Impression
Sora, you are truly a man amongst men.
I’m not exactly sure what that was… but it was most definitely NOT chess, despite all the chess imagery throughout both Disboard and the OP. Okay, let’s give Kurami a bit of credit – it started off as something akin to chess, but the very notion of having moving chess pieces you give commands to (a la Harry Potter) does indicate that the game is not going to be anything conventional, and everyone there knew that. Except probably Steph 😀 In a world where wording and semantics are everything, I found it weird that Kurami didn’t happen to specify more on what she and Sora could or couldn’t do, beyond saying that they have a will of their own and will respond to commands. Though I suppose that’s what she wanted, really – saying anything more than that would start to give away just how much freedom they had with the pieces. By restricting Shiro to playing actual chess while she could do literally anything she wanted, Kurami nearly managed to win – and in the end it was her secret brainwashing gimmick which allowed her to maintain the advantage.
If they had been playing chess, Shiro would have won – hell, she even beat Tet in a fair game. But it wasn’t chess at all – it was a game of strategic warfare that just happened to use chess pieces and vaguely follow the layout of a chess match (e.g. winning involves successfully killing the king). In fact, it was almost like seeing one of the shogi games in Tonari no Seki-kun! I thought it was already pretty radical to have the pieces refuse to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, so it was amazing watching Sora completely turn the tide of battle by completely tearing down the boundaries of what chess could possibly ever be. “In a real war, what fool waits for their enemy’s ‘turn’?” he says. His speeches were both hilarious and awe-inspiring, and I agreed with every word of what he said. When Imanity looks back at this bit of their history, they’ll worship the very thing that facilitated their rise to greatness – their queen’s kawaii loli power. This guy knows what he’s talking about.
After all, loli is love. Loli is life.
LOLI IS JUSTICE.
DAIJOUBU.
They should rename this show No Loli No Life. I bet Kurami doesn’t stand a chance any more – screw conventional charisma, leadership and potential, they have Shiro! The kawaii imouto loli shall be the foundation upon which Disboard’s new society is built, and it will be beautiful.
Kurami’s motives are still enshrouded in mystery – while she was definitely lying while trying to persuade Sora and Shiro, I don’t think Sora’s perception of things is entirely accurate either. The only aspect that can be confirmed is that Kurami’s indeed been getting help from an elf this entire time. The elf doesn’t seem to be in control of things at all, and is instead working closely with Kurami instead of masterminding her actions – which makes me question Sora’s assumption that she’ll be installed as a puppet king. It’s more like she’s being helped out of the elf’s own free will, and there’s no guarantee that Kurami has the backing of Elvengarde as a whole. Then again, it’s not like she’s siding with Imanity either – rather, she seems like something in between, acting as a free agent with her own personal agenda. I’m actually surprised the game still hasn’t ended, although she’s getting more flustered with Sora’s craziness. I almost expected Kurami to become another one of his lovestruck deredere slaves by the end of the episode. Guess that’ll have to wait till next week!
The awesome quotient was high in this episode. Sora nearly fell into the same trap he caught Steph in in the Janken match by not confirming the rules ahead of time, but fortunately he managed to figure things out in time.
Shiro maintains her reign as loli of the season, despite various attempst by other challengers to take the throne. Cute is justice indeed! 😀