天下制覇

With added thermonuclear destruction.

Impressions:

Another solid episode. I wish Pocotta was a little less of a Lina clone, but having a pair of thermonuclear packages around isn’t really a bad thing either. I do consider it absolutely criminal to show us Prince Phil but not have him actually say or do anything. If he doesn’t show up later, I’ll have to set fire to something. As far as the plot went for this episode, it was pretty light, we basically just learned that Pocotta is the ‘Lina Inverse’ that they want and then Lina fought with him for a bit. At least the little furball can hold his own and has some other tricks up his sleeve. I question what kind of magical animal he is such that he can unzip himself to carry around swords, but I have no doubt he’s the servant of one of the dark lords or the dragons or such.

I could do without Inspector Wiser as a recurring character though. The dude’s just in the way and annoying. His tanks are somewhat amusing and he does provide some good jokes for the rest of the gang, but he’s just lame compared to everybody else. Maybe I just miss my Dokuro-dragon, Filia. If TRY did nothing else right, it was having Filia around instead of that horrible golem woman or Sylphiel, the walking wet blanket.

Brief Summary:

Lina tries to figure out what’s going on, but her companions are no use whatsoever. Wiser eventually shows up and things come to light. Apparently someone’s been ravaging the countryside with stuff like Dragon Slaves, and since it’s Lina’s trademark, it must be her. The party finds that hard to argue with, conveniently forgetting that she’s innocent. Gourry vows to wait for her to get out of prison.

Wiser takes them to see the next model of magical tank, this time modelled after a cow (and without a penis extrusion), but as they’re looking at it, a magical blast sails past them and destroys it. The two white mages take care of the wounded while Lina and Gourry chase after the… thingy. They eventually catch up to it and after exchanging a flurry of spells, it and Lina prove to be evenly matched in temperment and speech patterns as well (Pocotta uses the masculine, but says basically the exact same things as Lina). After some face tugging, the fight starts up again, but Pocotta goes into hiding. Gourry flushes him out and manages to chase him into the air like the rabid monkey that he is before being spiked to the ground and then buried. Lina and Pocotta exchange a few more spells, but they’re pretty much evenly matched.

Finally, Pocotta slips up and starts making fun of her… and specifically, her chest. Lina snaps and vows to show him a real Dragon Slave. She uses the Demon’s Blood Talismans to power up and charges it. Pocotta unzips his chest and pulls out the Sword of Light. Lina doesn’t even notice and fires away.

After the destruction, they notice the Sword of Light as the three finally introduce themselves. It’s actually just a replica though and not particularly useful. Wiser shows up, and Lina can’t talk her way out of this one since she really did cause the destruction. She tries to blame it on the ‘tiny animal,’ but Pocotta’s vanished into the air.

Preview:

 Poodles, rich women, and Lina gets arrested again.