It strikes me that we haven’t had an insert song in weeks – since the season premiere, maybe? For a while there it seemed like we were getting one every week just about. What with a dance party on the docket Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid could hardly have a better pretext, so hopefully we get one next week. For a show without a lot of production flourish, those musical numbers are one of the few ways for it to really stand out in terms of presentation.

What we do get is a very comedy-driven outing, in sharp contrast to last week’s quite serious and moving episode. That’s a common pattern for Shinigami Bocchan, and the focus here is on the relationship front. Starting with Daleth, who’s pining as hard for Walter as ever. She’s hanging out with Amelia the witchy octopus (if you remember, also the Gemini ringmaster’s wife) and asking after a mermaid scale for her transformation to human. Amelia takes her to Atlantis, where they wind up opposing each other in an arm-wresting tournament (sometimes with this show you just don’t ask), and each trying to let the other win. Daleth also refuses (until she forgets) to use the hand that Walter previously grasped in his own.

Viola stops by the detached estate to enlist Alice’s help is sewing a new outfit for Daleth, who’s tired of being mistaken for Sade but doesn’t wish to jettison the only gift her father ever gave her. A sexy black nun’s habit is the result, which would make quite an impression on Walter if he weren’t making an even bigger impression on Daleth via his own wardrobe choice. Later, sorcery school sempai Evelyn swings by, she says to write a report on one of her juniors but clearly to tease Bocchan more than anything. Ichi and Nico, she says, are off in the woods every day practicing for the showdown with Sade – a reminder that episodes like this one are marking time, in a sense.

The upshot of all this is the aforementioned dance party, which has Gerbera too busy to make time for her exiled eldest son. Sharon and Alice do some catching up, and Walter (back in male attire) charms the young ladies in attendance for the party. This proves rather alarming for Daleth when she shows up, and Violet takes it on herself to push her to let Walter know her true feelings officially (though he seems to know the score, more or less).

As Bocchan ones more has a tense encounter with childhood friend Phillip, Daleth (now in a borrowed party dress) nervously ponders the next step from the roof. Despite Viola’s protestations she doesn’t seem to be in any real danger of losing Walter’s affections to another, but Daleth is not exactly awash in self-confidence. Considering that the only pairing Viola seems to have even considered is utterly ludicrous she’s probably not one who should be dispensing relationship advice, but that sort of thing has never stopped her before.