Whelp, at least this episode was better than the first one. Though it was mostly because it stuck to the manga’s story rather than making an entire episode surrounding this one off, random child (I still can’t believe they did that). And while the overall episode was better, there were still things that bugged me here and there. But I’m not even sure if A-1 could have done it better to be honest.
We’re finally in the arc where so many revelation bombs were dropped and I’m excited just to see certain things play out heh. In any case, the scene with the fairies suddenly putting on a celebration was… definitely lackluster compared to how it was portrayed in the manga, which was honestly to be expected. There was a lot going on and just seeing the cheaply made fairies kind of just statically fly across the screen reminded me a lot of the Small World ride in Disneyland. Not to mention they kind of overdid it with the flower petals. It was as if they were trying to hide the fact that not that much animation was going on, which could have definitely been a reason. Also the shot compositions weren’t that great compared to the more interesting and dynamic shots in the manga. However, I am happy they at least kept Gloxinia dancing amongst the fairies in the background. I actually missed it on my first watch through.
When it comes to fight animation, A-1 at least put in effort if episode 19 in the second season had anything to say about it. However, when it comes to the “lesser” scenes, I have noticed that they’ll resort to basically just taking the still from the manga and just move the camera or have very little animation going on around the character. A very cheap effect but is sadly used a lot, which hasn’t changed since the studio shift if not used more so.
Anyways, enough of my complaining. I do really like how Gloxinia just comes in, makes everyone have a dance party and just disappears without a trace after kidnapping King and Diane. This boy be slick! Gloxinia is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Though my heart did go out to Gerharde due to knowing just how much that one little moment with Gloxinia meant to her without her even realizing it.
The fight between King and Diane against Gloxinia and Drole was decent. At least they were done mildly better than in the first episode. Not to mention we actually get to see RED BLOOD. Even if it turned white when Gloxinia slashed King in the back. (And then it becomes white again when facing the demons le sigh) This series is becoming a weird mish mash of censored and non censored blood. It’s really weird.
Non surprisingly, both King and Diane get overpowered by the former fairy and giant kings. But I think the most surprising thing is that instead of simply killing them, both Gloxinia and Drole decide to train them to allow them to be able to fight against the demon clan. Both of them actually fought against the demon clan initially, to which Meliodas’s statement of them being former allies is finally made clear. However, in the midst of the war, they were forced to make a choice that lead them to becoming part of the demon clan. What those choices are remain to be seen, but both are curious if what they chose were the right decisions and are leaving it up to their descendents to show them if they were wrong or right. It’s interesting that they would forego their place in as the Ten Commandments out of curiosity after the beat down from Meliodas. It almost feels like this decision came out of nowhere. However, this turn around definitely made them very interesting to me. Especially since it seems like the choices made could have set these two on a very different path. But I suppose that’s life. One decision could take you one way, but the other decision could bring you somewhere completely different.
King and Diane both agree to take the test and are hilariously sent back 3000 years into the past in Gloxinia and Drole’s bodies, but retain King and Diane’s voices and eyes. Hearing Diane’s voice come out of Drole’s mouth and seeing her body language in his body is hilarious. However, I think the biggest revelation in this episode was finding out that Elizabeth was part of the goddess clan. As to how this is possible will remain a mystery until later. But man, I really wish they did not freaking drop a rather blunt hint towards this in the previous episode. Both of those scenes shouldn’t have been even shown yet so I’m a bit miffed by that. The episode ends with the showing of an army of lower demons attacking an inhabited valley and the former Piety of the Ten Commandments attacking King and Diane.
Unfortunately, I think I’ll have to drop my coverage on this series. While this episode was way better than the first episode, I’m just not enjoying blogging about this series since I end up just complaining about one too many things. Especially when I keep comparing the scenes to how they were in the manga. I really wanted to cover this season since I was so hyped over the previous season. But the biggest reason is that I just can’t keep up with covering four series, especially when Radiant comes out on the same day. So at the end of the day, I think I’m better off just watching this season rather than blogging about it.
