As I said last week, this week continues the story of Tomoki and Hibiki, the other two isekaiees(?) along with Makoto. The show does a pretty good job of crunching down a whole lot of story into a single episode. In this episode, we see the events that were happening elsewhere as Makoto was fighting Sophia in the finale of last season. I have tried to keep my takes below spoiler-free, but my opinions are obviously going to be colored by my having read the source.

• Loved the touching moment between Naval and Hibiki. I really like Hibiki as a character and so far they have done a good job portraying her character. The two main events they have portrayed in her story (losing to Mio/the black spider and losing her friend Naval) are incredibly formative for her and she actually uses them to grow as a character.
• Tomoki is such a hateable character. Believe it or not, they have toned it down a bit here compared to the source. He is just the absolute worst, the kind of guy that is so much fun to hate.
• Io is such a boss. As the series goes on we get to see more of the characters in the demon army and Io is probably my favorite. Just, a cool dude.
• The death of Naval was done pretty well. She is a great character and they managed to portray her character arc pretty well over the course of just two episodes. I liked how they didn’t really shy away from showing her body literally burn into ash. I feel like it added to the impact of the scene as opposed to just showing an explosion with a zoomed out/obscured view.

I think, with this episode, we are caught up to the present state of affairs. So, we should be joining Makoto in Rotsgard next episode.

Great parallel between

• Tomoki - fucking backstabber, I hope that the bug’s protection wears off at night when you can’t run with your tail between your legs.
• Hibiki - serious and loyal. Even if she’s technically on the same side of the above, she’s far more respectable. Also Naval ;_;7
• Makoto - “what am I doing here???”