「雪の別れ」 (Yuki no Wakare)
“A Parting in the Snow”

With new arcs come new opportunities – and for Tate no Yuusha that means indulging in the fun of the past. From merchant shilling to level grinding and even the hint of near-insurmountable threats, this adaptation is certainly willing to go all out for its latest events, and I for one am quite satisfied where it’s all heading.

Much as described at last week, a good chunk of this arc’s setup previously witnessed was anime original. Smol Raphtalia? Supposed to be missing alongside Filo and only return at a later date. The change was significant because it suggested a major piece of character development would’ve been lost or otherwise malformed, something which thankfully turned out to be wrong. You see, this arc – spoiler alert – isn’t really about Naofumi or even stopping Kyo, it’s about the one true cinnamon bun and her truly coming into her own. I’ll leave it to the imagination as to what exactly that entails, but at minimum expect our cute little raccoon girl to not be going anywhere regardless of circumstance.

As for more pressing plot concerns, well, who honestly did not see this coming? Kyo being responsible for shoving Naofumi and company into the Infinite Labyrinth was a simple guarantee all things considered, and even the shenanigans surrounding Kizuna’s world’s Dragon Hourglass were a given when remembered who’s going out of his way to pull the strings behind the scenes. While true there’s still no real sense of investment when it comes to Kyo, his latest minion set, or just what he’s after, injecting a degree of urgency for Naofumi and forcing both him and members of his party to confront challenges alone gives a measure of suspense and intrigue the Spirit Tortoise arc noticeably lacked. It remains to be seen just how the rest of this arc will play out (I expect a few more anime-original changes at minimum), but for the moment things are looking mighty interesting.

After all, when it comes to interesting, nothing is better than watching tiny demi-human girls kick major ass.

 

Preview

4 Comments

      1. Yupp and provides a good bit of relief knowing the overarching source material will be followed in the process. Really seems like the intent was simply to give Raphtalia some additional scene time which isn’t that bad a decision overall.

  1. Well, Kyo annoyance factor just multiplified by 2.
    His smug minion just added to the total annoyance amount.
    Can someone kick their teeth already?
    Raphtalia would be perfect but shes so smol and underleveled at this point…
    And the rest of the party just got teleported away.
    I expect Raphtalia being treated to old “what doesnt kill you makes you stronger” routine.
    Kyo might just regret oine day he didnt allow his minion to kill off one smol beastgirl…

    ewok40k

Leave a Reply to yoloalchemist Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *