The Executioner and Her Way of Life/Shokei Shoujo no Virgin road

True!Akari already knows the only way Menou can kill her, the trick is to keep Menou alive long enough to get her there.

That’s interesting, I don’t think that information has been relayed in the anime yet?

I do think it would be more interesting to have True Akari being more proactive about that, particularly in ways that don't rely on using her power.

We've already seen the Sword of Salt though?

Wasn’t the Sword of Salt used on Menou? I suppose it could also kill Akari since it’s an Error and Flare would presumably know best how to kill Akari.

But I haven’t seen any indication that Akari’s after the Sword of Salt, nor did I see anything that says that was the only thing that could kill her.

Edited by fillerdude on Jun 12th 2022 at 9:53:58 AM

I don't recall that either. It's implied given that Akari and Menou clearly ended up on the salt continent before Akari reverted and there's not much reason to go there except for the Sword, but that's about it.

We saw Flare about to use the sword on Akari, but it wasn't clear that it would work

It's got a higher chance than anything else since it's been shown that Akari's time powers have no effect on any of the human errors powers. It's possible that she looped before Flare could kill her.

...I get that it's mostly for dramatic purposes, but having the other pinky finger back in Grisarika's capital doesn't really make any sense geographically

Well, this arc was mostly set-up. Not unenjoyable, but some of the specific needs it was created to fill left it a bit bit dramatically weak. By which I mean the story required some exposition that could really only come from one of the four major human errors, but actually beating one would be too much of a step up, so we got a fight against a fragment that was in the process of self-destructing, which is just not that satisfying of an opponent

Overall, I rather enjoyed the series, though it's a bit more '2010 light novel' than I'd like. Biggest issue is Ashuna being part of the main cast but not the party, so she just keep showing up coincidentally

Well, that was... disappointing, really. Manon wasn't exactly intriguing as an antagonist given how clear she was about her very simple motive, but it was still better than Pandaemonium purposefully setting herself up to be one-shot to at least make it more dramatic than her just being dragged back into the fog while everyone hides for an hour.

I dunno. I could forgive a lot if the central relationship was interesting, but it just isn't. Menou doesn't change her thinking about Akari in response to any organic relationship growth, she does because the villain of the arc tells her what her mindset should be on the way to the next bread crumb. And Akari has no thinking about Menou aside from wanting to bother her in tired tsundere ways.

I have to agree that the development of the friendship between Akari and Menou does not feel organic at all, especially in this episode when Menou suddenly starts pondering if she could spare Akari somehow, only because a couple of folks told her she could "find her own path" or something. Kinda makes me feel the story really was supposed to end at the first arc, because the author doesn't actually seem to know how to turn Akari from someone to kill to Menou's BFF.

I also thought that Pandemonium was Manon's sister but man they are both duller than dull villains. At least we know how to kill Akari now, I guess?

I really dig the lore of the setting, and the magic system, but the driving plot sure needs some work.

Yeah, basically. I would buy it more if, say, Menou had to hunt down a Lost One who was already being assisted by a rogue priestess - something that would make her reflect on her relationship to Akari, instead of two villains who are, practically by their own admission, just causing trouble in order to pad things out and cause spectacle. Why would Akari be shaken by the news of a way back to Japan? She's shown no interest, and says nothing about even the possibility of leaving this world with Menou and going back to Japan with her.

Why would Menou listen to what Pandaemonium has to say? I guess the intention is to shake up her moral view and fixation on being a "just villain", but instead, an antagonist who mostly says nonsense tells her that there's a surefire way to kill Akari, and that's what makes Menou question whether she has to... it just doesn't make sense.

Yeah, Pandemonium and Manon are both gigantic wastes of time, and the one thing that Pandemonium does to actually advance the plot which is to inform Menou about the Sword of Salt makes little sense.

Most importantly, the actual revelation that might have served to make Menou organically question things - that is, that Manon was the daughter of a Lost One who lived, for all intents and purposes peacefully, for several years - isn't heard by Menou. It's heard by Real Akari, who immediately forgets it!

Thanks for reminding me about that. In fact, that's what I thought was going to happen. That the Fourth would be reported to be gathering otherworlders to bolster their fighting force, that it would be revealed that Manon was using the Fourth in order to secure and protect Akari because she knows better than anyone how unfair their world is to these displaced Japanese people, and that Menou would be confronted with the possibility that maybe they don't have to kill these people after all.

Forgot to agree Hylarn and Tropay Xion about Ashuna. She needs to become a permanent party member somehow, or else, I dunno, populate the world with other characters who can get things done.

Hard agree on both fronts. Manon and the Fourth were really just there to, again, cause trouble. They introduced an entire terrorist faction and a leader who have no goals.