(Hi) Helck

[SeijiSensei]

The teaser at the end showed none of our main trio.

[serenade_beta]

*seems to be plot*
(I wake)

*Entire episode spent on a sub-character spying but talking out loud which I guess is supposed to be funny?*
(I sleep)

Call me when they make the not-so-surprising reveal that archer girl with the same voice as Alicia and credited as Alicia in the ED (WTF?) is Alicia

[frodonk]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Call me when they make the not-so-surprising reveal that archer girl with the same voice as Alicia and credited as Alicia in the ED (WTF?) is Alicia

Dude, stop it with the spoilers, I'm sure I'm not the only anime-only viewer here

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by frodonk

Dude, stop it with the spoilers, I'm sure I'm not the only anime-only viewer here

Yeah, I hardly read manga anymore, and this one I am an anime-only watcher too
I've seen anime before that purposely hide certain information from the credits to not spoil the audience, but well, this one clearly doesn't care enough

[frubam]

Originally Posted by frodonk

Dude, stop it with the spoilers, I'm sure I'm not the only anime-only viewer here

I mean, the angel woman is the only woman in the 'intelligent' angel group and all of angels in that group knew Helck. She uses a bow and arrow much like Alicia did in the beginning of the flashbacks. Even credits aside(can't read jp myself ), its a good chance its her. Its the only explanation that makes sense.

[FlareKnight]

I'm downright surprised that there is someone still human in the capital. Of course decent chances her father isn't human considering he's both fine and a leader in this conspiracy. So if she's only part human that would explain why she's ok despite humanity getting turned into monsters.

Though that does make for an interesting situation. It's someone Helck could possibly save and have it also be someone he knows. Of course things are pretty crazy with poor Cless still being in that state.

The fights against the angel soldiers is just tragic at this point. These poor victims with a false sense of identity and personality, but in the end no more than puppets being sent out to fight. For their sake this has to end.

A whole episode without the main cast actually showing up .

[Twi]

Review done.

That being said, this episode did miss out on some smaller details:

Spoiler:

1. The spell to create monsters actually cost the lives of a lot of people to cast it. However, because the Winged Soldiers can basically respawn, that doesn't really stop them from using it.
2. After his flashback, Zelgeon realizes that the reason the monster started spawning in such great amounts back then to merit the attack on the Demon Lord's castle was likely due to Mikaros.
3. The Mage Winged Soldier realizes there must have been a spy like the Helmeted One stated since their attack was anticipated.
4. Hyura has some resistance to magic, which is why he resorted to using his sword instead.
5. Edil straight-up ditches the other demons he was fighting when they bring up Hyura. The demons basically state he always gets like that when she's mentioned being around and they figured he fell hard for her.
6. Helck's interference at the original castle set his plans back several months, but the Winged Soldiers levels have risen since then and he'll be able to create a larger gate with the barrier crystal of this castle.
7. The reason Hyura and the others tried to stop Mikaros so much was because they wanted him to fall into the trap, acting as bait themselves.
8. Azudra and the others expected that Mikaros was a unique caster, being one of a kind, since if there were more of them then the Humans would have attacked more aggressively. He does acknowledge that said caster was probably at a higher level than him and thus could be a greater threat than Helck.

[Kanon]

So Mikaros really is a human. A human who awakened 1500 years ago and stopped aging, and has been wandering the world researching magic since then to take revenge on demons. Although his master plan is apparently to create a new world.

It feels like Zeru and Edil are coming back to their senses, since Zeru had that little flashback in this episode and Edil is standing next to Hyura in the episode preview. I guess powering up each time they were killed has slowly allowed them to counteract the brainwashing?

[grecefar]

so asta will be the hero to take down the evil king and save humanity?

[FlareKnight]

Well that explains things about Mikaros. Psycho scumbag. Lost his mind a long time ago. No wonder he's all for this plan though with his end goals. Who cares if he wipes out humanity. His end goal would do that anyways. This way he gets troops on top of something he was going to be doing anyways. The demons are the primary blockade to the whole end of the world scheme.

Looks like Azudra was a serious beast in the past. But he went through the classic arc of realizing how horrible that kind of existence was and decided to change his path. Becoming more of a peaceful type and trying to reach out to others. Sadly this is not the time for that kind of thing and glad that he's changing strategies. Guess we'll see if Mikaros talking trash will continue or not. Be a really good thing for Azudra to clean up here. That's one monster that no one needs wandering around.

The tension is building up now. Helck and Anne should reach their goal soon with how things are getting wild. I suppose decent chance that there are some forces (with an emotional gut punch) left behind in the capital to meet Helck though.

I'm glad we have more answers. Though I wish Azudra had been more thorough in the past and killed this scumbag when it was much easier to do so. But you just never know what will happen...

[SeijiSensei]

The pacing of this story has been god-awfully bad for the past half-dozen episodes. First we have a flashback that goes on forever followed by episodes where the main cast hardly appears. Is this a result of the anime production team trying too hard to follow the manga scrupulously? Not always the best choice.

[Twi]

I'm fine with it. The accuracy is mostly on point minus some missing information here and there, and I can already guess the stopping point.

That being said, they need to announce a new season soon. Or else.

[TheForsaken]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

The pacing of this story has been god-awfully bad for the past half-dozen episodes. First we have a flashback that goes on forever followed by episodes where the main cast hardly appears. Is this a result of the anime production team trying too hard to follow the manga scrupulously? Not always the best choice.

Nah, the pacing is perfect. They are going to end this season at the best stopping point possible.
The only thing this show suffers from is the low budget.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

The pacing of this story has been god-awfully bad for the past half-dozen episodes. First we have a flashback that goes on forever followed by episodes where the main cast hardly appears. Is this a result of the anime production team trying too hard to follow the manga scrupulously? Not always the best choice.

It's not so much a pacing problem as it is the story just not being that good. The beginning was really great, then it feel down pretty hard and never recovered. I'm still enjoying it as there are interesting bits here and there (like the latest episode) but I'm struggling to understand why this was hyped so much. It's unremarkable at best to me.

[Guardian Enzo]

The island stuff has been my favorite stretch so far. But generally I like Helck when it has lots of Helck, along with Vermillio and Piwi.

[TheForsaken]

I do believe the low budget makes a lot of things lose impact.

[serenade_beta]

I have this funny feeling that if they took out most of the first cour which involved mascot throwaway characters and the dullest cooking contest in the world, they could have fit a lot of this in 1-cour
And then you know, use the 2nd cour to finish the story? Because it definitely isn't gonna get to a conclusion at this rate.

[magnuskn]

The super-downer origin arc really took the steam out of the show. I still like it... but the enthusiasm each week to look forward to Helck's next shenanigans is pretty much gone, since we are now in the all-serious territory.

[grecefar]

mikaros is worse than a cockroach.

finally we will get some main characters in the next chapter.

[Twi]

Review done.

So that's Cless x Shalamy and Edil x Hyura Mikaros sunk, with his intention of doing the same for Alicia x Helck. Bastard.