Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai – 11

Going back to school is always apprehensive when you’re young, especially if you’ve just gone an amazing holiday, even if there are things you missed about home. Fortunately for Latina, her friends remain steadfast in their affections towards her in spite of a six month absence. It’s always great to see friendships endure in such a way. Yet something did bother me. I wouldn’t expect an anime character to actually express it. That said, in terms of how I perceive fundamental human interactions, I felt bad for Sylvia. She probably spent six months hanging out with Chloe, spending some quality time together, only to become a third wheel trying to fit in with everyone else once Latina returns. For most of my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid that situation. But having experienced it at least once, I can say that it absolutely sucks. I know the show is all about Latina. But for me it wouldn’t hurt if they depicted a slightly more balanced friendship group that wasn’t so centred around her. Minor nitpick which is inconsequential to the substantive story at large, though I think it would demonstrate an excellent understanding of people as well as innate empathy on the creator’s part.

On the other hand, Rudy is guilty as charged. It’s always been obvious that he’s had a crush on Latina. Would Latina really be that oblivious? Probably. But I can’t help but think that she’s empathetic and conscious enough to play along like that, to preserve the current friendship dynamic within the group instead of making things awkward.

So far in the show, I can count one explicit instance where Japanese culture surfaced: the ceremony where Frida was carried down to Teathrow for her marriage with Yorck. I didn’t actually think they would go ahead and import what is quite evidently a Japanese man into a Western style fantasy. Not to say that Westerners exclusively have the creative rights over such a setting, but I admittedly find it quite jarring — e.g. brazenly decorating his house with Japanese curios and having him pull out that yukata. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he confessed to Dale that he got isekai’d. Nevertheless, the insights we gained on Dale’s grandparents were extremely interesting and helps explain his insane strength to some extent. Namely that his grandfather packed a load of talent while his grandmother was even stronger and wore the pants in that relationship. One thing’s for certain though — even after his death, their love has endured, with Wendelgard using that pipe her husband meticulously handcrafted every single day. And I think that’s really sweet.

Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. We’re near the end of our run, and I can’t think of anything requiring closure that can be covered in a single episode, so I look forwards to seeing what Maho Films have got in store for us. As always, thanks for reading my post and see you next week for the finale!