Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to – 05

「ファ美肉おじさんと動く鎧」 (Fabiniku Ojisan to Ugoku Yoroi”)
“A Guy Who Reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout and Armor that Moves”

This week’s Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to might have one of their funniest battles yet as Jinguji has to square up against the Mighty Arm Vizd. While the unconventional approach to the fight made it all the more hilarious, we also have quite a bit of development on Schwartz’s end as a high schooler who attracts misfortune almost as easily as Tachibana’s charm spell.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE GIANT SUIT OF ARMOR ISN’T THE FULLMETAL ONE!?

The most absurdly funny moment of the episode had to be the main encounter with Mighty Arm Vizd. The character alone has to be the goofiest one they introduced yet as a small girl in a massive suit of armor who revels in ripping off people’s clothes and stealing their goods. The trauma that Schwartz goes through as his prized sword is devoured by Vizd was hilariously soul-crushing on his behalf. Lucius stood out the most in this episode as a stoic character who isn’t above having a few screws loose. It was amusing to see how Tachibana’s charm skill is strong enough for Lucius to want to hand candy over to Tachibana.

I was cracking up when Lucius revealed that her annual salary is three times the price of Tachibana’s tiara. It’s the kind of conversation you would expect more from a sad, self-deprecating conversation between younger adults than a group of fantastical warriors. It’s one of those moments that taps into the anime’s strength as a surreal, odd-ball comedy that depicts an isekai where the people being forced to live out these childish fantasies are jaded thirty-year-olds who have little to no use for the power fantasies they’re given.

THE VIRGIN-CHAD DICHOTOMY

And speaking of childish fantasies, the funniest scene of the episode has to be when Jinguji argues about the merits of Tachibana’s immature taste in women. The fact that Jinguji doesn’t even have to try to balance restraining Shwartz with fighting Vizd is already absurdly funny, but then, you have Tachibana providing even more conflict for him to contend with. When Jinguji tries to emphasize that the idea of a “boyfriend shirt” is as childish to him as Tachibana’s lust for bunny girls and maids, it creates a whole entire blowout.

On an immature level, some of the funnier back-and-forth banter between Tachibana and Jinguji is when Tachibana becomes petty enough about Jinguji being a spiteful killjoy that he eggs him on and tries to Charm him by playing with his emotions. Because Jinguji is prideful about bringing his stank attitude from the real world with him and mocking Tachibana’s vanilla fetishes, Tachibana plays into his uncontrollable lust to jab at him by asking him if he’d look better in a maid outfit or bunny outfit. Their bickering is made even funnier when Jinguji slam-dunking Tachibana’s basic tastes wind up causing him to beat Vizd, mid-argument.

A HERO OF HIS OWN STORY

This episode also gives us more on who Schwartz is, what his character archetype represents, and how exactly he’s approaching the game. It’s pretty crazy how, in any other isekai series, Schwartz would be the main character. A high school boy who wants to fulfill his ultimate fantasy of becoming a hero, and is adorned with a plethora of powerful skills and weapons.

It’d be hard to separate Schwartz’s characteristics from the quirks and abilities of other isekai heroes. Being dropped in a game with the skill set of a master is exactly what Kirito’s “struggle” was. If you aren’t a master of all trades with a harem of misfits, how can your isekai story even begin to take hold? But because of this, it’s pretty funny to see how the show aims to decentralize this prototypical isekai adventure from its main premise of watching thirty-year-olds struggle to comprehend their surroundings in a way that isn’t just mirroring their experience with Famicom RPGs.

What’s fascinating about the protagonists being way older than the typical isekai hero is how they would approach someone who, in any other circumstance or story, would be as insanely powerful as Jinguji. How Tachibana bonds with him are particularly interesting because, once he clears the air that he is a man in his thirties trapped in a young girl’s body, Tachibana and Schwartz’s relationship takes on a friendlier approach.

Because Tachibana is already a social butterfly, he sees Schwartz as merely a younger kohai who could use a mentor to help him out. Once Schwartz had gotten over his initial puppy love for Tachibana, it gave him the opportunity to talk to Tachibana as if he was just an older guy who happens to be using the female form as an avatar.

It might not have helped out Jinguji as much to have this kind of friendly relationship with Tachibana back when they were kids, but it was heart-warming to see that, by the end of the episode, Schwartz was having normal back-and-forth banter with Tachibana. I was worried the main joke would be the elephant in the room that Schwartz had strong feelings for Tachibana before he knew his true identity, but once that particular bandage was taken off, it seems that the largest of Schwartz’s concerns would be if he could live out his isekai fantasy without other people learning about his name and how he was back in the real world.