So far this show has been one of the year’s biggest disappointments. When I wrote my initial review it seemed like a charming and fun fantasy adventure.

But once the party arrived at the capital city the “adventure” part vanished. Instead we got a sequence of fairly inane stories which served mainly to introduce a ridiculous number of new characters, most of whom are silly girls.

This probably reflects the show’s origin as a visual novel. VNs typically contain a lot of time-wasting fluff that doesn’t advance the plot. (Presumably this is to drag out the game and make the player think he is getting his money’s worth.) So a good anime adaptation needs to ruthlessly edit this stuff out.

Some hope remains that things may improve in the next cour. The last episode ended with the announcement of an enemy invasion. Maybe that will force the main characters to get out of the capital and do something interesting. Maybe we will actually get a real story out of this.

It sounds sort of awful to applaud the beginning of a war, but that’s where this show has driven me.