天下制覇

 

Yes yes, I’m aware that Hiiragi’s weapon is a broadsword and not at all suitable for the Niten Ichiryu style.

Impressions:

Not a bad episode. The episodic thing is starting to really wear on me though. I swear that I’ve heard GREAT DEMON LORD Bell say that Elis is interesting at least twice an episode for the entire show. Chris and his moral objection to Anzelot was as lame as expected, but at least the show finally has some character that is stronger than Hiiragi, although we’ll probably never see him again. It didn’t surprise me one bit to learn that Anzelot is some form of immortal either. I really want them to do more with Religious Fanatic Anzelot that we saw an episode or two back. Learning that she has a soft spot for her ex-employees and is willing to sacrifice her Wizards for the gems isn’t exactly surprising or particularly intriguing.

The next episode preview looks really really messed up. Elis appears to be in some sort of dream world with Moon Guy. They really are hitting every single RPG cliche dungeon. Also, man, early morning blogging feels weird.

Near the ocean, a girl carries some rice balls to a house. A man opens the door and she tells him that she’s put delicious umeboshi (Mahoraba flashback) within, but he closes the door on her and she crams them down her craw.

The school bell rings and Hiiragi is face down on his desk, lamenting his lack of time in classes. An announcement comes over the PA, directing Hiiragi Renji that he can respond ‘hai or yes.’ He clenches his fists in anger as the other students start gossiping. Elis says that it must be something important, and Anzelot (still on the PA) says that’s exactly right.

Up at Anzelot’s castle with her tea of the week, Renji grits his teeth while the girls drink up. Renji yells at her, but she goes all coy on him.

She pulls up a monitor and says that they’re heading to an island off Japan’s coast for a gem that’s already secured. There’s a barrier up over it, which means that there’s another Wizard there. Kureha asks why they can’t just ask that Wizard for it, but Anzelot tells her that they’re basically not on the best of terms, but they shouldn’t expect hostilities either.

The man is Ando Chris (Kuris? whatever), and is the same kind of magic user as Renji. She brings up a display of him in his youth which shifts to his current age. Hiiragi gets all gung ho over somebody who he could test himself against and they teleport away. After they go, Anzelot thinks about her past with Chris.

The team materializes on the ocean coast and does their usual sightseeing routine. The girl from the start comes running up to them. Akari recognizes her as Naiyuri and asks her about the Wizard in the area. She tells them that no matter what, he won’t eat anything, and then Naiyuri teleports away.

The team sets off to his house. Kureha yells out, but he doesn’t seem to be home. They hear the sound of chopping wood and find Ando cutting up logs. He comments that they must be the ones Anzelot’s current ‘things’ and goes back to chopping. Elis and Kureha try to tell him that it’s to protect the world, but he says that has nothing to do with him.

Hiiragi gets annoyed and says that Chris is a Wizard, right, but get ignored. Hiiragi summons his sword and basically says that he’ll force Chris to help them. He charges, but Chris uses the ax to disarm him without even looking up. Hiiragi’s sword flies away and Chris asks him why he’d fight with so little ability. Hiiragi says that it’s because he has to. Chris replies that if he continues, Hiiragi will die.

Later, Hiiragi mopes while the girls eat tea and cookies and worry about his pride. They turn to thinking about how to convince Chris to help them. Elis looks up at his house.

She brings some of her cookies to Chris, but he completely ignores her and she excuses herself. After she leaves, he looks over at the cookies.

In the forest, Hiiragi takes out his annoyance on some trees, while also angrily yelling about the old man.

The next morning, Chris peacefully sweeps his yard. Hiiragi senses an opening and leaps from the roof to attack. Chris moves away and then trips him with the broom and starts sweeping dirt into his face.

The girls have found a hotspring and Kureha takes the role of the obligatory groper who can’t resist feeling up Elis.

Akari suddenly senses something as Hiiragi comes flying from above and lands in the spring. He jumps up, swearing about the old man and beholds the three girls in their naked glory. Akari summons a wash basin and beats him with it.

