天下制覇

Worst porn ever.

Impressions:

Eh. Blatant filler that was just bizarre for the first two thirds and got somewhat amusing towards the end. If they had spent more than three minutes or so in the over-the-top silliness, it probably would have been much much better, but instead, they decided to string along the initial joke of Gourry marrying the mermaid for half the episode. They didn’t even bother to throw in even a hint that there might be anything related to the plot here either. From start to finish, it was painfully obvious filler. At least make them wonder if they were thinking like this because of that stupid pot they were searching for or something. It just didn’t even feel like they tried.

They did manage to hit just about every bad porn melodrama setup from being thrown into a foreign family, to the magical car crash, to the magical illness, etc etc, but everything was crammed into the last few minutes. Spread out the silliness more if you’re going to make a silly episode. I am rather glad that Poko is continuing his role of silent head adornment. I think all his lines this week were either "You’re not honest at all" or "Are you sure that’s okay?"

Oh well. Back to the plot and villains next week.

Miss Mermaid realizes that it’s coming.

In an inn, Lina’s berating Nama as usual when Miss Mermaid comes in. She comes right up to Gourry and introduces her two children. The boy jumps on him, calling him poppa.

We flash through a montage of Gourry living with his new merfamily. The boy loves him, the daughter avoids him. As he works at the forge, his mind goes back to Lina.

She’s still at the inn, eating her anger away. When the rest of the party starts asking her if this is okay, she turns her rage to Nama again. She’s quickly distracted by food and asks Gourry his opinion… but he’s not there. They decide to go get him back.

Gourry’s wife leaves as he keeps working at the forge and the party comes in.

He introduces them to his son as his dear friends, but his daughter blows him off entirely. They try to convince him to continue the journey, but he apologizes and tells them that he has familial responsibilities now.

A bit confused and dejected, the party leaves. Poko asks Lina if this is really okay, prompting more Lina wrath. As they go, Miss Mermaid returns home.

She pretty quickly reignites Lina’s wrath by talking about how wonderful Gourry is. Lina’s not about to let this stand. Amelia starts spazzing out because now it’s a battle between women and the only thing better than a heroic story is a melodrama merodorama. Miss Mermaid leaves with a laugh, which Nama dutifully repeats and gets her head elbowed of for. Lina declares war.

A merman steps out from behind the tree and asks them to listen to his story. Nearby, Gourry’s daughter watches them and falls in love with Zel.

Post-eyecatch, we hear the story of the merman. He courted and won Miss Mermaid, but after gambling problems which turned into drinking problems, she left him. He wants their help to win her back. Amelia gets even more fired up and Poko can’t resist stirring Lina’s pot a bit either. Of course, this would work for them too because it’d free up Gourry, so the melodrama merodorama battle is on.

Zel excuses himself. He doesn’t want any part in messing with people’s relationships. When he goes outside, Gourry’s daughter leaps onto him and declares him her destined love.

Back at Miss Mermaid’s, Lina and the merman show up to try to break up the semi-happy couple. She’s firmly attached to Gourry though, so the merman declares that he and Lina are madly in love to try to make her jealous. Gourry seriously levels a scowl at Lina. Needing to up the conflict, Nama rushes in and declares that she’s pregnant with Gourry’s baby.

Lina kicks her head off at the ridiculousness and starts yelling at her. The domestic squabble starts getting worse when his son yells at Gourry that he’s going to run away and join a gang. Then Zel returns with the daughter firmly attached to his leg. She declares their love while Zel helplessly looks on. Miss Mermaid slaps her daughter for the forbidden love, because in reality, Zel and her are siblings.

Gourry wonders if it’s true, getting backhanded by Lina for his stupidity. The daughter runs off with Poko and Amelia in chase. Just then, a runaway horse runs over Poko, increasing the melodramatic merodoramatic tragedy. The daughter comes running back, but collapses in a coughing fit. About then, the son comes back full of attitude and with a wig.

From there, the merman pulls out a knife and tries to rush Miss Mermaid, the daughter wants her final moments to be in the embrace of Zel, Poko’s run over by a runaway dragon, etc etc etc. The ground starts rumbling and Miss Mermaid again says that it’s coming.

She grabs Gourry and tells him to come to the ocean with her. The rest of the party extricates themselves from their fish and the merman slaps Miss Mermaid to make her release Gourry as a tidal wave engulfs the city.

In the aftermath, Nama explains that even so often, a tidal wave takes all the merfolk back to the sea, and they go insane just before it hits. Lina yells at her for not mentioning it sooner.

Gourry’s a bit sad to lose a family, but Lina reassures him that there’s still plenty of time as they all fly off into the sunset.

Preview:

Hi-mi-tsu.