「行方不明の王様たち」 (Yukuefumei no Ou-sama Tachi)
“The Missing King”

Alright, I know what you’re here for. Go on. Just go ahead. Enjoy the screen caps of Liliana acting hysterically tsun, deliciously dere, and just being incredibly cute in general. This post ain’t gonna go anywhere while you ogle.

Back? Satisfied your HNNGGG quota? ‘Cause I know I did. If it hasn’t been made clear enough, this episode was mostly (okay fine, ALL) about romantic comedy shenanigans with the latest girl in Godou’s harem and heroine of the Perseus arc, Liliana. Now I know what you’re gonna say: “Asobi, is she not just another one of them stock tsunderes?” And yea, for sure, I’ll agree with you on that judgement. Campione!’s characters are decidedly simple caricatures of the romcom genre. But you know what? Damned if she doesn’t make for an entertaining character on screen with that overly serious airheadedness of her’s. We’ve seen it before when Erica blackmailed her into defecting from Voban, but this episode really plays up the dreamy and naive aspects of her personality to some truly hilarious results. One moment, we’ll see her prostrating before Godou for her supposed insubordination, ticking off an increasing severe list of punishments for her to be subject to, (“Harakiri!?”) and the next thing you know she gets hysterically wrapped up in her overactive imagination. Then there are the delusions – oh boy, those delusions – of her and Godou in various genre parodies, ranging from a trashy shoujo to an old-school romance flick. There’s even the whole “childhood friend waking the protagonist” romcom cliché! And what’s possibly even funnier than those fantasies were her high-strung reactions to them. Egads!” You know, watching this, my mind randomly wondered: Does Liliana solely read and write romance novels, or is she actually playing dating sims on the side? Because these sure don’t seem like your typical Twilight fantasies. (And you know that wish-fulfillment fiction she wrote? Still a better love story than Twilight. Yep, sorry, couldn’t resist the jab.)

Add in trolltastic maid Karen to the mix and we get some incredibly funny scenes of her playing off Liliana’s gullibility to manipulate the naïve young knight. I guess Karen can’t help herself, and it’s not hard to see why; Liliana does make for incredibly easy pickings considering how easily she loses it, and the parts where she did – when Godou found out about her little secret and when she broke down sobbing – were easily the funniest parts of the episode for me. (Oh man, my heart. Liliana looked so vulnerable when she broke down. Godou should’ve given her a good hug.) I’m going to be a little biased here and say that these romcom shenanigans were a good deal more entertaining than the ones in Mariya’s episode, even though both were similarly blatant in their pandering.

Plot-related tidbits are few and far between the romcom hijinks of the episode. We’re again treated to a short scene with Pandora, but much like the very first time we saw her, she’s still a complete mystery that appears to Godou for unknown reasons when he dies. We’ve also yet to see any interference from the rest of the harem (A shame, really. I’m looking forward to seeing how Erica will normally interact Liliana. I expect a good amount of trolling.) thanks to Salvatore’s intervention, first by decreasing the technological level of the island they are on, and then by having them in bondage, which honestly felt to me like another badly masked excuse for the cast to deliver some fanservice. They’re mages, aren’t they? How are they not able to break free of the ropes?

More information is revealed about Perseus’s mythological connections by Athena, and it seems like Liliana has his alternate identity figured out. Yep, you should know what that means for the next episode: Knowledge transfers! In return for the information, Athena gets to be all touchy-feely with Liliana, and she also strikes a deal with Godou that (if my sources are being accurate) probably won’t see any expansion for the rest of the season. Despite the odd pacing and badly made cuts however, it seems that Campione! has remained a largely faithful adaptation up until now, and it’s likely the trend will continue to the show’s end. Unless the anime decides to make do with an original ending, it’s likely we won’t see anything else about this matter.

With Perseus issuing his challenge to Godou, the next episode should see the climax of this particular arc, and I can only hope the showdown between the two will display a better balance between the action sequences and mythological exposition.

