天下制覇

And now I fear Werk making a Naku Koro Ni Wars.

Impressions:

Mostly a very fun episode. Of course, Deen’s action leaves quite a bit to be desired, but they did do a good job getting across the point that Kyrie and Rudolf are not to be screwed with, and while it’s not really clear what happened to Belphegor, Rudolf managed to put a bullet through Bel, so he’s already a step above the servants. Kyrie also dropped some exposition on Battler’s past that may or may not end up being important eventually. The Siesta’s Love Love Attack was all sorts of silly, and while I question the need for yet more magical girls designed off of inanimate objects in the story, it probably doesn’t hurt either.

The last third of the episode was a bit of a decline. I did really like Battler’s testicles finally dropping and him standing up to Beatrice for her hypocrisy and as I said before, it adds some needed depth to their characters and relationship, but the chunk at the end of her and Ronove basically withdrawing from this round of the game and then the long peptalk segment absolutely decimated the momentum that the episode had going. Hideyoshi’s little witch noogie was especially terrible. After guns, demons, and uh… bunny girls… a noogie and some proselytization are not a welcome change of pace. Hopefully we’ll get more crazy and fewer noogies next week.

Brief Summary:

After Rosa and Maria’s bodies are found in the real world, Beatrice is feeling a bit hurt that Battler blames her for it. She tries to protest that she didn’t do it, but he reminds her of all the murders that she has more than happily claimed responsibility for and turns his back on her. Back in the real world, Eva’s losing her mind even more. Evatrice appears before her and declares that she’s become independent of her. Kyrie, Rudolf, and Hideyoshi form their own strike squad and set out to investigate. Evatrice will have nothing of this, so summons Belphegor and Leviathan to kill them.

However, Rudolf and Kyrie are surprisingly capable in combat and are easily able to hold the stakes off. Kyrie reveals that she’s got her own dark side that gives her strength, as she’s not Battler’s mother. Evatrice appears before Rudolf, but he wastes no time and tries to shoot her too. Belphegor jumps in front of her and takes the bullet instead. Kyrie rejoins them just in time for Evatrice to summon new killers, the Siestas. Rudolf and Kyrie try to retreat, but the Siestas combine their magic and shoot a bow that kills both of them in one shot. Hideyoshi finds them and tries to knock some sense into Evatrice, but she controls one of the dropped guns and shoots him in the back. Beatrice appears and tries again to convince Evatrice to stop the killing with the riddle solved, but Evatrice is going to do whatever she feels like.

In the metaworld, Ronove and Virgilia excuse themselves. Virgilia goes to a mopey mopey Beatrice and gives her a peptalk and reminds her who the real endless witch is.