「美味かったよ」 (Umakattayo)
“It was Delicious”

From cooking to duels to…demons? Yupp that sound you hear is the one of patience starting to pay off, and while we don’t have any good guarantee of getting all our hopes and dreams answered next week (because dualistic preview), at least Plunderer is finally taking that step from buildup to action. After all, if our boys (and girls) are now properly assembled, it only makes sense to start testing the bonds.

Much like earlier weeks this episode is going to be one of love and hate. Lacking desired story information? Definitely. Added character details? The whole hog. I’ve made mention a lot how Plunderer is conceptually simple and straightforward, yet I still get a kick out where it intends on taking its cast. Lynn for example is pretty much made for marriage and complete with all the necessary cute points, but Hina? This girl is going places. That was some seriously impressive butchering and censoring on display (not to mention the feels-inducing focus on one poor bear), and had the added benefit of taking the ubiquitous bad cooking trope and flipping it on its head. Sure it was obvious the flip was coming—we have to keep the harem competition strong—but it’s great seeing our MC can be more than a simple damsel in distress.

The other bit of future fun comes courtesy of Jail who—lo and behold—is quickly becoming Licht’s one true rival, because shounen influences. While we likely have a bit of time before seeing the fruits of male bonding in all its glory (or maybe not), it’s not hard predicting our resident non-Lynn tsundere will becoming increasingly tied to whatever is in store for Licht as enemies are revealed and the main conflict of this series makes its presence felt. There’s simply too much tying the military cast to Licht for them to simply remain full antagonists over time, and considering wholesale destruction unrelated to the voyeuristic Ace is now part of the picture, growing room for compromise to be reached.

It’s been a while reaching this point, but Plunderer is all set to start showing us what it’s really made of.

 

Preview

16 Comments

  1. I must warn thee that there’ll be commentators bashing this episode and even some of the anime-only viewers can tell this is a filler due to not existing in the source material along with no development on what’s happening with the military cast’s duties. Not to mention dedicated manga fans are gonna lose their patience and give up their subscription to this show. tag

    But oh boy! I didn’t expect that most of this episode involves a cooking competition and without a winner decided, it’ll feel like the shipper fans of His & Lynn will be in distraught and agony, not knowing who’ll get Licht until the end of cour’s final episode. 😅

    Nevertheless, I can’t deny that this is a good episode. In fact, I believe the anime production staff are trying to make final ep with a fitting cliffhanger; hence this episode turning into a cooking show and it’s looking awkward if you ask any of the audience asking “Why did that happen?…”. At least the audience (whether they’re anime-only or not) gets to see Hina’s efforts in cheering him up even if it’s to cook bear stew~

    RIP Mr Kuma 🐻

    RK
  2. About the spoilers tag (if you’re wondering why that words is in the first paragraph in out of place), I tried it but it’s not showing so is it like this?

    [Spoiler source](/s “Spoiler goes here”)

    And hopefully it’s not a major spoiler I’ve written there…

    RK
    1. No worries nothing was spoiled from what I can see (I’ll be corrected if otherwise haha).

      And spoiler tags are spoiler *text* /spoiler with <> around the spoiler and /spoiler.
      The preview button is high on our list of fixes for this reason so you know if what you’re writing is what will actually show up!

  3. I really can’t believe that there are still people who believe that Hina is main protagonist from a shonen battle series..
    When absolutely all the official and unofficial sources list and position Litch as the main protagonist of the Plunderer.
    In addition, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun and Kyokou Suiri are series that have a boy and a girl as the two most important charaters, and whose the main protagonist is really the girl, and in both series the both main protagonists (Nene and Kotoko) are listed and positioned exactly as Litch in the official and unofficial websites.
    Not to mention that Plunder is a Shonen battle series, and Shonen battle series has the well-defined main protagonist stereotype who is a action-focused fighter character.

    I know a lot of people are not in the habit of researching about the series before watching the anime or reading the manga, but We cannot simply ignore the fact that the number of lunatic retards who attempt to shove a female character as the protagonist character from a series with male main are growing in a scary way with each new series with male main protagonist. It’s pitiful and sad.

