- Genre : Fantasy, Adventure, action, political
- Studio: A-1 Pictures
As promised, I am keeping up with my Grancrest reviews because Reasons! This show is a roller coaster. Every time I’m about to give up on it, it turns around and offers up…potential. I can’t really say it’s lived up to any of it yet but, hey, you gotta give the kid a chance, right?
It’s one thing to take a country, it’s a very different thing to hold on to it. It seems this is a lesson MiLza (I am never letting that go) is going to have to learn sooner rather than later. The ghost of Altik is threatening to have it’s vengeance as we see Villar’s remaining allies band together to form the treaty of Altik.
I really like this move on a plot level. It’s a smart way to bring together all our pertinent players (we didn’t see the tattoo lady, lord Kittensworth or Sister Homewrecker, but a lot of the important characters from earlier episodes were brought back in a natural and organic matter. I was terrified that they were about to introduce a couple of dozen new lords to fill Villar’s void.
I was very happy to see that the production execs of this show are still reading my blog, since Marinne’s hot mage dude is back and will apparently have an ongoing role to play as MiLza’s advisor. Hopefully he’ll defect, if not I shall morn him!
It seems the Villar family is genetically averse to leadership as the brother also refuses to take over the newly formed alliance, pushing the responsibility over on Lassic, who’s earning the investment made in his character in the early episodes by becoming a pretty consistent clutch for the narrative. He seems a bit too one note to become a truly interesting player but at least he is rational and reliable in a plot full of characters that seem to act randomly.
We also see Theo’s return to protagonist form. After stepping back for quite some time, it seems he is now ready to reclaim center stage and prove himself to both fictional lords and the audience as the Big Fat Hero that he is.
The latter half started showing signs of slippage as a meeting between Marrine and Theo had them both heavyhandedly declaring their values and motivations. This was both slightly insulting, as we would have figured it out without the exposition dump and useless, as they were really just repeating notions that have been drummed into us since episode 1.
It did however allow for a tender moment between Siluca and Her dad which was unexpected and very endearing.
Theo remains unusually bold in his feelings towards Siluca but seems to be using them towards a tactical advantage. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but could we be seeing the first spots on out leading man’s otherwise pure white morality? I sure hope so. Theo desperately needs a character trait other than “Hero” and “Green Hair” to flesh him out.
All in all, the episode wasn’t bad. As I said it went a bit down in the second half and when they started mentioning the Rossinis and Sistina, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the introduction of yet more people to remember. I think we may have heard of them before (the Rossini family that is, Sistina is a territory), but I really couldn’t tell you anything about them.
This said, if they stop adding characters right now, and start working on what they have, the narrative is not in a bad spot. There are many opportunities available. We’ve carved out two clear sides and a few tricky players that could go either way to sway the tide and keep us on our toes. I wouldn’t call the show fantastic but it actually managed to turn around a bit and that’s something I wouldn’t have bet on.
Unfortunately, this boost does not extend to production values. The little CG there was, was absolutely cringey. Voice acting remained ok but unremarkable and visually this was one of the most inconsistent episodes to date, with art quality going way down randomly, even in scenes that barely had any movement or distance.
I could forgive this, after all I adore KonoSuba despite some pretty pathetic animation at times, but peppered throughout the show were some stunning moments that remind you the production is capable of beautiful visuals and makes the bad ones that much more frustrating.
This is odd, I don’t have to do predictions so I’m not sure how to end the post.
Um….bye?
