「夏休み最後の日です!」 (Natsuyasumi Saigo no Hidesu!)
“The Last Day of Summer Break!”

That’s one more for team deredere, and one less troublesome god.

Ravel’s Tears

I complained last week that showing Issei alive in the preview ruined the suspense. And it did—but, credit where credit is due, I didn’t anticipate how Issei would get a 1UP. I totally forgot about Ravel’s present, just as Issei had, and unlike other convenient revivals, this one makes a lot of sense—if Ravel is crushing on Issei (she totally is), she’d want to give him something to keep him safe, and the meeting in recent episodes was her first opportunity in a long time. Only it falling out of his shirt pocket when he was bleeding to death was convenient, and in the grand scheme of things, I can let that slide.

The Fenrir Gambit

Another nice bit of sleight of hand was hiding what Vali and crew were actually after. The fangs of Fenrir can slay gods, and sunder weapons like Thor’s Mjolnir—to say that’s a powerful skill is to underestimate heavily. Fenrir’s brainwashing, along with a new antagonist in Arthur Pendragon (Ishikawa Kaito)—is it just me, or are there more King Arthurs in manga and anime than there are in Western fiction? Probably just me—really ups the power of the main antagonists. That, along with getting to see our heroes put down a chump villain like Loki, was satisfying.

What has me most curious is the curse Loki laid on Issei before he died (or was banished, or whatever happens to gods in this world). I have a feeling that bit of foreshadowing will come back to haunt Issei later on (mark your spoilers, LN readers), and—what’s this? Deredere Koneko-chan? WOOHOO!! *completely forgets what he was talking about*

A Date With Akeno? Issei, DIE!

Speaking of enviable things, die Issei! You don’t need me to tell you why a date with Akeno is enviable, unless you’re a monster. The bad stalkers were funny, of course, but when they got to the love hotel area, and Akeno stayed in otome mode … and Odin shows up. GODSDAMMIT! I will kill you, old man!

The God of [Her] Breasts

This was a situation where Issei was unequivocally right to refuse sex. (Well, it didn’t get that far, but he clearly knew it wasn’t going to help.) So well done, horny shounen! As for the apparent heart-communing dream state that he can induce by touching breasts, that’s fourteen kinds of too convenient for me. Lazy storytelling, which I can only hope was done better in the source. This ability just came out of nowhere, after a silly and more than a little disturbing spirit journey of oppai that probably was foreshadowed better in the source, but I can’t imagine it being any less weird. But no—I won’t harp. The point is made. That was some bullshit right there.

As for what it revealed, it’s both entirely reasonable that young Akeno would blame her father for her mother’s death, in the same way a child might blame a father (or mother) for being absent because of work they’re only doing to support the family. A touch more dramatic, natch, but it lines up. Mostly I’m glad they revisited Akeno’s troubles after she seemingly came to terms with her fallen angel side last episode. She deserves more than that … and probably more than she got, but unlike Issei, we can’t win them all. Bastard.

Looking Ahead – Creeper, Paging Asia. Asia to the Creeper Aisle

Looks like this piece of shit is going to try to NTR Asia away from Issei, and I can’t imagine that’s going to end well. Personally I’ll looking forward to the increasing reintegration of Irina back into the cast, as well as more Rosseweisse. I didn’t realize how much I needed an unlucky-in-love valkyrie in my life.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Ravel’s tears, Loki’s curse, a date w/ Akeno (DIE!), & a new bullshit skill for Issei. That father daughter moment, d’aaww! #haremking s3e5

Random thoughts:

  • Kiba protected Tsubaki again. SHIPPING FURIOUSLY!!
  • Of course Grayfia is Millicas’ mother, and thus Sirzechs’ wife. A meido waifu? What a maniac, this Lucifur!
  • Hallucinations of conversing with oppai. Issei, that … wow. Maybe you should have taken care of that during your training, if you know what I mean. ‘Cause wow.
  • Koneko-chan, you’re not even trying, are you?
  • Akeno kissu get-o! Wait—I suppose it was Akeno who got an Issei kiss. Eh, whatever. Issei still needs to die. Bastard.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now available in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel short story. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Old to them, Stop sending me job ideas, Schrödinger’s Skill, and Pricing: Ebooks and print.

Full-length images: 05, 21, 23, 24, 41, 42.

 

Preview

27 Comments

  1. Loki’s curse is anime original, so nobody really knows what it’s about. Though it does create the possibility of it substituting a certain curse from canon, and that would be really bad. Like, ruining the whole reason of Ise’s future power-ups bad.
    A bit more of information in the techinique he “used” this episode:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Pedro
  2. Please, why do they had to skip an entire book?
    Don’t they want to show a rating game between Gremory and Sitri group?
    Why didnt they make a steady pace like the pass 2 seasons that took 4 books? Now they are scrambling the story going for 4-7-6 and god knows if 5 will be there. It’s like watching dragon ball Z and going for majin boo first in super saiyan 1 cuz there is no story before for powering up.( Doing critical damage without balance breaker against a god and without vali’s help? Please)
    Sorry for the bashing but i really like the series for having a good Plot(and “plot”) and after a good 1st and 2nd season, taking their time with 2 books per season and now shuffling everything where talking with boobs appears like surprise and not a new power and skipping a ton of events that they can’t show because now it wouldn’t make SENSE!

