Once again the Drifters are on a siege to free a subjugated race from the oppressive hands of the Orte Empire! Of course now they have black powder this battle becomes very quickly pointless. I sincerely believe after watching 10 episodes of Drifters that Kouta Hirano has a great love for simply showing the power that modern inventions, or even only minutely more modern inventions than a certain time period, have over the past. All of Drifters really has simply served as a show of power to set up the final show down between the Drifters and the Ends- but really the long term effects are more meaningful in terms of their effect on the fantasy world all the races inhabit. It’s always entertaining to see things get blown up, but ultimately the things that make this show the most interesting are the interactions between characters.
And about that: those interactions are still suffering from monotonous character humor. I have voiced before my concerns that the interactions between all the characters can be a little stale at times. Drifters animation is simply too heavily lined, bolded, and emotive to switch over to thin lined funny backgrounded caricatures for every joke. The best execution of a joke for episode 10 happened very simply when one of Count Saint-Germi’s henchmen shouted while in the normal animation that he would not be defeated unless a boy with a ponytail and bangs over one eye showed up. Then Yoichi shows up and that’s when they switch animations, it worked because the joke was made while in the typical animation style. Even though he had a funny expression, the animation stayed up to a higher level of quality. The chibis wouldn’t be so annoying if they would just exist within the spectrum of the actual universe. These jokes are funny, but they’re much more funny when I can still have the context of “Wow, Oda and Toyohisa, two historical figures, are fighting while surrounded with elves and remnants of shit as they try to recreate black powder so they can take over an empire Hitler recreated in a fantasy world. What a cool joke during this time of absolute juxtaposition!” See?! Way better! Much more of an entertaining idea!
Despite my complaints the show does remain moderately enjoyable. In a contrast to the Drifters slapstick preparation humor we see the Black King actively subdue a bronze dragon and then watch 
as his minions begin to take his scales off of his body for weapons and armor. Well, shit. The Drifters might have modern day elements but we’re literally going to see a clash of fantasy and science, so I am extra excited for that. On top of it Olminu actively shows she has skills so despite my disgruntlement that the Drifters have no real women from history, they definitely have women from the fantasy world who are even acknowledged as the best at what they do. Even if they make tons of Boobinu jokes, whatever. I’m choosing to ignore it. On top of it we’re seeing Rasputin, Anastasia, and the newly pissed of Jeanne de Arc. I love how, I’m so sorry, icey Anastasia is to everyone. I’m also intrigued as to the nature of Rasputin because to be an End one has to be betrayed, so I’m wondering if they’re taking an actually historic route with Rasputin. Will he actually be a loyal Russian who womanizes? I dunno, but he sure does love to tease Anastasia and I’m not about that life.
Back in ‘dwarf saving’ story arc we see the dwarves and elves begin to form a respectability with each other. The dwarves are awesome and fought to the very end, and Toyohisa showed just how Japanese he is by beheading the Lord of the stronghold when he surrendered. It’s such a European idea to just go free and it was hilarious to see that idealism clash with Toyohisa’s idea of what a Lord is. On top of it the Dwarves are totally capable of making 8-10 muskets so Oda’s. . . making this army freakin’ terrifying. To top it all off Saint Germi shows up and declares he wants to help end the Orte Empire in one fell swoop in order to ease the transition very quickly. I was expecting him to default but the concept of his strategem suggests he is actually a capable ally. Also, Hitler confirmed.
But seriously, would it be so hard to show us just ONE fight that lasted more than half an episode? I want an epic conclusion, or at least an epic cliffhanger!
Oki