Diving Deep into Anime's Realm of War, Wit, and Wizardry

Will Usato's dark prophecy unravel amidst the chaos of war, and can a villainess truly indulge in a carefree life with her archenemy? We're tearing into the latest anime season, dissecting the intricate plotlines and character dynamics that have fans buzzing. Today's episode plunges into "The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic" and "A Seventh Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy," where destinies collide, and relationships are anything but black and white. Join us as we speculate on how these series will tie up their tangled threads before the season's curtain falls.

Ever wonder what happens when anticipated anime battles morph into unexpected alliances, or when a dungeon becomes an unlikely home? We're tackling these curveballs head-on, unraveling the perplexing turns in a certain unnamed series. The episode explores just how a protagonist's mission to heal his sister's illness spirals into a web of dungeon management and guild politics, with a side of pacing conundrums and opening sequence conspiracy theories. Strap in for a ride through narrative twists that threaten to upend everything we thought we knew.

We're rounding out our anime exploration by shining a spotlight on the power plays and identity crises within "Mashal" and "The Unwanted Undead Adventurer." As these characters confront their destinies, we're breaking down the laugh-out-loud moments and the high-stakes gambles that keep fans craving more. And don't think we forgot about "Solo Leveling" – with its breathtaking visuals and storyline so expansive it can't possibly be contained in a mere 12 episodes. Get ready to join us for a retrospective romp as we gear up for the grand finales and eagerly await the continuations that'll keep us glued to our screens.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there and welcome back to rival reviews. So, like promised a couple weeks ago, I have gone ahead and made sure 100% that I'm caught up with everything that is currently playing this season and I thought I would kind of just give my you know idea of how I'm feeling about them, you know where I think they're gonna be going, so on and so forth. So, obviously, spoilers, obviously in advance, because, so just to give everybody an idea, I'm basically on either episode six or seven of anything that's new basically out this season. So if you don't want to know any spoilers or if you want to maybe head back and listen to this later once you're caught up, this is your fair warning now, yeah, so I'm just like, honestly, I'm just gonna open up my watch list and kind of just go down the list here. So, first one we got here is the wrong way to use healing magic. This one is going pretty well. So, as we know, right now our boy, yusato, is you know he, we've gone through the training arc, he understands how to use his powers and we've gotten the call from the king, essentially that you know the war with the demons are is gonna start, kind of like literally ended. Right there is. It was like literally the night before or whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:24

So I guess what I'm expecting, obviously, from the next couple episodes again, this is one of the ones that I am caught up on in the manga, so obviously I kind of already know where we're going, but obviously expect the next couple episodes to be all about the war. You know, the last episode, right before this one, we saw that demon or not demon, I guess a beastkin girl give the prophecy or I guess the, the dream that she had of the future of His friends dying, and obviously he's going into the war With that on his head and thinking of ways obviously to stop that. So essentially, obviously, I think for the next couple episodes we're gonna be probably thinking about the war. It's interesting to me because we're already on episode seven and the war hasn't happened yet, which makes me I don't know. I feel like the war isn't long enough to be able to stretch all the way for the next five episodes. If this is going to be a 12 episode one, the farthest that I can see it may be going is, I guess, maybe the aftermath, because there is the whole. Again, not to get too too into spoiling, but, like you know, for those who have read and everything else like that, there's going to be some, I guess, character development with that black knight that is on the demon side, and I do know that that is part of what happens after the war. So I guess we have that to look forward to. I suppose that would be the one. And then I don't know, like I said, the pacing is a little weird on this one. Also do the fact that I thought at this point, as we've already noticed, he noticed that the one pharmacist healer had a different green mana or aura than he did, and In the manga at least, he actually explored that and I was under the impression that that was going to happen at the same time, and it hasn't happened in the anime adaptation yet, which I found interesting. So I'm wondering if maybe I'm just misremembering or If they're just gonna overlook that or I'm not really entirely sure. Like I said, I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be interested to see where they think a good stopping point for this is like, obviously, with the source material and everything else, this could more than Definitely have a second season. I guess it's just a matter of you know how popular it is and you know if it has enough of a following to actually give it that second season push that usually most of these shows need.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Okay, so next up we have a seventh time loop. The villainous enjoys a carefree life married to her worst enemy. So this one's kind of going in a direction that I think we all kind of Saw from day one of watching this, where, you know, because they're spending more time together, more and more they're trying to, they're kind of falling For each other. Well, I guess he's kind of been, he's fallen for her since day one I guess. But she's kind of still untrusting because, you know, you know in her previous life he was the one that straight up murdered her. So I can understand where the Concern might stem from. But yeah, this one again very interesting.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Obviously I haven't read this one. I do know that there is a manwa to this one, I just have not read it. Um, but From the understanding of what I'm currently watching, obviously from where I am right now the two brothers, I guess the the prince and the the second prince in line it kind of looked like originally that they were gonna be enemies. They were kind of setting it up that way. But it turns out that he was kind of doing it to protect his little brother and kind of it's kind of making it look like that he's not actually as heinous as the whole world seems to be, is that for whatever reason and again, this hasn't been revealed to us yet but for some reason he wants the whole world to think that, to think that he's this really terrible person. And For whatever reason, I guess Ries has kind of discovered that he's doing this and is gonna trying to, I guess, tear down all these emotional walls that he has built for himself over the years to get closer to the reasoning as to why.

