Thanks! And wow, the Bount arc? I think that was the first "big mistake" filler arc that everyone universally hated. Whelp, might have to give the new stuff a try. Couldn't hurt at least.
Mercuri
The slightly unfortunate thing is that the Pixel 6 is a bit old and in the world of cell phones if it's older than last gen then it's a relic. That by itself is going to make finding a case more difficult, but definitely not impossible.
The other unfortunate thing is that most cases online are going to be cheap chinese garbage. This is especially true on Amazon and eBay. Even some "officially licensed" stuff is pretty crap, as they just take their existing case and slap what amounts to little more than a sticker on it.
So basically you're going to want to find a quality case manufacturer and go directly through them. I found a case I liked on Amazon from SkinIt and have been using that for my Samsung phone. I would recommend going through their website though as it has a lot more options. They have some anime choices like DBZ, Cowboy Beebop, and My Hero, and you can even custom upload an image. This link is for the full silicone "pro" case but they also have a cheaper clear case option: https://www.skinit.com/collections/google-pixel-6-pro-case
Nobody really understands magic, and the writers just have to make up shit to fill up the pages at the expense of a logical conclusion as to exactly why one side won and the other side lost.
Reminds me of Bojack Horseman where they're fighting the improv troop on the boat and they're literally just making stuff up that's absolutely ridiculous. I think this can work well when the series establishes the rules and conditions for powers and then doesn't break those rules (ie pull anything out of their ass). Sadly we only got the most basic explanation of the rules of magic in Demon Lord 2099 so it comes off as a "say wut now?"
That being said, the fight basically boiled down to Veltol surpassing the Familia device and that was good enough for me. I didn't need the extra nonsense about leylines and wordless casting.
Overall a good episode thanks to some nice character development. I mean, the fighting was better from last episode but still pretty silly. Mercenary commander guy just picking people up by their heads and stabbing them and then one-shotting the enemy commander. Rietz's duel was descent, even if the finishing blow was just a slash across the armor that drew no blood.
"Hey, I know you were like, on death's door and everything and it's a miracle you're even alive and you're probably weak from blood loss and DEFINITELY shouldn't be standing up right now but... here's a baby still covered in vernix to hold!"
But the character development was really good. I especially loved how Ars is remembering all the fallen soldiers at the end. He knows all their stories and is genuinely sad about their deaths. They're not just a statistic to him. They're faces and memories.
I started watching it but still need to finish it. It's pretty funny, as it parodies harem tropes. And one of the redeeming aspects is that the MC genuinely seems to want to make every girl in the harem happy.
I will say you probably don't need to use the 3 episode rule for this one. The first episode by itself is a good litmus test, IMHO.
Seems universally agreed that the animation this episode was tragic. Like, forget the dragon mouth flapping like it's a wind-up toy, they didn't even bother to spend more than 10 minutes drawing it here:
Almost all the Dragon's movements were super janky. The special effects helped bandage the situation but definitely were not enough. Still I imagine it's an issue with the medium moving from LN to animation and the studio just not being able to handle anything more grandiose with the time and budget they had.
Marcus's last words were appreciably pathetic. "You're going to do the same evil thing you got mad at me for?" "Duh, I'm the Demon Lord." The moments of reflection with Machina at the end were descent enough. The love confession didn't even feel forced!
One thing I did really enjoy this episode though was the audio production. The music is great. And the epilogue during the credits felt REALLY good all-around. Makes me interested to see where they go now that Marcus is defeated.
Oh fun, we get to see the race's conclusion! All the racing finishes up after about 8-1/2 minutes. It feels a little quick given the pacing of the last few episodes but it was still very satisfying.
I expected Kanata to get 4th. There wasn't much plot about which girl he was going to pick and without that you knew it wouldn't come up. Still with all the drama they added you really didn't know which way his battle with the Ferrari would go until the very end.
Aiba's battle with Yudai reminded me of an old episode of Initial D where a racer drops behind Takahashi's RX7 because he chickened out from racing side-by-side.
The race "epilogue" was fun to watch as well. All the girls clamoring for Kanata was great. So there's Ren, Mami, and Nozomi all vying for Kanata. And that's just the ones in the immediate MFG sphere. Here's Mami not-so-subtlety showing her butt to Kanata.
Too bad Kanata's pockets are near useless for keeping girl's socials. Aiba getting mad that #7 kissed Sawatori was very in-character. Sawatori's aloof nature handled that exchange expertly. Aiba's expression was priceless. "What do you mean she's a highschooler?!"
I knew Ogata was going to suggest switching cars after he talked about wanting to see Kanata in a better car in an earlier episode. But I also know the whole premise of the show is "underpowered car goes fast!" so Kanata was not going to have it. Sounds like they're going to Turbo it up to 300HP so it'll still be "underpowered", which makes sense. To get to 400-500HP you'd need a very large turbo with a long spool-up time and that's not optimal for MFG races. Huh, this sounds almost exactly like a plot-line from Initial D!
We finally get to see the GR Supra rival now! It's going to be a clash of Toyotas.
Oh man, what a cool action episode. It's explodes right off the bat with Sunraku vs Rust which has the entire Nephilim Hollow community going wild.
Sunraku understandably loses. After all, he hasn't played this game in months and was fighting the #1 undefeated ranker! Rust is pissed at Sunraku for losing and we get some more of Rust's backstory. Seems she's on a quest for someone to reach her level. She wants a real rival, and I get the impression she was thinking of quitting the game right before Sunraku came back. Sunraku, the only person ever to come close to beating her. Rust really becomes a full-fledged character instead of some background NPC. Who knows, maybe Rust will end up playing SLF too!
Anyway, Sunraku tells Rust to give him a day to shake off the cobwebs and build a new Crimson Twinblade killing mecha. And of course Sunraku builds something completely ridiculous by the standards of the current meta. And it seems to work!
We were kind of spoiled this episode. We got two good fights, although the second one hasn't quite reached its conclusion. Twinblade seems like it's still capable of fighting and Rust doesn't seem like the type of person that would give up just because they lost an arm. Also, we've yet to figure out the full secret to Sunraku's sneak attack, and that one scissor claw can't be the only weapon Crab mecha has!
On a side note, I was really impressed with the animation this episode. The mecha movements felt very fluid, the background city was detailed enough to feel like background without being distracting, and the overall feel resonated "This is a video game" in my mind. I could even imagine it running on a different game engine than SLF. Just a lot of great nuances and artistic direction to really nail the look and feel of a video game.
or My Dress-Up Darling
or Maid Sama!
or Komi Can't Communicate
or Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible
or Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
or Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki
or Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me
or Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie
or...
But yeah, seems like a overly basic plot, right?