天下制覇

Okay. I’m tired of dogs, lightning, and lightning dogs. Can someone use a new spell now?

Impressions:

Not a bad episode by any means, but a bit underwhelming for a number of reasons. First off, the animation budget continues to be low. It’s better than it has been for the past couple episodes where were 10-25% recycled footage, but I got more pleasure out of Luke’s little fake-out with Lyner at the start (laid down dozens of magic traps so that Lyner would overlook a simple grass foot-trap) than the entire fight with Lir. Mostly because it was just them shooting beams/dogs at dogs/beams. I do also appreciate this show’s penchant for dismemberment and the grisly deaths of side characters, but it’s starting to wear a bit thin. Once again, I remind you that Gastark and random soldiers have tortured, executed, maimed, and slaughtered a few dozen people in this show all the while laughing slightly more crazily than your average Alpha Stigma user. Meanwhile, total Alpha Stigma deaths? One squadron of enemy soldiers that had just killed all of Lyner’s friends.

The think that annoys me more though is that the status quo is now completely restored, and in particular, the way they let Lir just wander off at the end of the fight without even trying to stop him. Tiia’s recharged with Lyner’s magic and may or may not go back to eating people, and… uh… that’s it. The sum and total of what happened in these last four episodes then is "Sion gets more depressed" and "Claugh loses an arm." Otherwise, we’re in the exact same place that we were about four or five episodes ago. Lyner and Ferris have already had more than their fair share of "you’re not a monster" moments without adding another one onto the pile, and while I do enjoy Luke, he’s still Luke. 

And now the show will theoretically moving into its finale. Doing… what exactly? Other than perhaps pointing out to King Gastark that he employs the largest cadre of child torturers on this side of Apokolips, I’m really not sure this show has anywhere to go. Maybe if we’re lucky, Zexcs will pull out sword surfing again for the finale. Or would that be a bad end? This show simply feels like it’s simply going to up and end in a month with the tagline "To be continued… GO BUY THE NOVELS."

Preview:

Girls displaying themselves for market. Lyner displaying himself for market.