Later, Kureha has placed Hiiragi in charge of fishing up their breakfast as punishment. He keeps trying to think how to beat Chris.

Chris, meanwhile, is tending to his gardens. As he comes home, he finds Elis sitting on his porch. He ignores her and continues on his chores. Elis offers to help. He doesn’t respond and just continues on his chores. Throughout the day, Elis watches him raptly and even starts trying to help. After she screws up rolling a rope, he asks her if she thinks that this is fun, to which our bubbling crockpot of endorphins eagerly responds yes.

He suddenly winces and pulls out a piece of straw that lodged itself in his hand. The little drop of blood sends Elis into overeager nurse mode as she summons a slew of first aid acoutrements (good word… acoutrements). Chris asks her about what’s important, and she starts going on about all her friends, including Hiiragi, Kureha, Akari and the like.

Later, Chris returns the cookie plate to Elis. She’s glad because he ate them after all. He wonders what kind they are, blah blah Anzelot likes them too. Elis asks him if he hates Anzelot, but he just doesn’t like her. SEMANTICS! Ha ha! I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

He starts to reminisce about when Anzelot came into his life and gave him a completely unacceptable order.

Bell is watching over them, continuing to think about how interesting Elis is. They really need to get some new dialogue for her. Aaaaanyway, because of the barrier, there’s not a whole ton that Bell can do for now.

Elis can’t believe that Anzelot would give an order like that.

Hiiragi appears again with his sword and demands a real match. He slashes at Chris, and manages to cut some of the radishes he was carrying this time, but Chris still dodges easily. Hiiragi yells at him that he understands everything and wants a real sword to sword battle.

Chris suddenly looks up and the world shakes. The crimson moon appears. A tornado descends and a pair of dogs appear. Bell thinks about how nostalgic this is. One of the dogs attacks Chris’ house with a lightning shot while the other one attacks the others with crescent waves. Elis and Hiiragi block, but the lightning dog attacks the ground near Hiiragi and he’s blown away.

The dog moves in for the kill, but Akari shows up and shoots it back. Kureha also runs up and provides some coverfire, but the dogs are now dodging both her and Akari’s attacks. Hiiragi gets up and gets ready for the counter attack, but Chris stops him and tells him to value his life.

Hiiragi says that it’s after Elis and Hiiragi will definitely protect her. Kureha supports him and Hiiragi continues, saying that he’ll absolutely protect all his companions. Chris relents and Hiiragi runs into the fight. Chris runs over to Elis and tells her to come with him to the place where victory will be decided.

As the others fight the dogs, Chris and Elis come to a cave within a waterfall. Within it is a sword. Chris starts to tell Elis about the unforgiveable order from Anzelot.

Flash back to young Chris and his companions under attack from the dogs. They’ve secured the gem, and are trying to escape, but Chris’ friends are heavily engaged with the same dogs as previously. They can’t break offand Anzelot orders Chris to transport away as the gem is the most important objective.

Once he returned to Anzelot with the gem, Anzelot thanked him for his good work in not dying and told him to hurry up and hand the gem over. Chris became angered and turned away.

Back in the present, Chris tells Elis that that was when he lost faith in saving the world. The unforgiveable sin was turning their back on their companions. What use is saving the world if you can’t save your companions? He then picks up the sword.

The fight is still going on. Chris throws his sword to Hiiragi who catches it and then glows. He closes his eyes and the dogs seem to slow down. He raises the two swords and attacks, destroying both dogs at once.

Inside the waterfall cave, Hiiragi tosses the sword back to Chris. Elis tries to console him a little bit and he steps away briefly. He opens his eyes as energy glows. The barrier drops. Elis walks up and prays for the gem, which appears and is then absorbed into her arm as usual.

In Anzelot’s castle, she drinks her tea and gives the order for special consideration to continue to be shown to Chris.

The team prepares to leave Chris’ island with Elis telling him that he’s definitely still in Anzelot’s heart. They even joke that Hiiragi will be like him one day.