This is the first episode of this series where I’m struggling to think up what to say for my little “pre-review” paragraph. Um…Sunday is the perfect day to sit down and watch a chill anime? …yeah, let’s say that’s good enough for this and just go straight to the review because I’m struggling to come up with ANYTHING.
The episode begins right where the previous episode left off: with Takumi, Alan, and Elena meeting Takumi’s two new contracted beasts! They’re both highly-ranked beasts as well…and they’re nameless, so Takumi has to give them names! He chooses to name the tiger Feat and the bird Bolt, which…I can understand why the bird got named Bolt, but why name the tiger FEAT?! Is that just a word for something connecting to the tiger in this world or something?
*ahem* That’s…probably a stupid nitpick of mine. It’s not a conventional name, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. It’s just that this is the first time that I’ve seen Feat used as a name in media as far as I can recall. Anyway, back to the review.
The kids love the two contracted beasts…and Takumi also has collars from one (or more) of the gods to give them, as well as Joule! And through magic or something, the collars can still fit Joule and Feat (who both have the Shrink skill/ability/whatever) when they’re shrunk down…which now apparently means they can stay out of Takumi’s shadow because people will think they’re a dog and cat. Which…I guess is fine, even if it completely defeats the purpose of introducing the fact that contracted beasts can hide in people’s shadows in the previous episode. Honestly, Takumi could’ve had Joule use shrink and state that he’d be on good behavior instead of having him hide in his shadow and introduce the concept of contracted beasts hiding in shadows THIS EPISODE instead. Now, I’m not a pet owner, so I expect this probably wouldn’t work, but…this could’ve been worked around a LOT easier.
The kids make comments that they want collars…but of course, that would be weird to see on children. So what does Takumi do instead? He pulls out some necklaces (which are specifically stated to be from the water god), that way the kids don’t get sad! It also adds some handy effects, meaning they exist for more than just decoration purposes! YIPPIE! They also get bags to hold their stuff, that way they won’t need to rely on Takumi for that!
Anyway, the three head back to town, with Alan and Elena taking the initiative in showing their IDs to the guard. While in town, Takumi decides to buy items for Elena, as he knows of items that girls like that would be available in this world. He ends up buying her two sets of ribbons – one that’s yellow, which was his choice, and one that is black, which was Elena’s choice due to it matching Takumi’s hair. The shopkeeper also has the kids try on outfits she made, as she’s also a tailor!
Out of all the outfits they wore, they liked the ones pictured above the best, even going as far as to refer to the other by the name of the animal that their outfit is most like, either in species or in color. Takumi ends up deciding to buy these for them, which I hope ends up coming back later in the series. After all, I don’t think these would be given much more screen time compared to the other outfits if they weren’t going to return.
During a night in the inn, everything is peaceful. However, it’s also revealed that Takumi wants to buy something for Alan…but doesn’t know what’s available in this world that is similar to what he got as a kid.
Honestly, the easiest answer here is to say “screw gender stereotypes” and get Alan some more feminine stuff, just to see if he likes them. And if not, then he can ask Alan what he would like, and see if the kid is smart enough to point in the right direction.
But now, FINALLY, we’re getting into the namesake of the episode, as well as the thing that was revealed back in Episode 1…the expedition to cull monsters! After joining up with everyone, they head into the same forest that Takumi woke up and found the kids in, to do the thing! Oh, and Takumi felt a presence, but I’ll get back to that later. We then get introduced to new characters, and the kids end up sensing an enemy, which is revealed to be a red wolf. However, the kids end up taking it down before the adults can, leading to Vault asking how the kids were so strong.
Of course, based on what I know of Vault so far, this feels OOC. He was the one that was insisting that not all newcomers were rookies, which would likely in turn mean that not all newcomers are weak. While this does get pointed out by Takumi and he says that Vault was even there when Alan and Elena took down an C-rank adventurer, Vault said that he thought that adventurer was going easy just because the two were kids?! While that IS a reasonable conclusion, he seemed like the type of guy who WOULDN’T go easy on kids!
Takumi does let the kids know that they should let the adults deal with the monsters, which they agree to. Of course, this means the kids are also busy keeping an eye out for items, and they do end up finding some items that could be considered rare. Of course, this is getting gathered while the captain is getting yelled at by one of the other characters because he tried to directly grab it in a clump. When it is done getting gathered, Alan and Elena hand it to the lecturer, who seems to not mind it. The group also ends up coming across some orcs, and Takumi takes one of them down on his own…which again, Vault appears to act OOC and complains about how strong Takumi is. However, an A-rank adventurer with them was like “don’t worry, I’ll talk to the boss and get him to raise your rank”…which apparently can happen in this world if you get at a high enough rank? I dunno man, this part just seems WAY too convenient, and I don’t think even divine intervention can explain it.
However, the kids ask for a snack, causing all the adventurers to take a break and have a snack. The kids end up having some legendary bread, which the other knights are envious about…and after Vault failed to get some bread from the kids, Takumi decides to share more bread with the adventurers. After this break, the group finds a red flare, meaning that someone is calling for help…and Takumi picks up the kids and uses a skill to fly away.
They end up fighting against some bloody wolves, which are variants of red wolves, and the three end up taking all of them down, which yet again, Vault gets shocked over. After a conversation that basically ends up as “the kids have permission to harm Vault!”, Takumi feels the presence from earlier, feeling as if it’s watching them. We get a tease of who this person is before the credits roll.
Eh…I’m on the fence about this episode. While we got to the expedition, that plot still appears to be in progress. On the other, Vault didn’t really feel like the Vault that I got introduced to in Episode 1, as well as the thing with the collars and how that felt more like the place to introduce the concept of contracted beasts going into shadows rather than the previous episode. However, I’m gonna stay optimistic…while I was originally planning to apply the three-episode rule here, I’m gonna give this show ONE more episode to either make or break the series for me, as it feels like the expedition will get wrapped up by the next episode. This is not a 100% guarantee that after next week I’ll continue watching the show, but I’m giving it one last chance to try and make me feel like picking to watch this show was a good idea. Well, I’ll see you then…unless I finish something else that I choose to make for the blog earlier.
Additional posts about A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring:
Sara Talks Anime 
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