I figured Hevee wouldn’t have much difficulty with Tashtay and his men. Considering he fights with a mace and has a Blessing of Might, he’s definitely a capable fighter and as far as I can tell, Tashtay doesn’t have anything up his sleeve. I did not however expect him to make short work of all the bandits within the first minute or two of the episode. To say the fight is a cakewalk would be an understatement.
Before Hevee can land a finishing blow, Tashtay uses a magic ring to awaken the Dual Ogre, a ogre with both a male and a female head and the Stratum Lord of the Scorching Sand Stratum. Tashtay commands the Dual Ogre to attack Boxxo, Hevee, and the others and while the Ogre is game to attack, it disobeys and injures the bandit. Boxxo and his friends quickly learn that they’re no match against the Dual Ogre in a direct fight. The monster not only has a Blessing of Might but also a Blessing of Hardening, making it tough to damage. Once the group retreats outside, Hulemy offers any information she has on the Dual Ogre and Boxxo realizes that the monster behaves similarly to ogres in Japanese mythology. In other words, they really love to eat and drink. It’s a good thing then that Boxxo has access to a lot of different booze.
Hevee uses his illusion magic to disguise himself and Boxxo as a rock ogre so that they can offer the Dual Ogre some booze. While Boxxo wasn’t sure the amount wasn’t enough, the Dual Ogre does eventually pass out, thereby disabling its Blessing of Hardening. This allows Hulemy to weaken its skin even further with some sort of injection, which then enables Mishuel and Lammis to kill both of its heads with all their strongest attacks. I like that Lammis agrees to Boxxo to kill one of the ogre’s heads because that’ll technically count as a kill for Boxxo and earn him a lot of points. It’s practical but I have to now wonder why Boxxo doesn’t exploit this more often. While maybe not the most exciting set piece, I quite enjoy this outcome. It’s a more creative resolution on paper than the Hunters simply hitting the boss really hard and the execution makes great use of the most of the characters’ abilities.
With the Dual Ogre dead, the gang is free to explore the tower again and they return to the top floor. To their surprise, they encounter a frozen Tashtay and a Snow Fairy named Sulream (Ryoko Shiraishi), whose presence alone makes the area unusually cold. Sulream shatters Tashtay and reveals that she works as a general for the Netherlord, who saved her from humans in the past. The Snow Fairy unleashes a blizzard to eliminate the party and while Boxxo can tank it with his barrier, he won’t be able to outlast the storm. Kikoyu convinces Boxxo to let her walk out and confront Sulream, explaining that pities the Snow Fairy for her blind hatred towards humans and also because she has an ace up her sleeve…a very dumb one, I might add.
So I forgot to mention it last time but last episode, Boxxo notices that Kikoyu has circled a certain day on her calendar. As it turns out, that day is Kikoyu’s eighteenth birthday and it just so happens that everyone has been hanging around the tower long enough for the big day to happen. Now that she’s an adult, Kikoyu becomes a Snow Fairy, even gaining a growth spurt in the process, and she becomes powerful enough to force Sulream into a stalemate. Looking back, that brief moment about the calendar had to come to play sooner or later and the show would eventually have Kikoyu grow up into a Snow Fairy. But I don’t know, it’s way too convenient for this all to happen right when the gang faces a snowy themed enemy and could use a snowy themed ally to save them. I at least appreciate that for once, the one who saves the day isn’t Boxxo as per usual.
Anyway, since the fight comes to a draw, Sulream retreats. At this point in the episode, I had almost forgotten that the gang went to this darn tower so that Hevee can have his revenge so props to the writer(s) for addressing it before the episode wraps up. I’m glad that Hevee comes to terms that he ultimately doesn’t get to kill Tashtay himself. It might not have played out as Hevee wanted but as the clergyman points out, he’s dreamt of avenging his friend for so long that killing Tashtay probably wouldn’t have been enough for him. Perhaps it’s better then that the bandit died via other circumstances. Something that I find funny is Shui asking Hevee if he’s done seeking out other people’s shoes, only to have Hevee say that his interest still exists independently from its origin. Honestly, I had assumed that was the case to begin with.
After the credits, we see Sulream ask the Menagerie of Fools for help in defeating Boxxo, Lammis, and co. To be frank, having Kerioyl and his family get shoved to the wayside is the biggest disappointment this season. Their betrayal midway through was a darn good twist so it’s incredibly baffling that the show doesn’t follow up on it for six episodes. I suppose it couldn’t be helped since a lot of time was spent getting the gang back together after the Transfer Circles went haywire but you’d think everyone would run into the Menagerie again at some point. I can’t help but snicker at the fact the Sulream approaches the Menagerie at what appears to be their summer home. Were they actually chilling this entire time?
On the bright side, Season 3 has officially greenlit so unless that gets canceled, it’s not like we won’t get to see Boxxo face Kerioyl in animated form. I’m kind of surprised to see that this show lasting as long as it has. It doesn’t strike to me as a particularly big anime, at least in the isekai space, so I have my doubts about this getting any adapted any further. Still, I’m happy to see this show continue. You’d think after two seasons, the premise would get old and while it’s not as novel as it was at the start, I somehow continue to have fun with the show. Here’s to another season of this silly little series.
Watch Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon on Crunchyroll
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