「地下迷宮にご用心」 (Chika Meikyuu no Goyoujin)
“Beware the Underground Labyrinth”

There’s just something alluring about Tomatsu Haruka played characters that prevents me from hating them in any way, even when they’re a devious slut of sorts. In Eiko’s case, I actually love seeing her climb all over Akuto and it never hurts when she’s willing to strip down and do so naked either. Seeing as there’s some good evidence that she goes bra-less, it must feel great in either case though. Feisty Tomatsu Haruka characters for the win.

If there’s anything this series has taught me so far, it’s that green-haired girls are the most fun. I’ve already gone on a fair bit about Korone’s teasing being one of the more enjoyable things I find watching and now we have Eiko going for the more direct approach. One of the best parts of Eiko’s involvement is how she brings out all the tsundere goodness in Junko, which we see this week when Akuto goes and protects her first. The actual bit of story involving the two of them and how Eiko’s here to test if Akuto actually has what it takes to go against his fate of being a demon king wasn’t too bad either, as it indirectly gave a reason for them to fight over him.

As the primary focus here was on the demon king’s dragon companion Peterhausen (Nakata Jouji) that Fujiko’s brother sacrificed his life to prevent from being resurrected, I couldn’t help but wonder why he left behind a map with instructions on how to do so. Simply destroying the pieces needed to free Peterhausen would’ve been the safer bet, but the loophole evidently to allow Akuto to become his new master. I realize that sounds far from being a well-written subplot, but this episode actually did a decent job keeping me wondering exactly what was hidden at the bottom level of the labyrinth.

As such, I enjoyed how things played out a fair bit, especially with the appearance of Lily and the other student council members at the end. Their attempt to prevent Akuto from coming into contact with Peterhausen turned out to be rather fruitless attempt given how quickly Lily backed down after getting roughed up a bit, but it was still cool seeing what the student council president’s capable of. It was still a bit weird how easily she joined his harem with a kiss of approval, but not too surprising given the type of show we have here.

On a separate note, I have to say that I love the character designs in this series and its overall look and feel. From a blogging perspective, it sure as hell screen caps really well with the amount of scene variety, as you can see above. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when there’s a fair bit of skin showing either. Censoring-wise, this week actually had one scene with a good amount of steam and a few others with logos covering Junko and Eiko’s nether regions, so it should be interesting to see what those are like on ATX’s broadcast in the upcoming days.

 

58 Comments

      1. That’s part of it, since Omni was never big on comedies. He always said he’d never have much to say about them, hence why he never blogged them. As you can probably tell, I often go on a train of thought and run with it, so it’s not too hard for me to talk about any type of show.

        Also, I tend to watch all the shows he is in addition to the ones I’d have left over to blog, but now I’m doing both since his retirement. All in all, it’s to make Random Curiosity your one and only needed stop for the latest anime!

      2. I’ve never had carpal, but I got a temporary case of arthritis in one of my fingers not too long ago. I couldn’t even straighten the finger on its own and doing so forcibly was painful as hell. That wasn’t from blogging though.

  1. This episode felt too rushed. Not only the conversion of the student president into a harem member, but also the part about Sai’s decision between green hair and blue hair and that entire finale. They kept leaping ahead, making me think that the original material was enough for atleast another episode and they cut it all together to fit it in one.

    bearzerger
  2. OMG, this is soooo crazy and I don’t really know what to say.

    @ Vegearian4Life

    You can do that by going to http://en.gravatar.com and sing up for an account using an email that you use when you post comments here (and many other blogs). After you do that, upload an avatar and activate it as your main avatar. So whenever you make a comment, in the email field, use the email that is associated with your gravatar account and your avatar should show up.

    Silver
  3. I was pretty surprised at how strong Lily was. She laid down some crazy punching action on Akuto for at least 30 seconds, until Akuto’s Maou form came out. As for AT-X censoring, I think that their gonna take off all the censors except for the ones with Akuto’s face on them, since apparently they used his censor instead of Junko’s to cover her crotch =P

    On a completely unrelated note, who’s everyone’s favorite girl introduced so far (and by that I mean looks, because if it was based on personality, Korone would win by a landslide probably :O)?

    Click
  4. Was I the only one who noticed Korone’s weird voice change when she whipped out her little magical divining rods? Was she trying to parody Kenna or something? They don’t even really acknowledge that she sounded different in the episode.

    Kraven
  5. Going to watch the uncensored version just for the crotch shots. Besides that, I was wondering why would the student council president teleport Sai to where the dragon is? It was forbidden for him to enter so why put him closer and even reveal it to him. At this pace Sai will be a demon lord in no time.

    conyo985
    1. She didn’t teleport him. The key did the teleporting. She was waiting for him (or whoever showed up) there, because the government had tasked her with preventing someone from gaining access.

      cancerlad
  6. So divine, do u watch completed anime while waiting for the new eps of current series’ as well? If so, could u write some entries on them if possible?

    Thanks in advance! ^_^

    Kewldude
    1. I usually try to watch at least one completed series while new shows are airing to help pad any extra free time I have, but lately there hasn’t been any extra free time for obvious reasons. I don’t think it’s worthwhile covering completed series episode-by-episode nor would I have the time to do so, but I may consider doing a one-off post on a completed series as a whole. Now’s just not a good time for me to get into that though.

