Haha, yeah. It’s a big giveaway that something is adapted from a Japanese Light Novel when the title is a full on description. Oshi No Ko and Blue Lock are also a manga adaptations, so also normal titles. Fun times!

Anyway, I’ll definitely have to check out the manga now!

Oof, what a weird episode. The pacing, battle tactics, animation, etc all felt off.

I did like this exchange though:

@rikka@ani.social

Ars giving him the toy spoke volumes without using words. It makes his appearance later feel very natural and in-character.

But the battle itself felt very un-natural. Telling people to get in a circle formation to counter the cavalry… no, that’s what pikes are for. And it wasn’t like the cavalry was a surprise; they knew the castle had cavalry.

“Hey great strategist, should we get some pikes? You know, the most basic military infantry tactic against horses?”

“Nah, just stand in a circle with swords. They’ll NEVER see that coming!”

Later:

“Retreat!”

“What about our infantry?”

“They have horses now!”

“Uh… where were we keeping all these horses? And if they have horses why are they infantry and not cavalry?”

“Pssh… i dunno.”

Even Later:

“The enemy cavalry has speed hacks and can get in front of us!”

“It’s because your horses have to carry all that heavy armor”

“But… your troops also wear armor.”

“I know what I said…”

I feel this probably made a lot more sense in the light novel but translating that into animation didn’t quite work out. Speaking of animation, some of it was bad enough to be distracting. I know that horses are notoriously difficult to get right in anime but this wide-angle shot felt especially off:

If the foot soldiers had just retreated normally without magically summoning horses from their horse pocket, then the enemy cavalry catching up would not only make more sense, but would be more dramatic when they split the retreating army in two rather than nipping at their heels (as would be expected). Maybe we fix the animation struggles too since people are marching instead of horses bouncing around like they’re on pogo-sticks.

I would also have liked to see more of the hostage rescue. “Oh no, it’s the enemy.” “We’re here to rescue you whether you like it or not. Check out my knife. It’s a Benchmade.” “Oh, okay, we’ll go with you.”

Oh nice. I like this silly and wholesome slice-of-life meets fantasy anime. And it doesn’t even have a stupid name like, “That One Time I Got Sold to a Demon by my Wicked Parents but the Demon is actually now my Loving Grandfather… As Long As I Don’t Let Anyone Know I’m Actually A Human As They’ll Kill Me For Sure!”

That was a thrilling race, and this episode captured that suspense well.

Yeah, I think I would agree with you there. The race as a whole is absolutely thrilling. This episode wasn’t BAD by any means, just nothing surprising happens. But hey, that’s racing. And the conclusion is going to be mad epic.

No, women don’t think of anything except how to please their men… :-/ 😒

I remembered your words from last week the ENTIRE time. Bechdel Test Failure XD

Felt like an overall weak episode without two much happening. The Porsche GT3 drops a spot. The Ferrari catches up. Beckenbaur retakes the lead. Nothing really surprising there.

Some of the more interesting things happen outside the racing. As such, I’ll just leave this pic of the Angels here.

@rikka@ani.social

This episode is basically all just setup for the race conclusion next episode. We see that in both the episode’s title and the checkered flag in the preview. While this episode was a bit of a bust, next week’s should be epic.

4 minutes into the episode and we get the scene I was waiting for… Bilac totally freaking out at the Gold Crystal Scorpion Parts

One picture isn’t nearly enough to convey how shocked Bilac was. She actually dies from shock and now Sunraku doesn’t have an ancient craftsman anymore, hence the “Despair” in the episode title.

@rikka@ani.social

Okay, just kidding. Bilac’s fine. The aforementioned “Despair” is because Sunraku cannot equip any of the sci-fi armor in the Inventoria due to Lycagon’s curse mark.

It makes me wonder if Bilac might make Sunraku a sci-fi helmet or something. Either way, Sunraku is super bummed out about not being able to use sci-fi suits in SLF. To get over it, he does the next best thing: plays another game with Sci-fi suits: Armored Core 9 Nephilim Hollow.

For an isekai, it’s amazing how many different games we see aside from the titular Shangri-La Frontier. I’m sure some piece of information from Nephilim Hollow will become relevant to SLF.

Be sure to watch the SLF Minis after the credits (there’s two). They’re both good, although the second one reminds me of a joke from How I Met Your Mother.

Recalling Subaru’s arguably lowest point right before the speech was brilliant

I liked that too. I feel like Julius was saying, “you talked a bunch of shit but then actually made it happen.”

