Damn, I really enjoyed this episode. Overall, I am happy with the adaptation of these fights, though I wish there was more. In particular, I feel like Shiki didn’t really get to show off all his ring powers enough. I did get a chuckle out of his chuuni-like lines that he said whenever activating them though. Shiki’s voice actor doing the deep Larva voice is pretty entertaining. One small thing about Shiki’s rings I noticed is that the healing ring he uses at the end is like a little spider. This would be a reference to Mio and her talents with healing.

Another thing that I think could have been elaborated on in this episode is about Makoto’s archery. When he calls himself a kyudoka, that is a very specific type of archer, an expert in traditional Japanese traditions and equipment. The bow that is used is asymmetric and is quite tall, even taller than most of the archers that use it. Here is an article about it.

Anyway, what I wanted to mention is that my memory is that by combining his kai ability with his archery, he is essentially able to guarantee he always hits his target every time, no matter what. And I mean no matter what. If he wants to hit multiple things with a shot, then the laws of space, time, and causality bend themselves to his will to make it happen. If you teleport away but Makoto still wants to hit you with his arrow, then he will. It is such a stupid OP ability that nobody can make sense of it. This is essentially what he is doing near the end of the episode when he blows up Fort Stella from half a continent away.

Looks like the final episode next week will be a bit of a denouement to the season. We need to debrief with everybody on what we have been doing and Makoto is now the proud owner of Kaleneon, so we have to figure out what to do about that.

@rikka@ani.social