Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the plot.
Impression
There… wasn’t any fanservice?! Wow, I’m shocked. I thought there’d at least be something whilst Basara was recovering from his wounds after the fight against Takigawa, but there wasn’t even a hint of it. I’m still waiting for my Yuki fanservice. It’s just as well I suppose, because I’ve been feeling slightly more invested in the story as of late. You can tell that I’m not expecting much, but what we’ve been getting has been entertaining, and I’m okay with that. The masked guy did turn out to be Takigawa in the end, and the fight scene went exactly how you’d predict it to go – Basara gets beaten up a bit, until he accesses a new power and turns the tables with it. I did like how Basara actually got stabbed a second time, which must have hurt a lot more than the first one given his previous injury and constant movement – and they cut a lot of the bullshit surrounding Takigawa’s reveal as well. I was fully expecting a ‘kuma shock’ moment where Basara slices his mask clean in half, and everyone puts their best ‘Holy shit! I did not see that was coming!’ face on, but there was none of that. Takigawa disappeared fully masked, and in the end Basara deduced the very thing we all did last week, and confronted him to his face. I really do like this guy, he’s got guts.
‘Banishing Shift’ seems to be the story of Basara’s past, though I feel like there’s a bit more to it than that given what his father said as he backpacked through what looked like Wonderland. As I understand it, a warmongering hero decided to unseal a dangerous sword, the very same Brynhildr that Basara now summons. As he was about to be killed by it, he somehow shifted its allegiance and used a massive Banishing Shift that did a lot of damage. They never made it clear whether he’d actually killed people as a result – I assume he must have, given that they exiled him for it. It just seemed like it was the initial guy that did all the killing, in which case what Basara managed to do was save a few lives and stop the rampage of a possessed hero at the same time. We can predict a few things from here onwards – the sword probably has a couple more hidden abilities, and the warmongering guy will be back at some point, given that a) he wants war and will go after Mio, and b) Basara needs to come to terms with his past somehow. Sadly, the heroes in the village were the most generic heroes ever, save for Basara and Yuki. With all the innovation Shinmaou’s got for its main character, I was hoping they’d cook up something different.
Takigawa has now changed his status to that of an informant – to an extent, I’m surprised he even returned to the school and tried to maintain his charade. Even though I still think he’s actually stronger than a Basara whose limits remain uncertain, he has nevertheless been beaten, and bigger fish -like the guy who killed Mio’s parents- await. Tits and asses probably await too. Sorry to taint what would have otherwise been a wholesome, plot-focused and safe-for-work post. Have a Yuki.
Wow, I actually thought this would play out for two episodes. It should be noted they did cut out a major fanservice moment….that ointment Yuki left them, Mio was supposed to slather that all over her body and hump Basara to apply it on him (those manga pages looked like straight up hentai). Though that doesn’t really bother me that much cuz I don’t watch it for the fanservice.
Though I was surprised they left out the internal monologue in Basara’s head when he confronted Takigawa. That totally made the scene. Because in the manga version he was more calculated while here….IDK, I didn’t really feel it. Because in the manga, Basara remembered back to what the nurse told him about learning to choose his allies and then he realizes that if he blows Takigawa’s cover then he’ll just get replaced with someone even stronger. He states that if all of them had that hard enough of a time to defeat him then they wouldn’t stand a chance against a stronger replacement. That’s why Basara offered the truce, so that the current demon observer would be someone they could handle, which is a pretty smart more for a protagonist to make.
Yuki should have applied it on Basara herself. She’s not being assertive enough, dammit! But yeah, ultimately I don’t really mind that much. If they’re going to do fanservice, I’d like a bit more variety than just bath scenes.
Ah yes, I’d completely forgotten the nurse even existed. The anime Basara sort of voiced those thoughts out loud, but I agree it’d have been better if he’d kept them to himself.