Mahoutsukai no Yome Season 2 – 23

That was a rather snappier and more interesting episode of Mahoutsukai, I have to say.  Given that Morrigan is the only really interesting thing to happen in the past few episodes, More-iggan is certainly welcome.

RIP Alcyone.  She’d certainly raised a forest of death (or whatever it is for an artificial fairy) flags, and she figured to go out defending Philomela.  Having “Adam” show up was an interesting turn of events.  He describes himself as a “curse”, a kind of magic time bomb inserted inside Alcyone by the real Adam to kill whoever it was who took out Alcyone.  That would be Lizbeth of course, but he’ll have to take a number here – there’s a lot of jostling in the line to kill that old bat.

Morrigan’s arrival adds to the fun, as always.  I’m still not entirely sure why she showed up again but it seems like the thing summoned by Lizbeth (via the book?) is a sort of God itself, and thus an intruder on her territory.  Lizbeth gets swallowed by it book and all, but she’s no doubt still alive and twirling her moustache in there.  Meanwhile Morrigan summons Ruth as a “hunting dog” but it seems she can’t kill it – as it was summoned by a human apparently a human has to end it (which I guess would let Mama Lycanthrope out).  Elias transforms into steed form to help get the book back, and all seems set up for the final showdown next week.

Spy x Family Season 2 – 11

SpyFam is basically incapable of giving us anything really nice at this point.  Even when it dishes out something with considerable charm like the A-part of this episode, it comes back with a total clunker in the B-part.  I think that’s just the way it is – there are too many truly awful elements about the series to escape them for too long.

The stuff with the kids, though – that really can be charming.  Damian is the best of them because not only do you get the laughs but easily the most engaging storyline in the series, but anytime Anya’s classmates are in focus Spy x Family is likely to click.  There were a lot of nice laughs in the “Berlint in Love” chapter, most of them coming from Becky’s unhinged fantasies about Loid but also Anya’s hilarious reactions.  Her disconnect from reality is total, from with her sheltered cocoon of uber-wealth to her embrace of hackneyed TV romance.  That bit where she was throwing her hair about and Anya copied her was on-point.

I have to say, though, it seems impossible that Yor could be played any dumber than she is.  That would be annoying enough if she were just a regular person, but given her occupation the ridiculousness factor is off the charts.  I just want her to go away, because I don’t think any plot thread she’s tied up in is going to be any good.  And her brother and Fiona, too.  At least those two are seasonal pests, but Yor is close to omnipresent and it’s starting to pose a real problem.