This episode was even better than the first one. (And Crunchyroll is simulcasting it, beginning this week.)

All our expectations about battles in Fronyard are based on our experiences from the first series. But those battles were not typical. There were a lot of them, but none of them were normal, for reasons I don't want to mention.

This battle is the norm. This is how they're all supposed to be. It's supposed to be fun, and it clearly is. No one on either side is taking it overly seriously. They're working hard, but "It's just a game." The stars are all competing, but they're performing too. Lots of trash talk for the cameras and flamboyant moves. And both sides stop in the middle for a lunch break.

At which point Leo and Nanami joined Millefiore and Shinku and Becky for lunch. Which was genuinely awesome.

Before that, it's apparently expected that the stars are going to have a lot of battles to the finish. Nanami and Shinku end up fighting, but the result is inconclusive because Vert and Rico interfere. Shinku and Nanami both lose their weapons and armor, and Nanami is down to something she says isn't her underwear, but which might as well be.

And she's in good humor, and she starts posing for the cameras. Shinku is totally scandalized.

I think Nanami has figured out the rule: cute girl stars lose their clothes; everyone else turns into a fur ball. So if she's like that, it means that the magic has decided that she's worthy of it -- and to be fair, she is. It's actually something of a compliment. But she's looking good.

I watched this on Crunchyroll, so I'll have to post frame grabs later once I get a reasonable download.

Kuuberu does show up with such force as is available to her, and formally declares a kidnap of Becky under the rules. That was a surprise, too; she's crashing the battle, but she isn't spoiling it for anyone. Millefiore and Leo both welcome her and accept the change.

So Galette and Biscotti ally to rescue Becky. And we get a bunch of neat teamups. Shinku and Nanami team up, for one thing. Shinku shows Nanami how he materializes the Tornado, and Nanami tries the same thing and ends up with her magic skates -- which work really well. And the two of them take on Kuuberu's guard captain, her equivalent of Eclair. (But I bet Nanami's skates are limited to working on water. Shinku's Tornado works on land, too.)

Meanwhile, Eclair and Rico have teamed up with the re-equipped Genoise. Rico and Vert combine for a bombardment attack on a Pastillage formation, and Eclair and Jaune are out front protecting the group from incoming magical attacks. Noir is in the rear; her forte is close fighting, and they hadn't closed yet.

Bernard and Roland were fighting each other when the Pastillage flying mage squadron showed up. An incoming bombardment was aimed specifically at them. Roland puts up an energy shield, and Bernard fires a huge monshouhou back at them and knocks most of them out of the sky.

I think the coolest team up was Leo and Brioche riding next to one another, but we never saw them engage.

While all this was going on, Kuuberu was using the time to "seduce" Becky. What she was doing was to try to convince Becky to become Pastillage's hero, and to accept one of Pastillage's magic rings.

Becky eventually does so, and then we got what I think was one of the most elaborate transformation decks I've ever seen. Some parts of it were... rather erotic approaching pornographic, and I don't mean nudity as such. (What in hell is that thing doing between her thighs?) A lot of different art and animation styles were used in it. It was bizarre. I don't quite understand everything we saw.

But afterwards, Becky had her flying broomstick and her new costume, and was about to enter the battle on the side of Pastillage.

Which is rather odd, since the goal for the Biscotti/Galette alliance was to rescue Becky herself. I wonder what the next episode will bring us?

This episode was action from one end to the other. I didn't mention some of the things that happened before Kuuberu showed up. For instance, Eclair and Yukikaze challenged Leo to a battle, which she accepted. The result was a win for Leo. Eclair and Yukki got their weapons and armor destroyed by Leo's energy blast, but they didn't lose their clothes.

In fact, no one got totally MCSA'ed this time. The closest was Nanami in her not-underwear, and she sure didn't look embarassed by it.

What we didn't see was a fight between Gaul and Shinku. I guess when Nanami showed up, Gaul let her have the battle. After all, for the spectators a hero-versus-hero fight is special.

I'm doing this stream-of-consciousness, so that's why I'm skipping around. Kuuberu told Becky that she wasn't yet ruler of Pastillage. She's in training to become ruler, and she looked up to Millefiore and Leonmichelle, who were rulers, and admired and envied them, and aspired to be like them. Kuuberu said that Becky was the same, looking up to Shinku and Nanami and admiring and envying them, too, and aspiring to be like them.

That conversation between them was interesting; fast as it was, I found it believeable that Kuuberu could convince Becky to become hero of Pastillage. Mercurius (her ring) better be of help to her, since it looks like she's going to have to take on both Shinku and Nanami in the next episode.

Anyway, this episode was amazingly fun. And I think I have an inkling of where this story is going. This is going to be coming-of-age for Becky and Kuuberu, as each of them achieve their dream of equaling their friends.

UPDATE: Turns out that Shinku's magic is fire. Nanami's magic is water. And Becky's magic is air.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:11 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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