Episode 5 Impression
A bit of a bridge episode this time. There was a lot of focus on Mariya and her efforts to win Godou’s heart, or at least become another part of his ever-growing harem. Unlike Erica and her constant lack of shame towards being all over Godou, Mariya’s the exact opposite and is being really conservative in her advances. I’m having a bit of trouble believing that Erica really does love Godou and isn’t after him for some other purpose, and this is even after Godou himself raised that point. The fanservice is nice, but the extent that Erica is going to is just overboard.
Mariya is much more innocent, and is going through the “schoolgirl in love” phase of making him boxed lunches and fangirling over the idea of being able to call him daily, which is something that’s been used in anime over and over. Even though her love is still probably linked to Godou’s identity as a Campione, it’s much less forced and more natural, making her appear less like a slut and more like someone who has a crush on him.
The only other interesting thing this ep was the revelation of a few new characters, the first being Salvatore Doni, Godou’s rival and best friend who also happens to be a Campione. To be honest I would have preferred to see their fight rather than a episode about Godou’s school life, but we may still get it sometime in the future. The other guy, Dejanstahl Voban, seems like a nasty piece of work, who Godou is completely right to want to avoid. Now that he’s captured Mariya though, he’ll play the hero once more to rescue her, and add Liliana to his harem along the way.
Episode 6 Impression
So Mariya actually has some history with this guy. There’s something about princess shrine maidens that I either missed or they’re not telling us about, especially with that flashback where lots of them were kidnapped by Voban and kept in a room for the purpose of awakening a god. One of those powers seems to be to see the Authorities that someone has (or that might just be Mariya) such as Voban having Osiris’ power, the Egyptian God of the Underworld. Even not knowing much about gods and foreign mythology, I know enough to tell that Osiris is fearsome, whose power will not make it easy for Godou to gain an upper hand. I think the dead spirits and stuff around the place were because of that Authority actually, reanimating the dead and all that.
As predicted, Godou was quick to challenge Voban in order to save Mariya, the side incentives being the havoc-bringing god that Voban would unleash, and also because Salvatore told him to. Unlike many of the other fights we’ve seen so far, Voban seems a good deal harder, possessing the title of “strongest Campione” as well as having secret dodgy abilities like shapeshifting. He’s also human, which means that Erica can’t use the kiss of knowledge (through the glass, without the glass) to let Godou pull out his huge golden sword. Not that anyone apparently knows anything about Voban in the first place.
- Sorry this is so late, by the way. I’ve lost a lot of motivation for Campione recently, since it’s lost that initial spark I was impressed by and has become so generic lately. Let’s see whether it picks up.