So, I’ve come to actually enjoy this show despite its flaws. While there’s some obvious issues with character development, how the story uses technology to attempt to move the narrative and progress our main character Yuuto, we’re getting some good combat scenes, some progression in the major cast, and our enemies.
Episode 4 starts with Yuuto going to a city once ruled by the Horn Clan, which prompts Linnea to appear–because she wanted to check on the city. While using her as a plot device to make sure the main character isn’t hated/shunned/killed is useful to progress the story, the entirety of this seemed forced.
- Yuuto goes to city and tries to get them to use crop rotation–a new idea to them–because he needs the harvest
- Linnea shows up because she wanted to make sure the city was doing well
- Yuuto explains that the city doesn’t seem ready to accept the idea of crop rotation from its new patriarch
- Linnea gets city to accept Yuuto and his idea by talking to the high-ranking people of city
Do you see the problem here? Yuuto was saved by a “freak appearance” of Linnea, who just happened to be traveling to the same city he was? Uh….sure? I guess. I mean if it brings the story forward go for it, but there’s no tension here, there’s nothing to make the story seem organic. It felt forced, like Linnea suddenly appeared to save the day? Ehhhh…..I think not.
Regardless of that, we get the typical Linnea/Yuuto conversation about marriage, and then we get something completely bizarre. Yuuto tells Linnea he’s from another world–and that’s why he can’t marry her. Uh…what’s the point in that? I mean yes, it’s true, but doing that doesn’t add anything to the story or character dynamics. He tells Linnea about the girl from his world, and…
That’s about it. Linnea is told a story, and says she’s not going to give up on trying. So what was the point of that conversation? This isn’t the show’s strong suit, so why do it? Why make us sit through conversations like that when they don’t particularly add anything to the story or characters? All it did was poorly enforce what we already knew about Yuuto and Linnea…ugh… THE LIGHTNING CLAN IS PREPARING FOR WAR!!
Bad timing. Such bad timing here. We go from something heartfelt and whatever to characters bursting in and saying the Lightning Clan is preparing for war? Shock value? Didn’t work to be honest. This is just bad…
After that awkward conversation, though, we get some actual progression in characters and plot. There’s a meeting between Yuuto and his advisors, or harem and one other guy to be honest, but we learned that the Lightning Clan is 100% preparing for war!! Woo!!! Battle! Yes!
Wait, why am I getting excited for that? I don’t know, but anyway, during this meeting we get something amazing. It’s seemingly small and overshadowed by Yuuto’s character, though–which is sad because it’s wonderful.
The Green Loli (I’ll be referring to some people with nicknames) is an assassin!! Like, she’s super awesome actually…
What I love about this is that through episode three we didn’t get anything from the twin loli girls except some random love for Yuuto and childish behavior, but in reality their powers as Einherjar or whatever they are are amazing. They can control winds in their immediate area, but that means they can also move insanely quickly…which makes them perfect as assassins. And I love that!
After this we get Yuuto calling his sister….YAWN
Queue RED LIGHTNING!! This is that dude who has two einherjar things…I call him Red Lightning because hair and Lightning Clan. He has an army 8,000 men strong!! Whoa!
Oh, what’s this? The purple loli is spying!!! She sends a messenger bird…so sneaky!!
That’s it for episode 4….so, episode 5:
We get our battle!!
However, the episode starts with Sig Wolf Woman (yeah, I’m bad with names on this show) swimming….we get a flashback to her sparring against Yuuto. What we don’t get here is a timeline. How far back is this sparring match? Is it days ago? Weeks ago? Years ago? What we do get, though, is Sig Wolf Woman basically saying Yuuto is useless as a soldier. So, what is he good for? Seriously?
Anyway, battlefield time!!
I’ll make this battle thing quick because it’s sort of important, but only in specific ways:
- Yuuto uses crossbows, which are future tech (cheater…)
- Red Lightning doesn’t fall for phalanx/cavalry trick Yuuto uses
- Red Lightning tears phalanx apart single-handedly
- Yuuto calls for retreat
That’s basically the battle…
However, we learn that Ving, Red Lightning’s brother, died. Red Lightning freaks out, which I love because it feels like a true emotion, and we’re getting into this guy’s overly-strong attitude and pissed off nature. The show does a good job enforcing what we know about character personalities, while showing us new bits and pieces of characters that have been introduced in later episodes.
Another list to make this quick…
- Red Lightning chases Wolf Clan army
- Red Lightning stopped by seven Einherjar of Wolf Clan at a river–a trap!!
- Uh…Sig Wolf Woman loses her katana!! Noo!!!!!!!
This is where we see Yuuto’s brilliance again–or, rather, we see how he took from his known historical events and used them to save his people.
Yuuto’s people cross the river. And then…the river comes rushing down after being released from a dam. Red Lightning is crossing with his people at this time, and gets swept up in the currents!!!
The Lightning Clan’s land now belongs to the Wolf Clan with this win!! Hurray!! It was a strategic retreat to lure Red Lightning and his army into, well, death I guess.
While Red Lightning survived, I think it was worth noting that his character was still what we knew it to be. He was headstrong, dominant on the battlefield, and willing to put everything he had into his strength, disregarding anything except fighting. Yuuto on the other hand used his brain and tactics to outsmart the brawny Red Lightning and win the battle/war. What we get from these differing personalities is something that reminded me of the Battle of Red Cliff, a battle between two very intelligent Chinese men after the split of the Han Dynasty–Cao Cao and Zhou Yu (a leader of some rebellious southern provinces).
Our show ended with a phone call to the sister, who asked if Yuuto can come home soon. UGH!! Either send her to where Yuuto is or stop the weird calling thing. It doesn’t make any sense, even if it gives the show an overarching endgame thing. Yuuto needs to get back home. That’s the plot? Cool… but it’s not the plot, so what the hell?
Anyway, yeah, I like how the two differing personalities are being played against each other during the battle sequences, which I think is what thrives in this show and makes it enjoyable to watch. The strengths are shown during the fighting, the thought process behind each move, and how the characters are progressing over time. With the loli twins it’s cool to see them being used as spies, which aids the war effort/defense of the Wolf Clan’s land.
Overall these episodes were pretty nice to watch, we got to see our loli girls do something, and the battle was enjoyable. Linnea saving Yuuto because he doesn’t have a strong hold on some pieces of land was odd, yet works because it was true. I could go into that, but I’ve rambled enough through these two episodes.
That’s all for me on episodes 4+5!!
Thanks for reading!
Alex 🙂
Alex's Arena 
It is odd how much I am enjoying this even though the show is kind of bad and there’s a lot wrong with both the plot and the characters. Either way, I had fun watching these episodes and I’m kind of curious as to where it is going to go next.
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I think I touched on my own feelings in the review (can’t remember, don’t want to check), but I’m the same way. It’s not amazing, but it’s not awful… the show does just enough to keep me interested in what’s going to happen as a result of certain actions. It’s fun, but not outstanding to where I’ll watch them over and over in years to come.
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