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「会議は踊る」 (Kaigihaodoru)
“The Congress Dances”
This week’s episode begins with our heroes riding on dinosaurs to cross the seas so that a Japanese high school girl possessed by a Mesopotamian goddess can shoot a planet at her mother.
This is the thing to love or hate about anything-goes stories: anything goes. Stepping back a bit to holistically survey where we are, really think about what’s going on, and we might realise that it’s all a bit ridiculous.
At the same time, though, one has to admit that it’s rather awesome.
As impressive as Ishtar is, did anyone think she was just going to one-shot the final boss? No, of course not. For one, we know that Babylonia has 21 episodes lined and nobody wants to watch our heroes chill and pat each on the back for four episodes in a row having managed to speed-run the game. And, even considering all the protagonist factors Tohsaka Rin possesses she’s not actually the protagonist and there’s no way she’s going to be allowed to so quickly resolve the plot with simple violence all by herself. This is the problem with having a literal goddess as a party member; is she was too useful then the deus ex machina might be a bit too on the nose. So the goddess, while divine in theory, is in practice going to have to be disappointing. This is also known as the Konosuba principle.
Hence the memes.
Good thing we’ve got a backup Rin. I know I’ve talked about this before, but one of Nasu’s favourite techniques is to use Rin’s powerful personality to control the mood of the story. Written yourself into an apocalypse scenario, with only 500 people left alive to face off against some CGI-mecha-kaijuu straight out of a super sentai show? Don’t know how to turn the mood around naturally? Don’t worry, just have Rin make funny faces and we’ll be shrugging off the extinction of civilisation in no time. Not even the usual comic relief is enough; nothing less than the fearsome power of two Rins will do.
There is definitely something delightful about hearing Ueda Kana go full Nichijou in stereo. That must have been an interesting recording session for her.
“Gate Open”
Damn, that was hype as fuck. No matter what you might think about the story, the Babylonia anime has several sakuga scenes that I have rewatched several times, this one being another highlight.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2017%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
How does Type Venus respond to this?
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20Grand%20Order/Fate%20Grand%20Order%20Zettai%20Majuu%20Sensen%20Babylonia%20-%2017%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
I like how Gilgamesh wrote in Japanese
fun fact. Narita posted a tweet saying “I wonder where she lost it. That’s strange. Really strange…!”
Later stuff in FGO establishes that Ishtar’s Noble Phantasm is… less than useless against other deities associated with Venus (as in they could catch it and launch it right back in her face). No word on whether TYPE-Venus could do the same, but it is something to consider.
As for the tablet, if you look closely, Mash has the marker.
And that’s Narita teasing about certain details in Fate/Strange Fake.
I think what he’s trying to say is: how does Venus respond to this?
Nasuverse planets are alive and extremely powerful, so it’s really weird that an Earth’s goddess can have total control over Venus like this.
Ah, the Konosuba principle. It’s kinda sad everyone probably knows whom it’s referring to. A principle feared by gods and goddesses alike.
With how seemingly effective two Rin’s are, does that mean if things get even worse, they just need to add one more Rin? It is a dire situation, but it doesn’t feel that way by the end of the episode. If there is one thing I’m wondering, it is how satisfying an ending it will be. Still four more episodes, so I guess anything goes. Would be really surprised if they actually used Rin to solve that too!
Ishtar: “I don’t have it! I lost it!“
Also Ishtar: “Fujimaru-san! Fujimaru-san!” (*crying
AquaIshtar noises*)Caster Gilgamesh: “Y-You stupid, useless, bratty goddess! Why did we even bother recruiting you?“
Me (and possibly Kazuma): “Look on the bright side, Gil. At least you’re not stuck with Aqua…”
With the KonoSuba references/memes out of the way… Damn, when I saw Ishtar open that gate (*cue sudden nostalgia for the Gate Keepers anime*), I thought she was literally gonna colony drop Venus on Tiamat. Speaking of Tiamat–or rather, her true form, she looks like a moefied Monster X (from Godzilla: Final Wars). So the question now is, how will our protagonists delay Tiamat for a day if Ishtar lost Gugalanna [sp?]?
And somewhat belated: RIP Siduri (how she became a Lahmu was similar to Dimensional Beasts in Super Robot Wars Z2 and adds to the tragedy) and Ushiwakamaru (her Alter version reminded me of Tomie with how Dr. Romani described her regeneration ability).
The CGI was pretty crappy looking. The 3d composition looks super out of place.