Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to – 07

「ファ美肉おじさんとイカファイヤー」 (Fabiniku Ojisan to Ika Faiyaa)
“A Guy Who Reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout and a Squid Fire”

Episode 07 of Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to turns up the heat as Jinguji has to find a way to prevent Tachibana and Tilolilo from potentially being sacrificed to a squid god. But while Jinguji’s gone fishing in an effort to murder the town’s deity, Tachibana has problems of his own as his tiara comes off during an escape attempt.

IDK SQUID GAMES

As with the other episodes that preceded it, this anime excels to its fullest when the humor is bleak and morbidly gut-busting. In this episode, Tilolilo’s goals are inspired less by Dragon Quest and more by Shin Megami Tensei as she relishes in the prospect of killing the village’s squid deity.

The amount of spite she has for Tachibana is relatively funny, especially when she tries to take her with her into the squid’s belly. But Tilolilo is at her funniest when she celebrates her escape from the squid by lighting it ablaze, tearing off some grilled squid god for a celebratory meal, and cackling out loud to the villagers.

Her efforts wound up accidentally made her take the squid’s place as the town’s idol, but it was hilarious to see how long of an uncomfortable pause there was as she murders this village’s deity and takes it upon herself to feast on his corpse while everyone watches in shock. It reminded me of the sad yet funny moment where she also accidentally ate the forest deity she personally looked up to.

GONE FISHING

Jinguji’s side of the struggle was also great now that he’s being accompanied by a Trader who is a little too pushy about his desires. The Trader comes off initially as an overly friendly character who is intent on shipping Jinguji and Tachibana together. But as he starts to see Jinguji’s inspirational side, the Trader does a 180 and wants him all to himself.

It is SNL-tier comedy with the Trader wanting to feed Jinguji and offer him backrubs, but I think the show has the potential to make him a neat character since his sexuality is never automatically labeled as being overbearing or abhorrent. He’s just a chill dude who had an awakening once he realized that Jinguji was quite the charmer.

And because I’m the king of overanalysis, I’d also like to posit that Jinguji might have some charm skills of his own brought in by the Goddess of Love. Vizd’s partner concludes that Jinguji’s abilities lose their strength when Tachibana is far away, so I can see other boons and banes being latent or kick in only at specific moments as well. Perhaps there’s an orator skill that has the same effect on people as Tachibana’s charm curse.

Before I move on, I’d like to mention one moment I nearly choked laughing at. It was when a kid spots Jinguji trying to fish for squid and calls him an idiot for fishing for nocturnal animals in broad daylight. They really linger on how ridiculous Jinguji looks by spending the entire day waiting for the squid god to take Tilolilo as bait when they would’ve been asleep by this point. It’s one of the many practical jokes that the show has where the humor isn’t tied to anything beyond the ludicrous situation that the characters are stuck in.

WORKING YOUR MAGIC

Tachibana didn’t get as much action this time around aside from inspiring Jinguji to fish the squid god out of the water, but we got a nice flashback out of it with Tachibana remembering how he had been begging him in high school to help him study. It was interesting to learn that Tachibana relied on Jinguji quite a bit because he felt like he was useless and insecure.

It’s an insecurity that unfortunately kept carrying through to this day as his anger in this fantasy world is how his lack of powers left him in the same position he was in beforehand by needing to rely on Jinguji’s strength to push him through life. While everyone else seems like they have cool practical abilities and can fight formidably, Tachibana is left in the damsel role as his safety relies on being able to charm men into being incapable of any rational thought.

While Tachibana is a more clever person who had always tried his best to coax others into helping him out, his lack of motivation ends up weighing on him as he is constantly punished for doing anything beyond begging others to protect him when Jinguji refuses to allow him any kind of freedom in dating others. In return, he ends up being regularly rewarded when he’s over-reliant on Jinguji to help him out in a tight pinch.

It fleshes out the complicated relationship Tachibana has with Jinguji where he feels like he can’t do anything by himself, but because of that, it drives Tachibana to lean on him as his first and last resort. Breaking out and ranting against the villagers was one of Tachibana’s first instances of using his female form to cling onto any kind of agency he’d have with his abilities. But at the same time, the moment is reflective of the tug-of-war Tachibana faces between using his own energy to escape a cruel fate and needing to be protected because he has no way of really fighting back beyond using his talents to be regularly exiled for witchcraft.