A (justified) beach episode.
Episode 04:
This was a forgettable episode for service. I’d have included more from this episode had episode 5 not been as good. We do get a first (and nice) look at what I will call the pegasus girl.
To briefly describe the plot, Kotone finds a good home for the pegasus girl, and the backstory of Rakira and Rufuria is touched upon. Something to note, and I will detail this after episode 5’s review, is how the anime is adapting the manga- the sequence was altered.
Episode 05:
Kotone takes RPG Real Estate on a trip to the beach to show the group a new property. While the anime season is currently spring, the season in the anime seems to be summer, and thankfully each girl has worn some rather revealing swimwear. Would this count as shameless? Given there is justification for the group being here, and for them to be in swimsuits.
Rakira’s bikini was not nerfed in the anime, which makes the nerfing of her standard battle outfit even more questionable. Further down we’ll see her pulling/adjusting her bikini, which was expanded in the anime.
Rakira appears to be jealous seeing Kotone apply sunscreen to Rufuria, and invites Kotone to sunscreen herself as well.
Rakira is in awe of Kotone’s impressive assets, but as a warrior imagines how possessing such size would affect her everyday life and effectiveness in combat. Unable to control her emotions, Rakira has an outburst claiming that she doesn’t need that size because it would weigh her down. Kotone mistakenly assumes she is referring to the property she is soon to introduce which is a nice, if not somewhat predictable, comedic angle.
With just a bit of editing you could make this look like something else entirely, perhaps just a conversion of Kotone’s pink hair to blonde.
Kotone and the group search for the property that was promised, but cannot find it. Because the property is being given away for free, and likely suspicious of this, Rufuria playfully suggests that the property could be inhabited by a monster or that the house is derelict.
The group comes across a crab that had his claw stuck in rocks and rescues him. Through Fa, the group asks the crab if he can take them to the house listed on the map (which they now know is underwater). He was initially unsure (he apparently cannot reveal the location to humans) but when Rakira brings a boiling pot he yields. Kotone was given a box containing water breathing potions from the old man that offered the house, so we get a brief underwater journey.
The person that made the underwater breathing potions is no longer around to make them. Realizing they have no way to return to the house because of this, Kotone offers the house to the crab as there is no other option. Kotone is dejected however, as her purpose for bringing the group out to the house was to fulfill her promise of seeking a house they could all live together in.
I’m adding this second page here because I can’t think of where else to put it. As you can see from the numbers the second page (directly above) is directly after the first chronologically in the manga. However, the anime skips this brief service. Instead, after Kotone goes to grab Fa and bring her back inside, the anime cuts directly to Kotone and Fa entering RPG Real Estate. What should have been a very nice and blatant panty shot from Kotone was removed. I have a suspicion that it will be added in another episode though (I will share my reasoning below in the post review talk at the bottom). If it’s removed completely, it adds yet another dimension of oddity when it comes to adapting the manga’s service- as literal moments earlier we had an almost entirely nude loli in some pretty sexy looking panties with only a pillow covering her body lying out in the open. Either the production is staffed by lolicons, or they have some strange fixation on removing some aspects of service they may consider too shameful or blatant, while including, and in some cases even expanding, on others.
The long and short of the second part of the episode begins with Rufuria discussing the recent news with Kotone- a dragon has attacked a nearby town and the kingdom cannot find it. This arouses Rufuria’s suspicion given the realization of the huge amount of magical power Fa possesses in episode 03. Fa declares that she was asleep the entire night of the attack when asked.
As for the actual plot, a dragon that looks a bit like Sandslash arrives at RPG Real Estate and demands a home be found for himself. They are eventually revealed to be a fusion of multiple smaller monsters that can change forms. This ability is used to assist in cleaning up the messy aftermath of the dragon attack as they change into various tools. These monsters approach Fa with curiousity, and they reveal that the only other being that could communicate with both monsters and humans was the Dark Lord. Kotone asks Fa what the monster is saying, but Fa conceals the mention of the Dark Lord and his ability and simply says he is glad they can chat.
Kotone is worried about the suspicious circumstances surrounding Fa and the dragon attack, and wonders if the dragon really is Fa. Kotone seems doubtful, after considering how kind and carefree Fa always is. Perhaps to ease her fears, Kotone decides to sleep with Fa, hopeful that things will turn out for the better.
This is the end of the episode, and as I mentioned before I’ve got something to say on a few things I’ve noticed so far. The first is on the sequencing of the anime vs. the manga. Episode 3 was the first change in sequencing. If you remember, the first half of that episode was about the necromancer and the second half was about channeling magic in the machine. In the manga though, the sequence is necromancer, then the pegasus girl from episode 4. This means that if the anime adapted the manga sequentially, episode 3 would have been about the necromancer and pegasus girl, and episode 4 about the machine. I think I know the reason this was done.
The bath scene from episode 3 with Rufuria and Rakira would have taken place in episode 4 had they followed the manga sequentially, with this episode’s extensive beach scene taking place in episode 5. Obviously, they don’t want to cram all instances of service together, so they probably changed the sequence of events to space out the service. This leads into my second point on the missing Kotone panty shot from above. I believe strongly that it will be added in a later episode, as they have already demonstrated that they are willing to adapt nearly all instances of service, and their willingness to change the timeline to help space service out.
tl;dr? They’ve changed the chronology of events from the manga, and I suspect it’s been done to evenly distribute instances of fanservice. Because of this, I also believe the missing Kotone panty shot will also be added in a later episode.
Of course, I could be wrong. But the only way we’ll know is if we wait for remainder of this show’s duration. I will be here to see it happen with all of you, with an accompanying review.
