What They Say:
In the Eastern village, Naofumi meets a girl named Melty. She instantly becomes friends with Filo and then requests to accompany the party on their journey. It seems she got separated from her guards. They travel together for a while, but when they reach the capital, they find…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The show had some fun material involving the zombie dragon in the previous episode and that worked well for me, seeing what Naofumi was capable of and how it worked and didn’t work in his dealing with it. Less enjoyable was the material involving Filo and how she comes across, especially as you had some scenes where Raphtalia was looking at her as though she couldn’t be trusted to do right by the group, which at least would have been an interesting angle to take overall in the grand scheme of things. But the two mostly seemed to have made up by the end before it started dangling some other dark elements. I’m enjoying the show a good deal overall but I continue to find my interest waning just a bit more than I expected at this stage simply because of the presence of Filo.
With this episode, the group are continuing on their journey together and ave come across something unusual. In a clearing nearby is a young woman they learn to be named Melty who was surrounded by creatures similar in size to Filo. Naturally, Melty and Filo get along well here and there’s some lightness to be had there, but the show gives us more time with the unfortunate side of what’s going on with Raphtalia, showing Naofumi handling her bandages and taking care of her in his own way. With Melty having been separated from her people an the way filo has taken to her, it’s no surprise that they travel together for a bit, which is a cute montage with bits of Raphtalia barely able to handle what she’s going through at times. Which gives it a darker edge to be sure, though with the upbeat music and all the Melty/Filo material, well, it doesn’t land as strong as it should for what she’s coping with.
In Summary:
The more the series goes on, the more the cute elements are brought into it because Japan. The draw in the early episodes was that it was a darker show focusing on an ass like Naofumi who found himself really twisted into a bad place, and who tried to adapt to how this world existed in order to survive. But as we added Filo and now Melty to the list with their cutenes and bright colors, it doesn’t remove what has come before but it weakens it for me as we get more of the sidebar silliness throughout. Melty being who she is also doesn’t really fly well as there are just so many problematic aspects to it even if she does seem to be setting the stage for what’s to come next. I do like Naofumi in how he deals with her, but I’m now wary of making it to the halfway mark of the show if these kinds of things continue to be introduced.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
