I suppose I should have expected that they were going to stretch this out. Leohart (the usurper) has challenged the good guys to a tournament consisting of seven individual duels and for whatever reason (mainly to prevent a full-out civil war) the good guys have accepted. So they've travelled to Leohart's capital and spend a bunch of time preparing. The rest below the fold.

They're assigned rather comfortable lodgings, and Kurumi confirms that it isn't bugged or trapped in any way.

And since this is going to be the big show, they have an orgy ahead of time. This is Maria's magic; it'll make them all stronger.

Kurumi doesn't participate (and neither did I; I skipped it. Squick.)

So it's time for the show, and the announcer is a catgirl!

The show is being broadcast on the demon equivalent of TV. That's Maria's mother watching.

And this might be Leohart's older sister. She refers to herself as his oneesan but that may not actually imply a family relationship. The blurry guy in the background is named Gald and he attacked the good guys a couple of episodes ago, resulting in Basara cutting off his right arm.

Mio goes first. Her opponent summons a "heroic spirit", a giant like we saw in Gald's attack. Mio fires an energy bolt at it and makes a dent, but it heals. It's a special one which can regenerate.

So Mio vaporizes it. Easy victory, and the crowd is rather astounded (and scared).

Maria congratulates Mio for her win.

And she's the next competitor. Her opponent is Lars. Episode ends.

Lars is a loose cannon. He isn't hostile to Basara, but he's on the other side. He has the ability to make copies of himself, and I'm sure that's what's in the ring with Maria. I don't think he's going to throw the fight, but I do think he knows that Maria is stronger than he is, and the duplicate is going to get destroyed.

There are only six people in Basara's party, but the challenge was for 7. Who will be their seventh? I suspect it's going to be Ramsus, but it's possible it will be Basara's father. However, at the rate this is going it may be three episodes before we find out.

The series continues to be a mix of awesome and squick, but fortunately it's easy to skip the squick.

By the way, why does Hell have full cell coverage, including roaming agreements with Docomo? (And a high speed data link between Hell and Japan?)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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