Full-length images: 05, 15, 20, 26, 29, 31.

End Card

23 Comments

  1. Great review. I did enjoy this episode despite my disappointment over the past few episodes. Though, I must thank Darke (see comments for eps 7 & 8) for bringing up the fact that Godou is still a new Campione, which explains his currently inability to do much. I really hope they flesh out his abilities later. Hearing that the Anime adaptation is remaining faithful to the original alleviates some of my fears of the series going down the drain.

    1. He does gain more abilities (“authorities” I believe is the term used for them, Show Spoiler ▼

      ) and also gains in the ability to control his skills.

      His harem management skills also improve as well, though there are still times where I wish the girls would slap him for his stupidity (which certainly makes this an odd harem show/novel/manga since physical abuse from the harem is usually excessive, not almost non-existent).

      Darke
  2. About Doni, in the novels it was only Erica and Yuri who found him, not the other way around.
    And he only tied up Yuri there. Erica was taken down by Doni and was unable to move for one to two hours. But either way, even if they’re mages(only Lucrezia and Erica are), they wouldn’t stand a chance against a Campione so being tied down is the better option.
    Also, Doni’s Authority that he used to lower the technological level of the city is from the Roman god Vulcan/Greek god Hephaestus. The weird thing is that the god is the god of invention yet the authority’s effect is to seal modern inventions.

    About Pandora, the details about her were mentioned in volume 3(episode 1) and in this part so I don’t think this counts as a spoiler. Basically, she is considered to be the ‘mother’ of all Campiones. She and her husband Epimetheus left a curse/ritual that happens when a god has been defeated. The defeated god will transfer his powers to the human and become a Campione.
    Also, Epimetheus means ‘one who thought afterwards’, in other words, a fool. Only fools receive his grace as only fools will fight gods, which smart people would never do. Thus, Campiones are also known as “Epimetheus’ illegitimate children”.
    Godou meets up with Pandora in his dreams from time to time whenever he’s in a limbo between life and death and is revived by the Ram Authority. That’s why she appeared here.
    I like these kinds of details in the novels but sadly, the writing of the novels isn’t up to par with the potential about gods and godslayers and stuff, as its kind of evident with the slice of life parts like in episode 5. Oh well.

    Ramblings aside, the episode was enjoyable. Liliana was fun to watch and I can see why Karen likes to make fun of her. It took up most of the episode but it was fun.
    The battle next episode should be fun but not without some lip action as Liliana will surely provide the info about Perseus to Godou to use the Sword. Should be fun.

    belatkuro
    1. ” The weird thing is that the god is the god of invention yet the authority’s effect is to seal modern inventions.”

      I think that’s very appropriate: His authority is in inventions, to an extent, would include any machines. So he can seal machines.

      Anyway I can’t wait for volume 6. This is volume 4(?) I think.

      The Moondoggie
      1. Yes this is volume 4 which will end next episode. I don’t think we’ll cover volume 6 though as that connects to volume 7. We’ll end this in volume 5 with the introduction of Ena. Shame coz I like volume 7 so far. Plus they’re already pushing it so much by having adapted 4 volumes in 9-10 episodes. Volume 13 just came out last week.

        belatkuro
      2. This arc covering volume 4 actually feels like the best paced one so far. They didn’t cut much out of the novels, and it all flowed nicely. If they do vol5 in the same with (which they will have with three episodes, 11-13 left), it should be a nice ending to what felt a bit rushed at the beginning.

        Darke
    1. You mean, once I got over the fact that this would be the extent of the characterization? I guess, yes. She’s an adorably naive tsundere that thankfully never gets too overbearing, and her romantic fantasies are a hilarious touch.

      Asobi
  3. It’s already been skipped in the anime (since volume 3 was made to fit into 1 episode) so I don’t think there’s any harm in saying it. It’s about who Pandora is. Put in a spoiler just in case.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Whookie

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