I thought they were going to bring in bard girl to sing and lift everyone’s spirits, but I thought this worked better.

I was thinking that too initially, but you’re right. This definitely worked better. At first his speech sounded… terrible. But then I realized it was actually perfect for Subaru. He’s an ordinary person with few redeeming qualities. He has nothing special going for him except Return by Death. He was basically saying, “I’m a weak and pathetic person but because there are people I care about I will fight and I will win. B-T-Dubs, I also killed a Sin Archbishop. Did I mention I’m weak and pathetic? What’s your excuse?”

What happened to “Don’t tell the Sin Archbishop your name?”

I’m guessing Gluttony has to know the name and face of the person to eat their existence. Subaru’s name is already well known so just saying it again shouldn’t be a problem.

Only ONE female character on the poster? Seems suspicious.

I forgot how amazing that original scene was. And this is freaking HILARIOUS and AMAZING. I can’t wait for the fansubs and the official dub.

It’s funny because you can tell when an anime is from a Japanese light novel or not based on the length of the title.

Solo-Leveling: Korean Light Novel

True Beauty: Korean Webtoon

Blue Lock: Japanese Manga

A Sign of Affection: Japanese Manga

Oshi No Ko: Japanese Manga

Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends: Japanese Light Novel

Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside: Japanese Light Novel

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Japanese Light Novel

IIRC it’s because the dominant Japanese light novel website doesn’t do descriptions well so the authors make the title the description.

A few tried to have a normal title AND a description in the title.

Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells: Japanese Light Novel

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest: Japanese Light Novel

I see catgirls, I like. I’m a simple man.

Most of the episode is the fight between Kinohara (in prototype gen 5 mecha armor) and Gram.

@rikka@ani.social

We learn a few important bits of information here. First, Kinohara cannot hack Gram. I’ve long suspected it, but this is further proof that Gram, like Veltol, does not have a Familia. Second, only Gram knows about Veltol’s ultimate power trump card.

Marcus continues to be evil just for the sake of being evil and lists off a bunch of faceless immortals that were previously sacrificed to the Immortal Furnace. He also apparently sent mecha-troops to kill both Gram and Kinohara for extra evil points.

The after credits scene has Marcus tossing Machina into the Immortal Furnace. You know, because apparently Spartan-kicking immortals into the furnace is all that is required to use them as fuel. Machina actually does a pretty sweet little speech where she imparts her last words towards Veltol in her mind before the aforementioned Demon Lord saves her at the last possible moment.

It’s barely going to be episode 7 and we’re already getting the showdown between Marcus and Veltol. It really makes me wonder what’s going to happen next. Is there some bigger bad waiting in the shadows after Marcus is defeated? Does Veltol have to clean up the mess Marcus leaves behind? Does Marcus escape to exact some ultimate doomsday evil plot? Stay tuned and FIND OUT!

Glad to see Hikaru has some new bodyguards, but they don’t seem all that more helpful than what he already had in terms of… anything tbh.

His new bodyguards are comical. I found it funny when the leader of ARMS was like, “I can’t have you helping… you’re a civilian.” And I was just like, “And how are all these other misfits any different?”

I hadn’t really thought about it, but if the Mecha-ude can’t normally move without a human it’s extremely unclear how they ever lasted in their own world.

Not that the story makes much sense at all, but the best interpretation I have for this is that Arbitrium (or whatever it’s called) existed naturally on their world but the Mecha-Ude eventually consumed it all and were unable to make more. Humans produce their own Arbitrium in excess so they’re able to give it to Mecha-Ude that derize with them.

But then Alma comes along and breaks all that by being able to make his own Arbitrium somehow.

Feels like a whole lot of nothing happens this episode. Although I wasn’t expecting a Chunibyo with a Chaingun.

@rikka@ani.social

Alma recovered his memories after the fight with Amaryllis which causes him to have an mental health crisis so he abandons Hikaru. And by the way, Alma has magically acquired the ability to operate on his own now by getting his memories back.

We get a little backstory that shows Alma and Fist with the Kagami brothers. They try to wake up Ordela only for things to go horribly wrong as it starts attacking everyone. Real Master Hand from Smash Bros vibes.

In the process of shutting down Ordela’s rampage, Yakumo dies. Alma gets PTSD and goes dormant.

Back in the present, Alma gets noogies from Jun. It’s really important for the plot. Trust.

Hikaru gets a pep-talk from Aki and decides he’s going to help Alma. Episode ends with the big bad trying to open Ordela again.