After smashing a mosquito the previous episode, Loid most definitely made a risky impression on the three housemasters. The question is if it helped or hurt his chances of getting Anya accepted into the most prestigious “elegant” school of Eden Academy?

Manga vs Anime

When it comes to this episode, I can confidently say that a large chunk of the episode is filler. This episode was all about extending chapter 6, making all the scenes a lot more elaborate. We got a few spots in certain scenes that changed a few small details that probably doesn’t matter down the road?

To me, it would have made a lot of sense to combine Chapter 6 and chapter 7 into one episode. Without spoiling chapter 7, the anime creators clearly decided to make chapter 6 one whole episode. In the manga, the whole “Loidman” role-playing with Anya scenario came and went by pretty quickly, but still got the point across effectively. In the anime, I think the creators thought that they needed to up the action to make it feel like a complete episode. Obviously, this is just my speculation. I’ll withhold some potential criticisms I have of the filler when the next episode comes out. Who knows? Maybe the next episode is a banger of an episode.

Anya is Top of the..?

Waiting list.. To the chagrin to the Forgers, they were left off the acceptance list. Lucky enough, the Forgers have made quite an impression on Housemaster, Henry Henderson. So much that dare I say, “admirer of Loid and the Forgers? ” At least, that’s how I interpret it. As Henderson approaches and informs them of Anya being at the top of the waiting list, Henderson gives an odd reasoning of “mosquitos being the number one killer of humans.” Then, Loid hints at these housemasters being potential foils to his plans down the line. So after a few days, Loid gets a call confirming that Anya has been accepted into Eden Academy after another family drops their admissions.

Franky Helps Anya

Once Loids get done with the phone call, everyone’s favorite reoccurring instigating side-character shows up to help them celebrate. Franky decides to spruce it up with alcohol.. Eventually, they all get drunk as Franky eggs on Anya to ask for a reward for her hard work to help Loid. She then looks at the TV and request to re-enact a scene in the “Bondman” cartoon. Somewhere deep into the depths of Franky’s knowledge, he mentions that there is a castle they could rent out to set up the scene.

Loid was drinking alcohol in the manga when Loid’s family and Franky were celebrating at the dinner table. Loid mentioned that he was “trained to not get drunk” when drinking alcoholic beverages.

There’s also a bit more scenes added in to give context to the communication between Twilight and his handler. The anime might be building a small narrative that his handler isn’t quite sold on Twilight’s abilities as a spy. Or it’s just going to be a running joke, regarding all the budget that Twilight uses up for his ridiculous events like the “Loidman castle role-playing” scene coming up.

The scene shifts to the Forger family and Franky getting ready to get onto the plane. Between the scenes with Loid’s handler and the airplane scenes, that made up for about a couple of minutes.

When they show up, Anya is still not satisfied because the castle is vacant. Loid calls in all of his undercover agents to appear at the castle. The joke here is all about the agents witnessing Loid’s capabilities as the top agent. Every little thing he does like stepping on the ground(assumed to be morse code lol) and commanding everyone to play along with the play was pretty funny.

Immediately after announcement of the parts everyone will play, the role-playing begins. The anime decided to make the whole make-believe “Loidman” play more grand. Anya directly gives out everyone’s part as a character and hides behind a table in the manga. In the anime, they get onto a blimp cart thing, while Loid chases them down on another cart wagon thing. The anime takes us down more filler as Franky and Anya convinces Loid to get into the “Bondman” spy gear. The manga never showed any fighting between the undercover agents versus Loid, but decided to put some action scenes between them, showcasing his abilities.

Yor, being the first hand-to-hand witch anyone has ever witnessed gets engaged to Loid again. Only this time, they’re scrapping. Here, we get some nice hand-to-hand combat animations with an epic boss-battle soundtrack to match. Yor’s heel eventually break and Loid easily takes down Franky with a nice backhand slap.

In the manga, Yor immediately defends Anya as Loid approaches Anya hiding behind the table. The fighting ended up being very accurate to what the manga portrayed. This is by far the best part of the episode.

The amount of action that the anime has teased so far, has been pretty amazing. In the back of my mind, I’m still wondering whether of not this anime is going to take us more towards action scenes like the Loid vs Yor fight. There’s been so many impressive action oriented animated scenes, since episode one. It just comes in very small appetizer portions. At the very least, when these kind of scenes do come, it’s good to know that the creators can execute these scenes close to perfection.

What the anime lacks is how much of Loid and Yor abilities are shown. Even though much of the action by Loid in this episode is filler, it is actually nice to see why Loid is such a formidable character. Just remember how terrifyingly capable he was in episode one.

The scene ends in a very loving heartwarming way as Anya tells Loid how happy she is about leaving the orphanage and that “she will do her best in school.”

What was the Point of this Episode?

On the surface, this seems to be all be about celebrating the entry into Eden Academy. Underneath, the writer seems to be adding some more character development between the main plot. This episode focuses on the growing father-daughter relationship between Loid & Anya.

Loid’s Character Development

This episode really shined a light on Loid himself, getting him outside his comfort zone. Him not realizing that he is becoming more and more like a dad is actually a pretty fun development to see. It’s even better written as one of the best satires I’ve personally seen in a while.

The nature of their relationship hinges on Anya’s success at Eden Academy. So, Loid having to trust others and one of the worst case scenarios having to trust a little kid is a bond that he may have never had a thought about or ever expected to experience in his life. Loid is shaping up to be a character that really relates to the lonely self-driven workaholics out there. A person with control and trust issues(not me) must really relate to this character. What do you think?

The Power of Anya & Franky

Having Anya as a character and being Loid’s daughter is the perfect combination for his character to develop. Loid doesn’t seem like the type to waste his time, energy and resources on what seems to be like trivial matters. Anya forces Loid to make uncharacteristic decisions he wouldn’t otherwise make on his own. Add Anya and Franky together, the show really drives home the whole “loving family” part of the show. How many sitcoms have you seen where there’s a funny nosy neighbor or character that provides comedic relief? Franky is basically that character. He’s the funny instigator that provides another option for comedic relief when it’s not coming from Anya herself. Put those two characters together and you get a tandem that opens up your playbook to get creative with comedic scenes.

So far, Anya’s development as a character has not changed. There hasn’t been any new information about her that really changes how and what we think about her. She is really a vehicle to bond Yor and Loid together as a family.

Best Daughter Ever!

I’m going to go ahead and give Anya the “best daughter” award ever in an anime. I’ve never been this enamored with a bratty kid character until now. Her as a character does so much for this anime that I have to keep mentioning it in every review. Without her, I think the anime would have to focus more on the action and espionage elements of Loid and Yor’s background.

Last Thoughts

Reading chapters 6 and 7, I was pretty certain that they could have made it into one episode. Without going deep into what happens next, they are essentially going for the same relationship development dynamic between Loid & Anya and Yor & Anya.

This episode had too many scenes that really slowed down the progression of the main plot and the relationship progression between the family members. I think they could have done this episode within 10 minutes. I’ll finish my opinion when the next episode comes out because maybe they couldn’t fit it into this episode? I think most people would have agreed that the highlight of the episode was the fight between Loid and Yor. Add in the comedic scene with Loid slapping Franky and the anime would have pretty much got their point across the same. All in all, I did enjoy the episode minus the filler. What do you guys think?

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