Score: A-

This is definitely the first real trial the cast has had to face thus far. At least the first trial that wasn’t the girls simply trying to kill Toto! Mind control is messy stuff and the situation in this town has gone right off the rails! Almost no one in the town has their free will remaining and now Anemone has been turned into a very dangerous weapon against her own party! I’m sure they’ll resolve things in the next episode. But I appreciate a two-parter in this show. This cast is rather powerful so anytime they have to sweat a bit is perfectly fine by me.

Toto was in prime form this week!

Toto was easily at his most heroic in this episode. This was the first episode in the show where he didn’t lose consciousness! From his perspective of course he simply couldn’t afford to do so. It’s possible that the mind control could influence him to some degree while he’s unconscious anyways. But beyond that he is hyper aware of how dangerous this town is and he’s 100% locked in on protecting his companions. Since he was mostly acting with just one of them at a time he was all the more determined to stay awake so he could protect whoever he was with. He hilarious did enough damage that healing him was a good move. Wouldn’t want him to bite off his own lip!

Beyond his resilience, this was just a good episode for Toto to be a hero. Tim was hurting quite a bit from his parents being captured and having to live on the run for all this time. But Toto both gave him comfort and hope. This poor kid had nothing to offer, but Toto still stepped forward and promised to save his family. Even when he got tossed into the dungeons he was able to reassure the people being held captive. The situation is a bit out of hand and he’s still figuring out what to do. But at the same time, Toto is giving his all as a hero. He has those qualities. If nothing else his absurd power gives people in jeopardy quite a bit of hope.

Crazy mode activate!

This was a good episode for Anemone. She may be a killer, but she’s got principles. For her kids are just a special category. If Tim is in need of help then she’ll go above and beyond to lend that assistance. She doesn’t give Ciel a hard time for clearly not wanting to do this. Instead she calmly accepts that this is the kind of situation she can’t ignore and moves ahead with it. Anemone does all that despite this town being a horrible fit for her! Pretending to be lovey-dovey with Toto was as hard on her as it was on him!

Then at the end of it all…she gets brainwashed as well! I think she (and Ciel) have taken their Goa countermeasures for granted. Even Goa thinks her skill might still work on them, but simply hasn’t tried it yet. The girls are clearly fine inside the town. But when they got much closer to the source of the brainwashing even Anemone’s defenses failed her. Thankfully she went crazy while still in character! That let her pick a fight with Toto while not giving away that she’s an assassin. But that didn’t stop her from busting out the sniper rifle on Goa and Ciel! Those two are powerful, but they aren’t Toto tough! Ciel is going to have to think fast since Goa’s skills aren’t really suited for stopping bullets!

Necessary flirting!

In some ways Goa is the most true companion on this journey for Toto. She does have her plots and kind of messed up views on connections with others. But she isn’t outright out to kill Toto and has no problem with enjoying this journey with everyone. So if Toto wants to save a town then why not? It’s just another way for her to have fun. Plus this situation is in her niche. I wouldn’t be shocked if she wants to learn about how the culprit is doing it to see if she can take advantage of that for herself in the future.

Ciel contrasts Goa nicely in that she doesn’t want anything to do with this! She is a demon after all! Going on some purely altruistic mission to save a town is utterly not her thing. If she could pawn this task onto someone else then she would. But she kind of paid for it as the episode went on! It wasn’t exactly easy on her to play lovers with Goa. Although I suppose it wouldn’t have been easy to play that role with Toto either! But now she’s got a sniper pointed at her instead of being brainwashed herself! Thankfully Ciel is a powerful mage so if anyone can throw up a barrier in a hurry it should be her.

Better save these people fast!

I really enjoyed that this one had so much going for it. There was some more seriousness in this one. And with mind control in play it’s not as simple for Toto to just brute force his way forward. Toto should be fine since his resilience appears to be top level. And I suspect that Goa could head into that castle and be just fine. But Ciel and Anemone are more at risk with Anemone already being manipulated. It should be fun to see how they resolve things and for Toto to get the her moment he deserves. This very well could be the first major step on his journey to being a hero of renown.