuth soldiers and Jade places them under arrest.

Preview:

Arietta… you are the lamest villain ever.