This. THIS is how you do anime. What a masterpiece of an episode.

At the start of the episode, we have no reason to care about Acrobatic Silky. At the end, we care SO MUCH about Acrobatic Silky. I had goosebumps.

Other anime try and fail to tug at heartstrings. This one yanks your heart so hard it comes out your throat.

I’ll probably give it another episode or two. I remembered the helicopter thing. It’s just I feel like very little has happened. I mean, we start with him epically selling his party into slavery and then Alma shows up being a total badass and NOT being a Mecha-Ude, and then… oh no, drugs and gangs and slavery…

If anything, the fact the girl was still holding on to the helicopter even after the whole Mayor incident is interesting. Assuming it’s not bad writing just for added heartstrings, it means the girl wasn’t actually upset with him as she was cherishing it enough for some random thug to realize its significance.

The fact that it took you so long to figure that out just shows how forgettable the storytelling in this series is. It was a whole thing in episode 4 (which in my brain is episode 1 or 2). I’m honestly starting to get bored out of my mind with the storytelling. I might honestly drop this one.

Well, Bilac specifically requested Crystal Scorpion parts. And we saw Vysache use monster parts Sunraku had to make his moon blades. OH SNAPS! Another moon reference!

Plus this is SLF not some TRASH GAME where the monsters don’t drop the quest items unless you pick up the quest first!

Alicia does not appear at all until the last 15 seconds of this episode. By then two years have passed since she started her training. She even stayed locked up during her 15th birthday when her father said she could attend the academy again. I feel there’s only one possible reason for this: she trained until she was level 100, maybe 100+.

@rikka@ani.social

Gill says it during the episode, that Alicia trains every day to narrow the gap between her and Liz as much as possible but that she doesn’t believe she can surpass Liz. Gill is also surprised that Alicia didn’t complete her training to level 90 sooner. Remember that Alicia stated in a previous episode that Liz and the prince are characters in the game that can surpass level 100 so I believe that to close the gap as much as possible she went straight for level 100 herself.

We also get further confirmation that Liz is brainwashing people. Students who would bully and antagonize Liz are now in love with Liz and badmouthing Alicia.

These two conquerable background characters whose names I TOTALLY remember are also starting to become relevant. Up to this point they hadn’t deviated in behavior from the game. They also didn’t seem to be under Liz’ spell, which was a little odd. After all, other characters like Albert, Alan and Henry were under Liz’s spell, even if Henry managed to break out of it. Makes me think that they were flying under the radar for unknown reasons.

Anyway, even with all this, not much has changed other than the fact it’s now two years later. Speaking of characters I totally remember, who is this Mel character Duke talks with at the end of the episode?

Part of it is that there’s less hidden costs. I like it when it’s just “the total is $30” instead of “there’s $8 shipping and a $2 service fee and then $4 in taxes and…”

I’ve also seen some online stores lure in a customer with a really cheap initial price and then on the last page just slam them with insane shipping and handling fees hoping that the customer either doesn’t notice or feels too invested at this point to cancel their purchase.

But yes, part of it is also people are stupid when they see the word “free” as if the store wouldn’t move the cost somewhere else.

We were so spoiled the particular season this aired. I remember this and Oshi No Ko were airing at the same time. I agree that the reason there’s no season 2 announcement is because they lack the material. Season 1, by all accounts, did great.

I’m also convinced we’re watching two distinct timelines, so looking forward to that shocking reveal.

No he fucking didn’t. People voted for Trump specifically. If Trump isn’t running, the political map will be quite different.

We know. They didn’t work during his first term. They won’t work now.

Agree. I hate this “further processed” crap. Processed how? At least show the unedited source image too.

Where’s @zabadoh@ani.social ? I’ll try to make him proud…

We see Kanata start to go through a change where he’s just happy to be driving to where he wants to WIN. Seizing the opportunity the fog presents, he goes on the offensive and uses his photographic memory to basically replay the track in his head while going through the motions. You know, because that’s a totally reasonable and realistic thing that can happen. It’s not like differing road conditions or anything would change your memorized timings.

Still, him passing by the Ferrari like it was standing still was great.

@rikka@ani.social

As was Ren getting jealous that another angel might get to kiss him if Kanata finished top 3.

After the fog zone, Kanata is 8.73 seconds ahead of the Ferrari with Sectors 2 and 3 still to go. Definitely a setup for a crazy battle for 3rd.

Eurobeat Track: Speed of Light by The Snake

I remember reading that portion and thinking that the deduction Ars comes to in that moment really came out of nowhere

Interesting, because having not read the manga, I thought putting them in the room with all the toys was a bit odd. But it sounds that was a better setup than whatever the manga did.

When Ars’ appraise ability didn’t work on the craftsman I was wondering what was going on. I had COMPLETELY forgotten that the episode title was “Evolution”.

One thing that constantly bugs me about this series is the fact that Ars is a reincarnation is NEVER relevant. The title would be better as something like, “My Seemingly Useless Appraise Skill is Secretly Overpowered!”

Just when Sunraku starts implementing his totally-legit-not-at-all-cheese crystal scorpion destruction strategy, something new shows up.

@rikka@ani.social

The new rare monster is insanely OP! Offense, defense, and regeneration all in one package. It looks like the devs really, REALLY don’t want you farming crystal scorpion materials.

In the middle of all this, we get a sneak peak into some SLF lore. The Gold Scorpion uses the moon to regenerate. The moon was also a major part of the Wethermon lore. It makes me wonder about other Colossi, like how Lycagon only appears at night.

During the battle, Sunraku finally gets his prized crystal scorpion stinger from the new rare Golden Scorpion! Huzzah!

Even with that lore epiphany, this is mostly just a combat episode. The whole, “I can only travel to the inventoria a limited number of times” seemed like a pretty dumb and unnecessary limitation added just to increase the tension a bit. But I’ll let it slide because the “oh no, now I have no weapon” actual limitation was both a surprising twist and a really good climax tension builder.

Can’t wait to see Bilac’s face when he shows up with the Gold Crystal Scorpion parts!

Breed them out of existence.

I dug down to get the audio. The girl is saying, “Bentley” in a seductive voice then tapping or rubbing various parts of the car. Donald says, “Citroën” in duck-speak and then does Donald Duck noises at times.

This is sadly the best photo I’ve seen of him.

(though I don’t think that will continue from next year somehow).

Yeah, might be hard to follow FDA regulations when the FDA gets dismantled and no longer exists… eye twitch

Most certainly! They surely won’t completely dismantle the FDA and then allow big-pharma to dictate everything. /s

Yippie! I wonder if they’ll go camping this season! I bed it’ll be very chill and laid back. Seriously love the vibe of this series.

We learn what happened to Machina and also get to see Machina being a badass before she predictably loses to Marcus.

@rikka@ani.social

Takahashi does movie-logic computer hacking to speed the plot along.

Veltol and Gram end up joining forces and have a lovers spat, surprising no one. Still cool though.

Can’t wait to see how things develop now that all the pieces are in motion.