Why is this allowed?
Impression
Hey, it’s the first time Subaru’s spent an entire non-successful loop episode without dying! Is this supposed to foreshadow progress? Nah, of course not. Perish the thought. Much like how the world is apparently designed to operate in the way that works best for the ojou-sama with the squeezable tits, this series is most likely designed to operate in the way that works worst for Subaru. The number of new characters is surpassed only by the amount of future suffering Subaru will encounter. In fact, it’s probably already started and I’m just not aware of it yet. Although it’s also good that nothing seems to have happened so far, I wasn’t sure if I could take it. When I heard there was no Flying Witch last night, I died a little inside. I was actually on the lookout for a potential save point, but I couldn’t really pinpoint one – or rather, maybe it’s best to say that I don’t want to find one quite just yet. All the relationships he’s forging with various important people will no doubt come in handy in the future, and it’d be bad if they all reset. From a less optimistic perspective, he’s had no unfortunate incidents happen to him yet and so letting him save at this stage wouldn’t be maximising his suffering. You know how it is.
We’re transitioning to a larger-scale plot now, I suppose. Instead of an arc featuring Subaru and several other characters as he tries to save them by manipulating his surroundings in his favour, the events in this arc and the stage it’s set on all feels fundamentally different. The stakes are higher, and there’ll probably be more enemies. At the same time, there’ll be fewer things Subaru can do. He’s a servant boy of the king candidate everyone seems to dislike for reasons we now have a better grasp of – status will matter in the castle, at least a lot more than it did in the previous arcs, and it’s something Subaru has hardly any of. Nor can he get it due to his lack of both a lineage and combat power. In other words, the odds seem to be stacked against him more than they ever were. He’ll most likely have to rely on others as he’s done before, but can he?
Emilia in particular was rather odd this episode. I don’t know, she just felt strange. I would understand if she was just feeling particularly touchy about the whole royal selection thing, but she seemed extremely intent on keeping Subaru far away from her, for whatever reason. I know he’s very likely to get into some sort of trouble or do reckless things, but I was under the impression that there was a lot more trust between them than that, with him having saved her life multiple times and having gone on the daytoe with him in the village and everything else. Maybe it’s because she thinks the other candidates will be able to smell Satella on him? Subaru is, of course, also at fault. He followed her with the intention of saving her life (and admittedly being one of the most qualified people to ultimately do so, albeit only after a long period of suffering and through unorthodox means) but he promised not to, and broke that promise by turning up with Priscilla (I was about to type ‘big tits Yukarin ojou-sama’ but remembered her name in the end). I also have a feeling that he’s being reckless on purpose, in the full knowledge that, if he somehow dies, he can reset things. But still, it seemed quite out of character for Emilia to suddenly push Subaru away, regardless of the reason. When Reinhard heard that Emilia would be in the castle, he suspected that Subaru would be as well. But in reality, if it were up to Emilia, Subaru wouldn’t. Maybe there’ll be an explanation for this later on. And meanwhile, the less rational side of me doesn’t even care about all this and has her adorable pointy-eared hood as his first priority, and has spent the episode chanting ‘EMILIA-TAN A CUTE! A CUTE!’ over and over. Rem will understand. Rem has basically become me, except towards Subaru only.
Speaking of less rational things, it’s time to talk about something very important: who is best girl amongst these new characters. Anyone named Felix need not apply. I fell for the trap, god dammit. How was I supposed to know?! He was voiced by Hocchan! Why was this even allowed? They just designed a girl and called it a boy! Fuck them! This world is so cruel. If there exists anyone who can take steps to right the injustice that has been inflicted upon me, it’ll be CR. The cat puns are horrifying. I vaguely remember a similar thing from another series, but at any rate, whichever college student they employed to do all this, please stop. It’s not very funny, nya.
I liked the old Astrea guy though, he was cool. He’s a future ally for sure. Oh, another thing about allies – they’ll definitely be hard to come by for Subaru, because all these new characters are by definition already in factions other than Emilia’s. Even Reinhard – I’m sure he’ll help Subaru to an extent if asked, but when push comes to shove, he’ll act in Felt’s interests because Felt is his king candidate. Once Rom mentioned Felt and there was supposedly a final person who was qualified to become the dragon’s ‘priestess’, it all clicked even before she turned up. As for the others, it’d already be great if they just left Subaru alone. Maybe Priscilla will do him one favour in return for the apple, but that’s probably it.
