Mabel shows up once again to inform us some very important details, regarding this fantasy world Ojisan got transferred to called “Granbahamal.”

Recap & Reaction

The episode begins with an often used reference to Ojisan’s morality that he developed through playing Alien Soldier on the Sega Genesis. Sumika, giving Ojisan the suggestion that he should use his magic while he plays professional baseball, vehemently goes against it because of the value of real blood, sweat and tears.

Sometimes a running joke can outlast it’s welcome. In the previous episode, they continued a joke about Sumika being this ugly elementary bully in the beginning hook of the episode. I just prefer the hook to be something fresh that relates more to the plot of the episode. I understand that Ojisan’s Sega Genesis love is central to the character, but shouldn’t be used so much as a crutch to tell the same kind of jokes.

Isekai Story Featuring an Ice Maiden

Right after the intro, it quickly turns into a story from Ojisan’s past. So far, there has been a familiar formula to the anime. Ojisan continues another tale when he gets tracked down and attacked by a not so mysterious character in Mabel. Previously, Ojisan gave Mabel some not so great advice of essentially just living out your life the way you want. However, Ojisan took away her one true purpose in life and essentially turned her into a sadistic acting NEET.

This scene of Mabel attacking Ojisan is another prime example of the show finding some ways to add in action with some bits of mystery to keep the viewer a bit off balanced. Each episode to this point, follows a certain formula that we can mostly predict, setting us up for the unexpected punchline.

After some back and forth dialogue, Mabel breaks down and Ojisan ends dragging her unconscious body back to his inn where she eventually wakes up to explain her situation. As it turns out, the Mayor had her tree cut down for firewood, so she forced to go out on her own to provide for herself. If she didn’t leave, she would have to become a slave. Clearly angry and out of spite, she froze all the villagers feet and tortured them by dripping water on their necks.

I’m not too sure how pouring water on necks is torture, but okay..

In many animes, the main character and his crew comes across some villager character that needs help. Typically, their backstory consists of some bad guy or bad situation causing terror on her and her loved ones. The little bit of misdirection here is the fact that Mabel, the character in distress is actually the one physically able to terrorize the village that is trying to kick her out. It’s another funny parody take on cliche situations like Mabel is in.

Some more dialogue ensues as Ojisan encourages Mabel to use the ice sword that she was the guardian of to make ends meet. Feeling more at ease, Ojisan mentions slipping a super rare “cosmic” ring on her finger when she was asleep as a token of his apology. Mabel strongly rejects it, but the ice sword melting away indicates otherwise. Furthermore, Ojisan sends even more mixed signals as he asks her to stay overnight, but “the bed being too small for the two of them.” Mabel, thinking that they were going to get a little more intimate, asks Ojisan “if he had some change, so she can take a bath.” Ojisan awkwardly sniffs her to only then insist that she sells the ring instead. Suddenly, the sword freezes up again and she launches another attack at Ojisan.

This scene was like in episode 1, when Ojisan offers Tsundere Elf a ring, except I’ll call this the “Mabel Mor-onicles.” It’s kind of a reach, but I’m sticking with it. In another testosterone inducing dialogue and circumstances, this scene helps sets up the audience to think with their body parts, rather than their brains.

Having Mabel deny Ojisan’s ring at first was kind of confusing because their relationship did not seem like a romantic one. For a while, the dialogue and reaction from Mabel seemed to be of indecision and left up to interpretation. It was not as clear Tsundere Elf’s attraction towards Ojisan.

Ojisan pissing off Mabel by not showing romantic interest and offering her the ring to sell instead, processed through my warped mind a bit differently because of the modern day world of “simping.” If we’re being practical, it’s a pretty good deal for the Mabel to sell the ring and just go off to do her own thing. However, I might be missing on the point of the joke that Mabel really does like Ojisan and he is thoughtlessly throwing her deep affection for him. I guess I’m underestimating how much admiration and respect plays into a girl’s affection for a guy they like.

Just take the ring and run Mabel!

After some really loud noises that catches Tsundere Elf’s attention, she goes to Ojisan’s room to investigate, only to find Ojisan & Mabel in a very “close” encounter. While Ojisan uses some magic spells to restrain Mabel, he asks Tsundere Elf for help—only for her to act out of spite by releasing Mabel from her restraints. Ojisan having low spirit energy from the magic, gets turned into a frozen icicle as Mabel strikes him with a slash from the ice sword. While Ojisan stays frozen for the night, Tsundere Elf & Mabel hit it off.

Even though this is a fun parody kind of anime, there are some learning lessons within it. Mabel is a Snow White looking ambitious-less lazy character that doesn’t want to do anything other than to live a life of leisure. She’s starting to become a character that kind of represents the “trophy wife” mold. A girl that doesn’t want to work and have no purpose in life? For the audience, it seems like the intention is for Ojisan to represent the character that is supposed to be that “knight and shining armor” for Mabel. Of course, we’re never going to get it..

Ojisan’s Origin Story?!

The 2nd half of the episode begins with Tsundere Elf and Mabel speaking. Mabel drops a bombshell that Ojisan could possibly be an “Ice blood descendant ‘transferee'” from the “Irellars Japan Bahamal.” Mabel continues further that “there was a patriarch 400 years ago that was a knight from the Japan Bahamal. He was given a new body and life in Granbahamal.” A wish granting god appeared where the knight asked the god to “give himself a sword that can slay even in a god.” Raining on Mabel’s parade of this classic fantasy isekai story, Tsundere Elf was having none of that as she tries to forcibly convince Mabel that the “Orc Face” is nothing like that knight.

Everyone flabbergasted by this story, Takafumi suggests rewinding everything back to when he got transferred to the other world to see how true Mabel’s story really was. When Ojisan originally arrived in Grabahamal, he gets mistaken for an orc and gets beaten and battered as he couldn’t speak the language. As he was getting beaten up, the wish giving god contacted him to give him a wish to survive in this dangerous other world. In a rather anti-climatic fashion, Ojisan ended up wishing for the power of translation to communicate with the people that were hitting him. In the end, those people still thought he was an orc and sold him away for “3 bronze coins.”

This could be one of the parody takes on protagonists being born with something “special” about them in shonens. The one obvious part of the story points to Ojisan granting a wish for him to gain some incredible power. There could be a deeper meaning for his “translation” power or something else entirely that makes him powerful. It’s kind of a similar scenario to Saitama in One Punch Man.

Last Thoughts

This episode focuses heavily on how Ojisan ended up in the other world. Through his violent encounter with Mabel, we get a closer understanding to how Ojisan ended up in Granbahamal and how he acquired his powers. It’s set up to make the audience think that Ojisan wished for some incredible power, but in reality, it’s a non-inspiring ability to speak and understand foreign language in that particular world.

Overall, this episode leaned heavily on joke references and situations the characters have been in before. So, it’s not my favorite episode that was executed from beginning to end. Nonetheless, this is the first episode where all the main characters that have been introduced up to this point, were all featured in it. This is paving the way to finally incorporate more of Ojisan’s myterious backstory about his abilities and powers, which abruptly ended with a coffee break between the characters. All this means is that this Ojisan origin story is going to be continuing further for hopefully, a bigger payoff.