Speaker 1: 5:49

And then we kind of ended up with her opening up a package when there it was a wig involved, and then I ended the Episode with her standing in line at like a night training camp, completely disguised. So this makes me think that, due to the fact of how she did in her fight or her spar, I guess, with him is that mentally she still had her Skills from being a knight from her previous life, but her body couldn't keep up Because it's not trained like a knight. So I'm wondering if the only kind of reasoning behind this is just to kind of Fix that I guess that's the only I guess but I'm assuming that's where they're going with this is that she wants to. Basically, you know, because she kept all of her mentality of being, like you know, a traitor and her medicinal skills and everything else like that, but she, she doesn't have the physical prowess that she did when she had, when she was a knight. So I'm assuming that she's trying to catch that up.

Speaker 1: 6:53

As to where I think this is going, like I said, all we know right now is she's currently, I guess, just trying to get him to open up more, and I think we're just gonna see more and more of that and then she's gonna Come into her feelings herself. I feel like he's kind of already there and he's trusting her and he expects Great things from her because she keeps surprising him with all these skills that she, of course, he doesn't know that she's gotten from six different lifetimes, um, but yeah, so I guess we're kind of getting that, that, that situation right now, where I guess she's then going to up her physical prowess to match what she knows Fighting like a knight and then From there, I'm assuming some kind of political thing is going to happen, because he opened a letter from somebody. We don't really know who it was from, but it kind of looked concerning. So I'm assuming that maybe there's either gonna be a fight or there's going to be. There's gonna be. There hasn't really been much of a conflict yet, which is kind of interesting. If this is gonna be a 12 episode one, so I'm assuming that it would have to be next episode that we would at least need to be Introduced to some kind of conflict that needs to be solved before the 12th season's over and again, this is just my assumption. You never really know if these things are gonna stretch. Sometimes they stretch to 13 or 14 episodes and Sometimes they can even keep going all the way to like 24. Again, that's a lot more rare nowadays, but it's, it's, it's, it doesn't not happen, I guess. So I guess we can look forward to that and I guess we'll get more information on that the closer we get to the end Of the season, where we get kind of like closer announcements to you know if there is a second in Production or you know if they're gonna take a couple weeks break, or, like I said, we'll get that information closer to. But I do find Interesting that this one doesn't really have a conflict yet and Hopefully we get there soon.

Speaker 1: 8:51

So next one that I kind of want to talk about is Probably the one that is confusing me the most and that's the strongest tanks labyrinth, and again, probably the one with the longest name, the strongest tanks, labyrinth raids. A tank with a rare 999 resistance seal got kicked from the heroes party. Now, when I initially talked about this anime I sure you guys can recollect I thought that this was going to land on the very not generic but like Predictable line of you know, he gets kicked from the party, the hero learns his lesson that Well don't while the hero like gets mad because he Learns that he actually wasn't useless and that now he's useless is his whole hero party is useless without him. And then it usually Becomes like some kind of revenge or petty fight of Well, you know, I guess you could come back to the, to the party, or you know, I'll do you a favor, or they kind of go that route, or they just kind of straight up, just go, I'm better than you and try to fight them, and then that ends up being the huge fight, slash, conflict at the end of the season. This one, however, did not go that route, which was very surprising to me. So in about I want to say it was about episode three or four.