    Petro
  3. “I complained last week that showing Issei alive in the preview ruined the suspense.”

    C’mon, it’s episode 5, he’s not gonna die. And even if he dies, they’re gonna resurrect him somehow since this is a shounen (and they’re all demons, angels, spirits and gods, they may be already dead anyway).

    André
    1. Which I pointed out last week as well. We know they’re not going to do it … but that little it of doubt is spice for the experience. It makes us wonder while showing us unequivocally that he’s going to be okay ruins it.

  4. Haven’t watched this episode yet but man this really feels shuffled around and is that really how they’re going to do Bilingual? I mean its a stupid ability (but its Issei thats his character, which is why its hilarious) but at the very least there was a point of it in the novel and seemed much more fun stupid instead of this which just seems like bad stupid.

    Anza
  5. They are shuffling thru books. BUT they aren’t completely messing up. Its different but I think this season has been good so far… But I agree, MORE ROSSEWEISSE

    brizzy
  6. That Kiba x Tsubaki shipping……

    Show Spoiler ▼

    I don’t tend to compare too much with the anime and the VN. I just sit back and enjoy the show. Yet, the way they dealt with Loki’s battle, Issei’s new power and Akeno’s past was just so……BAD.

    bakakubi
  7. First half…anticlimactic. Not “bad”, just…didn’t feel very fulfilling.

    The second half was where it was at. I was glad to see Akeno’s situation and background actually get some more explanation and a little bit of closure rather than simply moving on from her sudden “acceptance” before as if that was it. Kuroka still being out there also means Koneko’s situation isn’t entirely closed either, so her situation will hopefully get more attention and possible (slight) closure in later episodes too.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
  8. So all the Vali Team wanted from Loki was Fenrir? Sorry DxD!Loki, that makes you less of a magnificent bastard than MCU!Loki. (And less fabulous, too.)

    Good thing Ravel’s gift came in handy. And this ‘verse’s Mjolnir only requires great power to wield, as opposed to the usual “only the worthy can wield” shtick.

    Akeno going with Issei on a date…I was fearing that their date would trigger flashbacks of Issei’s horrible experience with Yuuma/Reynalle. Glad that it didn’t. And it was a good opportunity for Akeno to show off some of her maiden charm, too–she’s absolutely gorgeous with her hair down! (LOL at the rest of the harem resorting to date-peeping, though it would be funnier if Kiba was also there in his normal clothes waving “Hi!” at Issei like it’s no big deal. But since he’s being shipped with Tsubaki, oh well…) Also, that date made for a nice segway to Akeno’s backstory and issues with her father, which is what this episode truly is about.

    And don’t fret, Rossweisse. I’m pretty sure a lot of guys (mostly from the other side of the fourth wall–me included) would want you as their waifu Valkyrie.

    Incognito
    1. Agreed on Kiba being there. It wouldn’t have made as much sense, character-wise, but I could imagine him coming along to make sure they don’t do anything rash, or just out of curiosity, and him not trying to hide would have been funny.

  9. So… I am guessing they will skip the complete rating game explanations and match with sitri VS gremory?

    Just in case these are a bigger spoiler than i think at the moment: Show Spoiler ▼

    From what is shown so far, they seem be to skipping Volume 6 in order to focus on Asia her past now. Hopefully they won’t screw this up with how nice the ending was in the LN.

    damrod
    1. Show Spoiler ▼

      About your spoiler, I makes me sad that we may miss most of it. Well hopefully some of them get included properly in one way or another :/

      Krud
    2. Here’s what I’m thinking:

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Aex
    1. Almost forgot about this. Wonder if they did this purposely due to the movie releasing this week. I doubt it, but it’s pretty awesome that was the case.

      bakakubi
  10. My thoughts:
    -Regarding the curse Loki mentioned, I don’t know if its just him cursing or its literally a curse. Now I wonder…
    -About Akeno’s development on this one, even if I view it as an anime watcher only, I just feel that this one feels rushed.

    Krud
  11. I think I know how the rest of the story will go because of two things, Juggernaut drive & Oppai Dragon song. LN readers know what I mean.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Nameless422
  12. Having only watched Episode 5 just a moment ago, I can tell that even though that “curse” is anime-original, it’s still connected to the LN. Since Issei gets the “curse”, therefore he should receive misfortunes Show Spoiler ▼

    which would then cause him to activate the dangerous Juggernaut Drive. Well, this is mere speculation on what that curse is all about, since I still haven’t watched Ep6 and Ep7.

    Red HeartGold ZX

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