The check-in post was a stark reminder of what a daunting challenge a season like this presents for me.  That puts a show like Ousama Ranking: Yuuki no Takarabako right on the hot seat, because anything marginal is a candidate for time saving.  Plus, the first two eps were pleasant but not in any way substantial to the point where they asked a whole lot of me as a writer.

Well, not so much here.  These were, for me, the clear best stories of the season so far.  It’s always nice to see Hilling in a prominent role, first of all – she’s a delightful character, and one of the many so brutally wronged by the catastrophic derailment of the final arc.  The first story felt like it actually filled in a kind of gap, too – we never really saw Hilling after she was exiled by DaidaBosse, or how she managed to return with allies in tow.  She and Ann being old friends was more or less established, but this vignette fleshed out their story nicely.

This was also a pretty nice subplot on its own.  I enjoyed Hilling’s usual combination of passion and bluster, and her decision to heal all the bandits she, Ann, and Dorshe laid waste to and then use a BS spell to keep the leader in line was very much in-character.  The second chapter was again in the line of a pure diversion, but a good one.  It reaches back to before things went south between Bojji and Daida, and seeing the two of them frolic around (Bojji looked pretty much the same to be honest) was quite fun.

I don’t think we ever saw Daida heal anybody (or even express a desire to) in the main series – unless I’ve forgotten that’s an interesting addition to the series canon.  It would actually be interesting to see the early stages of things souring between brothers  (you know Bojji won’t have instigated it) and how that impacted Hilling – who knows, maybe Takarabako will take that on at some point.  If all the episodes were on the level of this one, I think this season would solidly contribute to the franchise as a whole, even if it never proves itself truly essential.  Here’s hoping.