Speaker 1: 10:04

You know, what I thought was going to be the start of a fight with the hero actually ended up being kind of like a, an Apology from the hero. Instead, basically, he meets up with the hero, the hero tried to clear a dungeon that is like threatening the, the nearby village or whatever and he is hurt because he tried to do it himself and he realized that he really couldn't do much by himself. And Then he actually asks for rude's help in doing it and apologizes for what he had done, which was very surprising. I did not. I did not see that coming at all, if you like. I said you listen to what I said Before him.

Speaker 1: 10:45

When this got released, I was so sure that I had this one dead to rights that I knew what it was going to be about, and I was wrong. So I guess credit record is due. However, what I will say about this anime that's really confusing me is I don't really have a clue as to where it's going, so we get kind of introduced that the main reason as to why he is doing these dungeon raids is because he's trying to find, I Guess, the cure to his sister's illness. And again, I don't really know exactly what the the stakes are for this illness, because I guess she's a homebody, I guess, like she doesn't leave the house but like she's, you know, not bedridden. She doesn't, like you know, have like a you know, like a traditional like oh, she can only talk for so long and she starts coughing up along and loses all of her energy and everything. None of that really seems to be happening. So then I initially but either way, like I was like, oh, sister's sick, okay, so that's where they're going with this.

Speaker 1: 11:48

But then basically, episode I think five or something like that, he beats a dungeon, gets this magic crystal that's able to heal, I guess, his sister a little bit of her sickness and Again, there doesn't really seem to be too much of a difference in her behavior, like she's still just around the house and Happy, go, lucky, loves her brother, happy to have a new friend, all that jazz, and then, but so rude, still wants to do the other labyrinths because he wants to get more of these magic crystals. But the stakes are kind of lost on me as to how, like, is the sister gonna die without them? Does she have a hard time living? Because like it's not like she can't walk, it's not like she's bedridden, it's not like she has this terrible Disfigurement or I don't know, it's very hard to like. I said to you to pinpoint the stakes of how Bad this needs to be done. But because I figured that the stakes would be really high, because this is his soul reasoning for doing raids.

Speaker 1: 12:53

But now it's kind of moving away from that in the last couple of episodes, where now he's now taking control and being like the manager of the dungeon that he just defeated and then the boss that he just beat in that dungeon is now part of his party. And Now, because of, like the growing influence of his party or, I guess, his clan or guild or whatever you want to call it, he's now like Avalanche with work, so we can't focus on what he wants to do. So now he wants to make like an alliance with other guilds and it kind of sounds like that the, the the dungeon in that he's in now is more dangerous than the one previous, even though it's kind of the same idea when they need to feed, face this guardian, and he's kind of getting two birds with one stone, where he's gonna get prove himself that he's strong enough to get to get no alliance with these other guilds, but then also get the magic stone for his sister. And I'm not sure if anybody else does this. But, like you know how, sometimes in the opening you can kind of get, I guess, hints as to what's going to be happening in the show. Or, like you know, you see a character and you're like, oh, they haven't been introduced yet and you can see in the opening here there's this like guy with glasses and clearly he's the one that's in charge of the homunculus and everything else like that. And you know they have like the little kids with red eyes. So clearly they're gonna be the baddies or everything else. But again, the other part that confuses me on this is that we're already seven episodes in and we have not met him or the. The big baddie were just In my mind in in the seventh episode. Here we're still not only world building, we're introduced do sing, different aspects like the huge, like the deminoids versus the humans and everything else like that as well, as we're introducing a whole new dungeon which seems to be the same idea as the last dungeon or labyrinth. I guess I keep calling them dungeons, but they're labyrinths and and Though the stakes are the same, it seems to be more difficult. I guess at least that's the way that everybody around is treating the situation. So I guess that's the one that's leaving.