Anyway. Best girls. I don’t know whether I want to include Felt as we’ve seen her before, but either way I have a strange attraction towards Priscilla(‘s boobs). It’s really weird. I know I’m supposed to love lolis and Reinhard is indeed a man of exquisite taste (why else would he support Felt) but… I don’t know. Maybe it’s a combination of her dress and her tits. As well as her holier-than-thou personality. And it’s all coming from Yukarin. That’s a kazoe yakuman, right there. I want her to step on me. That’s the best I can do to explain these feelings. It wasn’t even a particularly strong Yukarin voice this time, although I guess it’s because the typical Yukarin character is quite cutesy and she needed an arrogant tone for Priscilla. With Ueda Kana voicing the fluffy Kansai girl with the nice hat (tempered by years of lesbian army commander Hayate) all we needed was Mizuki Nana to complete the Nanoha set. It’s just that the OP and ED would suddenly have become Nana songs, and a couple of Nana inserts would have been thrown in for good measure. So on second thought, her absence is fine too. As for the green girl, Crusch, she’d be uh… fun at parties? I suppose?
Um… can I root for both Emilia and Felt? Or at the very least pray that they can come out of this as allies/friends rather than enemies? (it goes without saying that I want them both to come out of it ALIVE…)
“all we needed was Mizuki Nana to complete the Nanoha set. It’s just that the OP and ED would suddenly have become Nana songs, and a couple of Nana inserts would have been thrown in for good measure. So on second thought, her absence is fine too.”
Well of course. If you’re going to get someone with Nana’s level of talent in your series, you bloody well use her. On the other hand that could change the mood… I have by no means followed every release she’s made, but most of the ones I’ve heard aren’t as suited to a series that’s built on despair, failure, and hopelessness like this one.
You can root for them both! I’m not sure whether there’ll be any friendliness between them (Felt did steal her insignia and cause a lot of trouble for her) but I can see the other three girls being not particularly welcoming towards her and so she might develop a kinship with Felt. Or maybe Subaru could bring them together.
Nana is wonderful (especially in Symphogear and Nanoha) but there can be too much of a good thing, you know? And her popularity is already such that she’s one of the few singer-seiyuus to be known even by members of the public who know nothing about anime, it’s nice to have more instances of what’s happening with ED2 for Re:Zero (with Takahashi Rie singing it).
And so we managed to put 1 volume into 2 episodes but I guess it was the right decision considering the rest oft the volumes to come.
You are wondering why Emilia wants some distance from Subaru but lets take a look(from her perspective). They barely know each other (4 days only, even though 1 month has passed since that event), everytime subaru is literally getting into trouble and almost dies for her sake. This is probabably the most important event in her life and subaru has always broken the promise to emilia (dont do something reckless and be safe ) which means he is losing her trust in him everytime and can’t blame her this time either since she says he should wait but ends up coming in and making some problems already.
Have some side-info: Remember the small scene where subaru flew away from the carriage? It happened because he left the bubble (divine blessing of the earth dragon) which comes from thebeast pulling the carriage.
Which leads to the fact that Divine Blessing are abilities that everything can be born with, though they are extremely rare but some animal species and royal bloodlines have them.
Remember Felt? She had the blessing of the wind which is the reason she could move so extremely fast.
Oh and we dont want to forget our Reinhard alias Mr.OP, starting from Arrow avoidance, which means he can’t be hit by projectiles and is the reason for why Elsa’s sword made such a weird movement around him the moment she threw it at him. He is pretty much little jesus but whatever. (Even saitama would have some problems with me xD)
Side-info on Priscilla: Under 20 but married 8 times already but they all died and she can manipulate fire
But damn Ferris.. every anime needs a trap but this is too much lol.
Wilhelm van Astrea the Sword demon. OP= relative to Reinhard.
I almost wanted to reveal something because there was already a small hint but i believe they will rearrange it somehow.
Sorry for so much side-info -.-
Are Episodes 12 and 13 one volume?! Wow. White Fox really can be pragmatic when need be. I’m still waiting to hear the OP.
I was going to defend Subaru, but after watching Episode 13 I have nothing to say in his defence. Maybe Emilia could have sat him down and explained to him why this ceremony was so important, or just generally involved him in her affairs to a greater extent than she has done (which is mostly what he was after, in order to ensure no harm would come to her) but yeah, Subaru fucked up.
I’ve seen (part of) the list of Reinhard’s skills, it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s like he’s the MC. Can anything even kill him if the first attack (and every single attack thereafter) is guaranteed to never hit him? And no worries for the side info, it’s really helpful! LN adaptations inevitably cut stuff out, so it’s helpful to have some of the skipped details as I haven’t read ahead.