「姫と戦う女たち」 (Hime to Tatakau Onna-tachi)
“The Princess and Female Warriors”

It’s Ladies Night with Maoujou de Oyasumi when Princess Syalis is visited by a Harpy that wishes to be her new best friend. But this episode mainly explores what happens with other demons who wish to associate themselves with Syalis only to find out that there’s one big obstacle that gets in the way of any efforts to sympathize with Syalis; the power of sleep.

This episode made it hard not to feel guilty about the girls that try to side with Princess Syalis, starting with Harpy. Harpy makes the grave mistake of looking to the princess to be her one human friend that can make her feel like another one of the gals. But while she was expected to have girl talk and fun sleepovers with the first human friend she makes, Syalis was unfortunately the wrong choice as she makes the poor girl do her bidding and have her wings drape over her as a comforter.

But whereas it was sad to see the innocence fade from Harpy’s face as she realized Syalis is using her for the shallow pursuit of slumber, it’s Alraune who faces the harshest reality about Syalis. She approaches the captivity scenario like any other person would by decrying the Demon King Twilight as a cruel villain who gets their kicks from stealing princesses and locking them away in his tower. But Twilight’s method of enlightening Alraune on what Syalis truly does around his castle came at the worst time when Syalis’ main goal was carving up a tree demon to use his hide as a new bed frame. That tree demon? Well that’s Alraune’s brother.

The funniest scene of the episode revolves around just how much Alraune tries to salvage the situation and make the best of it. She tries so hard to save face after seeing the princess she defended brutally massacre her brother that she continues to try to keep a steady poker face. By the time her brother is finally left alone, she resorts to putting her hair over her eyes to avoid the truth of the princess being absolutely horrible. The final scene where she politely asks Syalis if she’s human is icing on the cake. While the most we get plot-wise is a general understanding for who Twilight meets with about planning for the Hero’s next trials, what we got was another solid episode with some standout moments that hone in on the lines that Syalis crosses with no second thought.

4 Comments

  1. I love how she just shows up uninvited in high-level secret meetings with
    the Demon King and his high-ranking subordinates — they don’t notice
    her entering, but it’s like she suddenly appears and shocks them!

    You’d think that playing the gag of the princess finding unique ways to
    get a night’s sleep would become repetitive and boring after a while…

    You’d think…

    But this show manages to make it such a fun and entertaining adventure
    that hasn’t worn thin yet. I don’t expect any deep story, or overarching
    story arc (at least I don’t think so), but it’s definitely something I look forward
    to each Monday (and of course Kuma³ Bear on Wednesday) for some truly
    great silliness and humour.

    mac65
  2. I recall chuckling quite a bit at these manga chapters, but this episode had me nearly rolling on the floor laughing. You can fully show how annoying you can be a vuvuzela in anime form. Man, I’m sad this is going to be 1-cour. Considering there’s like 16 volumes out, there should be plenty of material for 52 episodes assuming 2 – 3 chapters per episode. Unfortunately, it’s seems the bar for series to be more than 1-cour is higher now that it was a decade ago…

      1. Hayate the Combat Butler S1 52 episodes loosely followed the manga only a certain number of chapters were animated rest was anime only, then S2 was straight manga adaptation and S3 was anime original story and Cuties was select chapters mashed together

        Bill

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