Speaker 1: 15:11

The big question mark on me Is that I have, because in my mind this definitely seems like a 12 episode one to me, and so in the next five episodes you're going to then introduce the main baddie, raise the stakes on that fight, have the fight and then have the, I guess, finish at the end of you know, good guy wins, or or Sets up the second season, or whatever. And I think that's the part that's weird me out is that I would think that now Would have that set up already, or at least the last episode I watched would have been like at least the beginning of the setup, but we don't even have that. So that's I Don't want to say concerning, because it's not like I'm concerned, like I'm obviously keep gonna watching it, it's just I guess I'm just a little confused as to the direction and when this is exactly gonna end up. So I guess you can be excited about that. I guess you can look at it that way, but I'm kind of more just confused and a little concerned more than, I guess, excited, just because I'm really hoping that, like this big bad dungeon that they're setting up and everything else, like that doesn't just get solved in one episode when it was, you know, so hyped up and Then, I don't know, it just feels to me that, like this one is heading in the direction that the ending is going to have to be rushed and like that's, that's it, like that's the only option that they're going to have, which would be unfortunate, because I thought that the beginning of this story was really strong. So I guess, well, we're gonna have to see on that one.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Next on my list we have Mashal. Oh, my god, I am loving this show so much. Has to be my thing, the one that I'm probably excited for every week. It's so fun, it's so silly, there's not much to say. Like, I guess, as we know, mash is currently into the, the exam, basically the divine visionary candidate exam, and you know, we finally just got done the, I guess you Second or first examination. No, second examination, because we had the balloon and then we had this and it now kind of seems like now we're going directly into like almost like a tournament-esque arc. So the last one we just had is basically, you know, he the fight literally just started between Can't remember his name Is a Regro, I think. Anyway, it's the music guy, and basically it looks like that they're about to fight and it can. Honestly, I'm kind of just waiting in like the spectacular mash fashion that he's just going. He's obviously good, because this is especially this is the first round, so obviously he's going to somehow physically Dominate this person who has ridiculous magic.

Speaker 1: 18:24

The one thing that I did find interesting, though and again, I haven't read the source material on this one, so maybe I don't know, but to me this guy seems to be the strongest of the strongest out of all of the candidates and All of a sudden, like right away in the first round of this like kind of tournament-esque 1v1 Examination part, he's already going against the strongest of the strongest in the first round. I'm sure there's a point to that and I'm sure that there's a reasoning behind it, like, but I just find it interesting that I Don't really know where the exam goes from here, unless they are truly going to let mash lose in the first round, but I don't think that's the case, because you know the stakes right now are he becomes a divine visionary or, you know, he basically gets banished with his grandfather in tow. So I Don't know. It's like I said, it's fun and I love it. Don't get me wrong. It's just I have no idea where it's going right now because, if I had to make an assumption, he is going to win the fight. He's gonna win the first round by, like I said, some physical, dominate, domineering fashion and it's gonna be ridiculous and hilarious and I'm gonna love it, but I have like it. From what it seems, is that that that other divine visionary who's, so you know, hell bent on sending on, like, following the rules and everything else, a pet like? Obviously he's gonna get himself involved if he moves on any further in this exam. But does that mean that he's just going to try and sabotage the exam? Is he just gonna full out, just go crazy and try and take him out, not caring about the exam? I don't know. Like I said, I'm sure he's going to be involved at some point. But, as we can see, mash is getting more and more of the of the other divine visionaries in his corner. So I think that will help him in the end. But I am very interested, obviously, to see where this goes, because I honestly Couldn't give you a good guess as to where it's gonna go. And you know what? I think that's part of the fun because of how ridiculous the show is. So that's all I have to say on that one.

Speaker 1: 20:41

So the next one that I want to bring up is the unwanted undead adventurer. Now, this one, like I said, I I've been liking all week as well. This one's great when we're kind of at right now, it kind of seems he's he's now trusted another person with his secret that he has, you know, come back as an undead. We're kind of getting more and more of an idea of, like you know, the rent that everybody Loved and everything else like that, and people are liking his new, which I also found hilarious, is that he's gonna come back as a different person but use the exact same name, but just change the last name, because you know there could be more than one rent, even though you know he has the exact same height, has the exact same magic, like powers, use it, like usages that he uses and everything else like that, and is going to all of the same places the guild, the blacksmith, the, the, the apothecary, all the other different places that he went to when he was before he was undead and then didn't expect anybody to discover who he was. So, yeah, kind of more and more we're getting the people that are trusting him, that are helping him.

Speaker 1: 21:54

As we saw in the last episode, he's back to the rank. That, which is kind of interesting I guess you can say In that aspect, is he's finally back to the rank that he was before he was undead, and and it's clear how much stronger he is, because the last time this happened it took him 10 years to get to the rank, and this time he's been part of the guild for like a month and he's already back to the rank he was before he died. It's kind of showing that, like, even if he's, like you know, an undead, he's still a monster and everything else like that. He's still a really nice dude that helps people when he can.