    Doofenheimer
    1. I fixed the last part…

      *I know a lot of people are not in the habit of researching about the series before watching the anime or reading the manga, but We cannot simply ignore the fact that the number of lunatic retards who attempt to shove a female character as the protagonist main from a series with male main protagonist is growing in a scary way with each new series with male main protagonist. It’s pitiful and sad.

      Doofenheimer
    2. Whoops probably should’ve fleshed out that line better. Fully agreed Lynn is not the main protagonist, but IMO she counts as one of the protagonists—i.e. not a background or minor character (which is why I call her a main character); her Ballot link to Licht and the Aces plus her newfound groupie status make her too important for that.

      Only reason I discuss Hina (and by extension Lynn) so much right now is the relative lack of actual story to dissect. I’ve read (and been spoiled) far enough in this series to know where this is going, and where/when Licht finally comes into his own—which if pacing holds true will be in the next few episodes.

      1. it would be better to call the characters in accordance with the descriptions given by the show-related official websites:
        Litch – main protagonist ( or MC)
        Hina – main heroine (or main girl)
        Nana – one of the main characters (or one of the main heroines)
        Lyne one of the main characters (or one of the main heroines)
        Jail – one of the main characters
        Pele – one of the main characters

        Doofenheimer
  4. I don’t want to bash this episode too much but to ME the competition for BEST wife was complete nonsense and here is why.

    — Comparing which girl makes a good wife based on their cooking skill is so 2005 in fact this idea seemed dated to me. There wasn’t any real plot to this just a lot of horsing around and Jail arriving to clear the stage clean. Just in time cause the competition was coming to an end. Just a thought, did the writer run out of ideas for the story or is this actually a filler episode?

    — From the very first episode I had thought Hina was a helpless girl that needs the ace to protect her, hence Licht. I mean wasn’t Hina portrayed that way?When did Hina learn that knife skill? Plus Hina’s ability to trap wild animals? I am worried that Hina is secretly the Yandere type. If my guess is right Hina doesn’t need an ace to protect her, no everyone will need an ace to fight Hina.

    Side note I prefer Nana over Hina and Lyne…

    RenaSayers
    1. These are useless skills in real battles. Perhaps this is why she doesn’t take part in any battle or action related to this show.
      I read the manga until chapter 58. The characters focused in action or battle have shown no interest in Hina, the only thing they worry about is hunting or struggling with Licth.

      fvgdg
  5. Have to agree that it’s early 2000s outdated trope. The cooking battle/show. And regarding Hina’s character development, the beginning didn’t do her justice besides forcing her to be just a pillar to bold the main plot: the Ballot. Thus, the readers & viewers think and believe Lynn is the actual main girl though her love interest (ahem!) is pretty obvious. Yes, not spoiling here and don’t put spoilers in response to Lynn’s all current status. To be honest, the reason I said I can’t deny this is a good episode because it is not a good episode for the cooking battle didn’t develop some sort of foreshadowing or flashback of one of the main characters. Yet I nearly giggled at the sight of the bear stew preparation; not to mention Pele’s words hit the right spot in displaying his character’s role though that will change someday.

    But my main concern is that this series will stray from source material too much now that I can see a whole filler episode. I’m praying that this doesn’t turn out like Tokyo Ghoul or Akame ga Kill!! and yes~ I’m putting all my hopes (if it really exist) on a small chance that this series earning the rights to deserve a new season renewal like Fire Force, Shield Hero, and Reincarnated Slime.

    RK
  6. Seeing Hina skin that bear was….
    Anyway I think it all made sense if we consider what she’s been doing. Got to somehow get through when on the road. Food is a definite priority. Though it suspiciously looked like she was using her self as bait for the bear. Where’d she learn that one?

    Even though her dish tasted good, there was one thing bothering me. How do you eat that bear claw? Tried hooves before, so it wasn’t so strange. Not really sure, but I think it should’ve taken longer to prepare.

    theirs
  7. Yeah, this episode was not so good.
    If this was filler, why do this? Are 24 episodes not enough to animate several manga arcs, so that they’re only covering one have to stretch it?

    boingman

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