Karen's Anime Blog

Last time, our intrepid vending machine hero helped close the gap in the village wall for Clearview Lake Village, and the constant monster attacks have died down. Now, everybody is working together to rebuild the village, despite the heat. Hulemy is working on getting the transportation circle back up and running, while Lammis helps by clearing debris. Shirley drops by, and I mention this only because the anime seems to have decided this season that 99% of the fanservice will now only feature Shirley, which I approve of: she’s clearly in at least her late 20s/early 30s and a more appropriate target to sexualize than Lammis. Lammis is a sweet kid, they treat her right.

Shirley fans of the world unite! Let’s hear it for Sensible Sexualization, a new trend I am hoping to encourage the growth of.

The giant hole that Boxxo made in the ground when he dropped his giant ice vending machine form last episode has become a problem and needs to be filled. However, Boxxo can’t let it go without trying out one grand idea: making a temporary swimming pool for everyone to enjoy. This is what I like about this series: the fact that Boxxo basically provides major quality-of-life improvements for people who would otherwise be living close to a subsistence-level existence. I love seeing the joy of all the people who have never seen a pool before, and the way people get really excited when they try Boxxo’s canned udon or something for the first time. Finding new ways for Boxxo’s abilities to translate into combat is interesting too, but the opening few episodes of this season focused a bit too much on that and lost what I enjoy about the show. I’m glad to see it back to doing what it does best.

Note that the show had the opportunity to provide creepy little kid fanservice with Suori and pointedly DID NOT GO THERE.

The village decides to hold a summer festival, because Director Bear understands what it means to keep morale up. The Band of Gluttons want ice cream from Boxxo, but Boxxo has other plans: shaved ice, in three flavors. I’ve had shaved ice and I’m actually not that keen on it. It’s fine, but it doesn’t measure up to good ice cream or froyo for me. Now if you watched mono last season and saw the girls do that Shaved Ice Road Trip where they sampled all this crazy gourmet shaved ice, that I could probably get into. Boxxo adds some fruit to his, changing into a fruit vending machine and repurposing some apples and strawberries, so I guess it’s not a bad swap for a sundae.

Okay, I have to admit, when you have a huge pile of ice like that it does look very refreshing. Always happy to see the Band of Gluttons, they’re adorable. They should get a spin-off anime for kids.

After all the fun and games, we get a serious mood shift: Lammis and Boxxo are by the lake having a somber heart to heart. Lammis relates that, according to Director Bear, the guy that destroyed Lammis’ village all those years ago has been given “the punishment he deserves.” I assumed that they would just have him killed off-camera, but did the writers purposely leave his punishment ambiguous like that so he can come back? I hope not. Now, Lammis feels like she’s lost her purpose. We don’t think of it often because Lammis is usually such an upbeat character, but she’s really been motivated by revenge all this time, and she doesn’t know quite what to do without it. Director Bear did her a favor by taking the grim duty of killing the guy off of her hands, but just hearing that he was killed doesn’t provide much closure. Really, if Lammis hadn’t found Boxxo and become invested in improving the town with him, she would have been in a bad place mentally– especially because, without Boxxo, she might not have ever gotten to see Hulemy again.

The next day, it’s time to start helping the other strata. Director Bear organizes an expedition to the Origin Stratum, but he can only send three people until Hulemy further repairs the transport circle. Director Bear decides to send Hulemy, Lammis, Mishuel….and Boxxo. Isn’t that four people? Does Boxxo not count as a person for the purposes of the transportation circle? Is his personhood being denied right now? If I were Boxxo, I might be a little miffed about that.

Origin Stratum. The Menagerie of Fools are still leading the defense against the monsters, who haven’t been driven back yet. Mishuel jumps in and takes out a bunch of monsters, and I wonder if having such overpowered characters actually hurts the show at all. Usually they’re overrun by a gazillion monsters, so you need characters who can take out twenty lizardmen with a stroke, but now I’m wondering about it. Boxxo doles out tons of food to the survivors, and I continue being the only person watching this show who’s stupidly concerned with Boxxo’s points total– I think it’s an OCD thing with me at this point.

Happy people eating happy food. I’ve cut soda out of my diet nowadays, but damn that cola looks refreshing -____-

Director Origin drops by and thanks Boxxo for his help, then tells the assembled masses that they will be evacuating to the Clearflow Lake Stratum once the transport circle is working again. Wow, an amazingly huge amount of people would be screwed if they didn’t have Hulemy around to fix the damn thing. A group including our heroes goes to a prison to see if any survivors are squirreled away there, and then…and then the episode gets weird.

We are introduced to Hevee, a clergyman with a shoe fetish. Not a foot fetish mind you, a shoe fetish. He collects shoes and smells them, and that is his whole deal. Hevee is locked up in prison for countless acts of shoe-related mischief, and he seems to have let the other prisoners out. Shui recognizes him, and we learn further that he used to be part of the Menagerie of Fools, providing healing and mind-manipulation magic. A pervert with mind manipulation magic is a scary thought indeed, but I guess– worst-case scenario– he would ask you to take off your shoes and then he would be done with you.

“I know, I’m creepy, but when you consider the amount of outright sexual assault happening this season, is my whole shoe fixation really that bad?”

I question the wisdom of introducing a character with such a weird kink, but all is not as it seems; Hevee used his magic to camouflage and protect a whole bunch of villagers who would otherwise have been monster chow, so he’s won his freedom back. Director Origin even offers him a pair of her boots, but rescinds the offer when Kerioyl whispers to her what he plans to do with them; the audience is kept in blissful ignorance here.

The episode ends with Hevee buying a drink from Boxxo and…drinking it out of his boot. I am already so tired of this gag. Hevee does mention that he can sense a similar spirit in Boxxo, referring to the vending machine fixation Boxxo had when he was a human, but Boxxo swears he will deny that “to my dying beep.” Hah.

Nice episode other than the shoe business, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens once we finish with this rescue-and-reconstruction storyline.