Speaker 1: 22:34

In terms of stakes and as to where this is going, obviously the only stakes that are kind of readily available right now is Don't get, don't get discovered as an undead by the general public. I would say that's the one glaring, obvious one. But apart from that there's really no you know classic big baddie or classic everything else, like really, what we're waiting for is, I guess, the next step in his evolution and what he's going to have to do to get there. Now that he's passed the exam, I'm going to make the assumption that he's going to be able to do, you know, harder quests or requests or whatever and Get stronger. That way, I'm assuming he's going to go into a dungeon that has a stronger boss beat that he's going to evolve, probably go to the final evolution stage before, like the closest that he can get to a human, at least for now, and then I'm assuming that's probably where this season is going to end and Then we, you know, keep our fingers crossed that we get a second season Further from that. I think that's kind of the only place this one really can go right now.

Speaker 1: 23:44

Like I said, I wouldn't say that this one is like Breaking any barriers by its grand storytelling, by any means, but it's, it's a fun watch, it's, it's cool to. It's a cool, you know, thing to watch if you, if you like the fantasy ones where, like you know, they're dungeon diving and, you know, facing things that you would see in, like you know, like your generalization of you know, elder scroll games or whatever else, and it's a fun thing to watch. And you know, you get that little, I guess, concern in your chest area where you know who's he gonna get caught, how's he gonna get caught, and I guess there's some fun in that. But yeah, that would be my prediction for that one. And then, last but certainly not least, the big heavyweight for this season solo leveling. As it stands right now, I have to assume that this one is going to go over 12 episodes.

Speaker 1: 24:39

I'm not sure if that's the plan, but as it stands right now, due to the pacing and everything else like that, like as it is as it stands right now, he he, you know, did his first kind of. He murdered people there's really no other way that I could put that delicately and the interesting part is that he's learning that the system is kind of almost controlling his actions, because this, what this, like you know he was either, you know, protect yourself and kill off these people that are trying to kill you, or your, your heart's gonna stop. So obviously, I guess in that sense you can also talk about the idea of that. He really didn't have a choice in the matter, as we know. If you haven't read the source material, then I'm sorry if this is a spoiler to you, but essentially where we're moving to right now is, you know, he's probably going to make that or make have the beginnings of making the guild with his new friend there and Essentially that's where we're at.

Speaker 1: 25:46

Obviously, at the end of the last episode he had just faced the week, the beginning of the S rank Dungeon, and has learned that the elixir of life exists. As we all know, the elixir of life is what he wants to cure his mother. So I think the idea here obviously where we're gonna go from here Is he's gonna train to do harder to get the elixir of life to make his mother better. That's kind of the stakes currently, right now for his character. As to where it goes, I know where it goes because I've read the source material.

Speaker 1: 26:24

As to my idea as to where I think this is going to end, due to the way that they're pacing and everything else like that, I am truly hoping that we're not only getting stuck with 12, because 12 episodes from now, from the pace that we're currently going, I can maybe see the beginnings of the guild and Then maybe they tease that they're gonna take a season off and the show comes back from then. That would be my best guess right now. But, like, like it is, we're all Loving watching it animated. I think it's. I think it's honestly Exceeding our expectations and the way that we thought it was going to look In the way that the fights are and everything else like that. So I don't think there's really anything to be upset about right now. Like I said, I am a little concerned as to where they they are gonna put the stop sign on this one, but I do also find the, the idea of it interesting, because we all know that the source materials is done like, like. So, theoretically, if they truly wanted to, they could just Do the whole thing in one go and just keep going until it's done. I, I do not see that happening, but one can hope. But, yeah, that's sorry that that took so long, guys, to get the catch up done. I'm obviously my idea At the end of this is at the end of the season, we're gonna we're gonna review these titles again about how I felt that they ended. Or, you know, maybe in solo leveling case, hopefully it'll still be going and yeah. So again, I kind of took a break from answering any questions this time, just because I that was the entire episode last time Just to kind of give an idea of what I'm currently reading.

Speaker 1: 28:14

I am currently reading one that is called daughter of the spirit king. Pretty fun, pretty cool idea. You know, person basically got sent to the real world, spent her whole life being a regular you know Korean citizen, and then she gets dragged back by her spear king dad and learns that, you know, there's this whole other world where there's magic and spirits, and she's kind of, you know, working her way around that and Having life right now. Again, I'm pretty early in. I'm only like 25 chapters in, but so far so good. I'm enjoying it and, you know, it's not only, it's a complete one too. So I'm gonna be able to read this one to completion and I'm hoping it's good. So, yeah, so I'm hoping to Get some more questions, maybe for next week, you know. So, like I said, rival X reviews on all the social medias. Rival X reviews at gmailcom. You want to email me and and, yeah, I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye, bye you.