  7. Again, i love these series but they really are rushing the storyline and not giving a proper character development. I wish they do a re-make on the future. Such a waste of good materials.

    banzemanga
      1. Amado: Though Qwaser did take a weird, weird (horribly weird) turn around 13, they made up for it in 15. I just think those few Sasha-thinks-he’s-a-girl episodes were to fill time and try to develop a subplot. Those who have stuck with it saw what I mean.

        As for this episode, it felt a little rushed, but it’s alright. I was half expecting this as soon as the puzzle pieces were gathered. If they took an episode for each piece, it would have made for better development. Unfortunately, they don’t make 15 episode shows… (yes, I’m still waiting on Bakemonogatari 15, dammit)… and I’ve just figured out I’m rambling.

        Anyway, good show.

        TehJawknee
    1. SAME HERE! I really like her character lol! Just as Divine said, she brings out the tsundere side of Junko (more intensely is her dere dere side) and I just love her character over all, much better than Etou-senpai.

      Divine mentioned the awesome reasons why I love her:
      “There’s just something alluring about Tomatsu Haruka played characters that prevents me from hating them in any way, even when they’re a devious slut of sorts. In Eiko’s case, I actually love seeing her climb all over Akuto and it never hurts when she’s willing to strip down and do so naked either. Seeing as there’s some good evidence that she goes bra-less, it must feel great in either case though. Feisty Tomatsu Haruka characters for the win.”

      SHE IS PURE WIN! I really hope she joins the Harem!

      X
  8. im pretty sure that keena is be important in the story.
    my proof: look at the ED song and you’ll notice she has a special role, and from time to time, she helps out the characters in the story(akuto, fujiko and junko).

    amado
    1. About your doubt with Qwaser, I sorta had the same problem, but it seems he gains his memories in ep 15. Though ep 14 seems to have some plot development so… I dunno how but i made it through lol

      Kewldude
  9. I am surprised how much I favorite that blue hair girl (and then the council president), cause I almost always liked long hair char better lol (except Rei)
    so yeah, thumbs up for the char design in this anime.

    mice
  10. I just love your last screepcap.
    I just want to lead a normal life sais the soon the be demonlord sitting on a throne with a harem of girls next to him and a dragon behind him.

    outcast
  11. overall a good episode,even though it felt abit rushed.the fights could have been longer..well guess they are tryin to fit till vol 5 as the finale..
    from the scene after Sai punches the werewolf till he grabs Hattori,what exactly happened?

    Ric
  12. This show is getting better. The fanservice at times was out of place and distracting, but with everything else going on I hardly notice it anymore. The end was pretty awesome.

    jill
  13. There’s definitely pacing problems; how the president change her opinion so fast and the ridiculously short fight with the dragon was most blatant. I hope the remaining materials are good. Still, it’s rare to watch a series where the censoring makes it funnier, like the crotch shot when Junko jumped on Akuto and Eiko:))

    It just occured to me, but the character design somewhat reminds me of Kampfer. Or am I thinking to much?

    PS: Does the name Peterhausen holds any special meaning? Why did Akuto said that it’s not a really good name?

    Nestor
    1. probably not family guy, there are a lot of guys known as peter you know
      maybe some anime had the word peter at some point(some anime use english names instead of japanese to fit the atmosphere of where they are)

      amado
  14. as far as Lily is concerned, i’d hesitate to call it pacing problems.

    why?

    perhaps i’m reading too much into it but with the way Eiko and Lily were essentially government agents and neither agent actually seemed particularly active in their supposed goal in stopping the supposed future demon king, instead of making me leap to the conclusion that the series has a massive pace issue there, it made me think there’s definitely more to this issue of the government and the demon king.

    i actually get the feeling that Lily didn’t switch sides too quickly, but instead was never actually against the demon king in the first place.

    like i said, i get the vibe that there’s more to the government’s stance in regards to the demon king and its not necessarily antagonistic.
    or the agents of the government aren’t all necessarily absolutely loyal peons for whatever reason to be explained.

    smith1
  15. I’m definitely lowering my expectations for this series. While I love the characters (esp Korone, how can you not like her?), the pacing is really disappointing. I mean, I felt they stuffed 2-3 episodes worth of material into 1 episode and ended up giving us an anti-climatic dragon fight. I hope this series doesn’t completely throw away plot just because they feel like they have decent characters. IMO, I think this series has a great setup: magical school, potential epic anti-hero (Sai Akuto) to hero, and relatively high level harem (though at this point the harem feels forced).

    Anyway, just wanted to give my two cents.

    Aoihoshikage
  16. as i understand it there are so far 8 light novels so they may be trying to pack all 8 into one 26 episode run certainly i think so considering they have done 5 episodes and 2 story sequences at this rate they will probably cover all 8

  17. The pacing seems fast, but then again we have been with series that have slow pacing, Bleach comes to mind, so i find that its acceptable. My theory on the Demon king is sort of out there but it feels more like its a byproduct of the government’s control of magic, seeing as the government seems to like being in control or observing everything. Its possible that the government might want to use Akuto to further themselves, ultimately resulting in Akuto being their strongest enemy and actually winning. What i really want to know more is about the first Demon King, and if he was like Akuto or if he was really as bad as the people think (Peterhausen might have those answers and i hope Akuto asks him about it.) Great episode and hoping for more.

    On a related note, does anyone know where we can read the light novels of this series on the internet. I can’t seem to find them.

    zeroherrera
  18. its probably going to get another season like all anime based off of light novels these days like familiar of zero and others they star with one season then do another within about one year so id say their packing the episode content in because they know they have a lot of ground to cover

    chaos

Leave a Reply to banzemanga Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *