Arum Journal

The whole Gratitude Day stuff is honestly adorable. However, I can tell it’s foreshadowing Sheena’s possible future: finding a way to get reverse Mimi’s immortality. All the hints are shown with her interest in finding a way for Mimi to stop fighting and that she has healing magic that’s not brought into the spotlight just yet due to its weak powers.

The two older girls who were kissing on the staircase in the first episode are revealed in this episode—well, just one of them. The brown-haired girl’s name is Esther and she lost her roommate and girlfriend. This is the first time an older student is shown and it just showcases the cruelty of war. No matter how much you love someone, war will drive them apart and only grief remains. Esther uses Gratitude Day as a way to get rid of her girlfriend’s stuff, which is sad, but understandable. She is voiced by Haruka Shiraishi who always seems to appear in some anime I watch for reviews… I mean, she’s still a talented voice actress nonetheless. She voiced Luna in Champignon Witch, Reiko Kujirai in Kowloon Generic Romance and Karen Morita in Blue Box.

Because of the nature of war in this story, Mimi’s status as a living weapon has made her take lives without much thought. This has made Sheena conflicted because she cares a lot about Mimi, but her taking lives without hesitation does raise a question if Mimi will kill her fellow students without remorse if given the orders. It’s also risky to make Mimi think about the preciousness of lives. Fran even makes a good point: it’s either Mimi or the students. Mimi has to keep fighting to protect the world and prevent an increase in student casualties but if she refuses to fight, then the students have to fight in her place and there will be more deaths. Both sides warrant unhappiness either way. It’s really unfair, in a way. 

I’m doing my best not to reveal too much since I read the manga, but the theories I’ve concocted are the ones I genuinely had when I was reading it. Oh yeah, Haru also showed up in the episode, but she didn’t do much; she’s still very elusive. Anyways, if you’re not familiar with daisies, in the flower language, it symbolizes innocence, purity, loyal love, etc. All of these fit Sheena and Mimi both in their relationship and them as characters in a way. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

Akiha is quite the character. Him being on campus to scout boys does make him seem like a weirdo at first, but it turns out that he’s allowed on campus as he’s an alumnus. He also had a crush on Umeda when he was a student that still seems to present even as an adult; he’s quite something if he can make the resident man-killer Umeda start panicking. However, he’s also a divorced man and his ex-wife Ebi is still a co-worker. He has quite the spontaneous life, honestly. Regardless, he takes pride in his job as a photographer. Honestly, I do like that the anime’s budget went up a bit for this episode because all of those photos were really good quality. The fact that he mostly does monochrome photographs is quite interesting. I know nothing about photography, but I do wonder how monochrome differs from other types.

However, what the whole modeling thing did bring on a positive note is that it made Mizuki horny for Sano. I honestly like that Mizuki’s eyes are only for Sano and her feelings are both pure and impure. I need more shoujo heroines horny for their love interests, honestly! That girl was dreaming about Sano to the point that it made her sleeping habits even worse by clinging onto him like a koala to the point that he had to sleep on the floor because his feelings for her are also growing stronger by the day.

Ebi is voiced by Yumi Uchiyama who voiced Fran in Kimi Shinu and Sakurazawa in Daemons of the Shadow Realm. The entitled model Mari is voiced by Yukiyo Fujii who voiced Sailor Saturn in Sailor Moon Crystal and Stella in Digimon Beatbreak. Given that the next episode continues with the modeling mini-arc, I can’t wait to see more of Ebi. She seems cool; Mari, not so much…

Also, props to Ebi for figuring out Mizuki’s gender unknowingly. Hopefully, Sano will forgive Mizuki next episode because he’s still a big softie for her regardless. I honestly wonder what the next part of the story will be about. I’ll have to wait a week to find out. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

The episode does jump around from several perspectives, but the main focus was definitely Gabby vs Akio. That flight was pretty cool. Though, I do have to commend Misaki Kuno’s voice acting because she’s usually voicing cuties, so for her to voice a hot-blooded loll like her and use a lower range to speak is honestly so cool. Akio’s Daemons, Mountain God, were pretty formidable, but they don’t seem too strong as combat-based mons. Gabriel easily annihilated them. Also, I was chuckling when Midori showed up and enveloped Akio in his balls. I think that was the most expressive he has been so far.

Gonzo Kagemori proves yet again why he is OP. His main Daemon is Hyakki Yako, which translates to Night Parade of Hundred Demons. It’s something that’s mentioned in some yokai stories, like Yohaji and even in The Case Study of Vanitas where the Charlatan’s parade is loosely based on that concept. He’s here collecting Daemons like Pokemon. Also, I find the switching between Natsuki and Asa creatively pulled because in the previous episode, Natsuki’s eyes were covered by her glasses, so it was hard to tell what was wrong with her. Natsuki and Asa share the same hair color and are about the same height, but they have different eye colors, so making the glasses shine conceal them was clever because the eye color would be a dead giveaway.

I still can’t help but to commend how active Yuru is. Even when laying low, he doesn’t hesitate to turn his situation into his favor. All those weapons he crafted with Ken had purpose: they were used for protection. The grappling hook he made was pretty creative. Still, Shingo had the upper hand since he has Daemons while Yuru’s are preoccupied with Ivan, which he doesn’t know about.

Anyways, the battle of the daemons are hilarious when you realize that they’re all voiced by Ayumu Murase, aside from Bunbun and Torty. Natsuki’s daemons are Namomihagi, which are based on the Namahage. If you watched My New Boss is Goofy, you might be familiar with them as Shirosaki is afraid of them.

Honestly, I feel bad for the Kuroya siblings the most. Their youngest is the traitor and they can’t do anything about it. I do hope they get some questions out of him soon. Why did he betray them? It doesn’t seem like Akio is working for Asuma or Shingo… who is he working for, then? Let me know your thoughts!

I do like how different each brother thinks. Tolui isn’t as intelligent as his older brothers, but he has the best mindset when it comes to war and attrition. Ogedei, despite his own set of cruelties, seems to desire community due to his desire of wanting a hub city. Chagatai seems like the guy who sucks up to those higher up in power just so he doesn’t cause any instability, but secretly disagrees with mostly everything Ogedei concocts. They’re not evil for the sake of being evil, but they have nuances to them.

I do like that the conversation between Moge and Boraqchin rivals Toregene and Sitara. People say that Moge is a foil of Sitara, but I think that’s false; she’s more of a foil towards Toregene in that both have to rely on the more intelligent. By the way, Boraqchin is the Khatun, or the Empress, since she is Ogedei’s first wife. She is a brilliant woman who’s unfortunately bedridden due to illness. In a way, Boraqchin is Sitara’s unknown rival in that both have brilliant plans but are handling them differently. For Sitara, she believes that letting Tolui conquer Kaifeng is for the best, while Boraqchin thinks it should be stopped. I honestly wait to see which side will win in this game of strategy.

Boraqchin is voiced by Kujira who voiced Orochimaru in Naruto, Sakura Ogami in Danganronpa and Ikki Juno in Journal with Witch. There are also an influx of new characters introduced in the kurultai. There are Jochi’s two sons—Jochi’s passing is finally mentioned, by the way. Anyways, his first son is Orda (the one in yellow) who’s voiced by Masayuki Sato; Sato mostly voices supporting characters in various media. His second son is Batu who is voiced by Sohei Horikane who also voiced various supporting characters in various media. There’s also Otai who’s name his father Temuge can’t get right; he’s voiced by Shuichi Uchida who also voiced various supporting characters in various media. It does make me wonder if they’ll all play some part in the story in the future…

There are also a few returning characters like Chinqai. Remember him? He’s the Uyghur man from Episode 3! He’s now working under Ogedei. Shira also returns briefly. Qadaq also returns, but I do wonder who he’s working for. I’m guessing he works for someone in Chagatai’s faction or one of Ogedei’s wives? I honestly can’t wait to see what happens next. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

Seeing Lara struggle with job interviews and never getting a response back just got me having my own war flashbacks of trying to find jobs in my 20’s. Job boards really do have weird specifications despite the fact that you’re qualified most of the time… Fortunately, both Lara and Mari get hired at a cake shop with its building looking like a castle. Mari handles the front while Lara works in the kitchen. By the way, did anyone notice that the cake shop is called Anderken, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The Little Mermaid?

My only issue with this episode is the fact Lara is very hasty and impatient with her job. She never gets severely punished for rushing things. On top of that, I don’t think Lara has a time limit or anything regarding her goal to find true love. I feel like someone should’ve told her a lesson about how rushing and being impatient won’t get her anywhere. I think the only lesson she got out of her job is that there are sides to many people, but I feel like it wasn’t shown enough.

The abrupt reunion between Lisa and Lara does make it seem as if the story is setting up Lisa to be the main antagonist and not Grace. She has disdain towards humans despite having human legs. Come to think of it, Grace was being pretty vague about the royal family going to sleep; she didn’t say all of them were. Did she know Lisa was missing and didn’t say anything about it? Other than that, I don’t think Kota is dead because when the fish rock thing crashed into the car, you can see something fall into the water last minute—though, it could just be car pieces…

The shop owner, Seta, is voiced by Kenji Fukuda who voiced Mayu’s father in Wonderful Precure. Ishiyama, one of the male employees, is voiced by Tasuku Kaito, who voiced Bachira in Blue Lock. Like I mentioned before, I do like that they don’t cast super popular voice actors for this anime and use mostly ones with some experience under their belts or a complete rookie like Mari’s voice actress.

Also, am I the only one who sensed death flags towards Lara when she used the camera? Will Lara die to restore her family back after finding true love? It does give off that she’ll have to go away after finding love given her special powers and such. I do wonder what’s going to happen towards the end… Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

The flashback of how Kyo and Asuka met was super cute. Asuka was a super extrovert while Kyo was an introvert who got into fights. The orphanage Kyo was in was a facility run by Tasuku Tenma, Asuka and Tomoro’s grandfather, who was housing orphans affected by the Kano Island incident, with Kyo being one of them. The way they met and how they became friends was adorable, but since the title of the episode is called “Cherry Blossom Friendship”, it was short-lived due to cherry blossoms symbolizing impermanence; it also means rebirth because meeting and caring for Asuka caused Kyo to be reborn as a Cleaner when Cougarmon was born. This means that Kyo became a Cleaner at 7 and lived that life for around three years before becoming a member of the Five Stars at 11 (It’s three, not four because Kyo was 7 going on 8).

A few details of the Kyo and Asuka flashback you might have missed: there’s a shot where Kyo and Asuka have a glimpse of Shangri-la Egg and it’s in the same state as it was during Maki’s flashback, meaning it was 15 years ago. A staff member that worked on this episode confirmed Asuka’s age in the flashback to be 7 as the staff mentioned Asuka’s behavior and movements was based on their friend’s seven-year-old son, which is cute. Since the current year in the story is 2050, the flashback took place 2035 and, since it’s spring, this means that Tomoro was only around 2 months old at the time (he was born January 20). It’s kind of hilarious knowing that Kyo and Asuka were having the time of their lives while Maki was out fending for her life in the same year and had to experience Panjyamon dying too…

I also like that this flashback gives a lot of insight to Dr. Tenma. He opened up the Sakura Orphanage because of his regrets for the casualties caused by him and Chairman Wong. He’s also the creator of the Sapotamas, but warned Asuka and Kyo to be cautious of them. He also seemed to be on good terms with his family as Asuka came to visit him occasionally and was even a drummer like his grandsons; given his hair color being closer to Asuka than Tomoro’s, he’s definitely his paternal grandfather as Papa Tenma has brown hair while Mama Tenma has purple with the yellow streak. Also, Yoshimura even tells Tomoro how he and Dr. Tenma go way back and it makes me wonder why this hasn’t been brought up until now… I wonder about Dr. Tenma’s current whereabouts…

With Kishiwada instilling himself as a prominent character for this final arc, I can’t help but wonder what role he’s going to play. A part of me thinks he’s going to be the final boss, but then that would make Genjo wasted potential since there were a lot of hints that Genjo would be the final boss. On the other hand, we don’t even know who Kishiwada is; is he human? Digimon? Also, why does he know so much about the White Core and how it harbored Asuka’s Digimon?

Yeah, the twist of Asuka becoming possessed was obvious, but I didn’t expect that Asuka would give birth to a Digimon with a power very similar to the one that Wong is seeking out. On top of that, it happened four years ago, meaning it hatched a year after the Tenma parents got arrested. Heliosboamon has a sun motif and Gekkomon has a moon motif. Are they trying to create an mon with an eclipse motif or something?

Speaking of Heliosboamon, they’re voiced by Yukana who voiced Lalamon and her evolution line in Digimon Savers and New Century as well as Sistermon Ciel in Ghost Game. I’m using they/them because I don’t know what gender Heliosboamon is; they could be female due to the female voice actress but they could be male with a female voice like Mephismon. Also, the pink-haired nurse is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi who voiced Rui’s mother in 02: The Beginning; outside of Digimon, she’s known for voicing Dawn from the Pokemon anime and Junko Enoshima in Danganronpa. Also, why do people think she’s Jokermon’s Owner from Episode 28? Their voice actresses are different, meaning that they’re not the same person!  Oh and if you're wondering about the voice actresses for young Kyo and Asuka...they're voiced by Pristimon and Maki's respectively.

Anyways, with the good news that Rose has been restored from Cold Heart, it does seem like she’ll be playing an active role later on but helping Kyo and his family. This would mean that Kaito and Honoka are not going to be active for the climax. Kaito has shown up a few episodes ago to stop Brilliant Thorns, but what has Honoka contributed to the story? I feel like she’s going to be the most wasted potential… Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

The English “witches” are pretty crazy regarding their abilities. I feel like they’re a bit more thorough with showcasing their abilities. Also, I do admit that they do have a better grasp on the ability gimmick because they’re a co-ed society while Iwamoto and his squad are all men from an all-male military school. So yeah, it was pretty crazy to see women in a shounen story like this…

Regardless, I do think their abilities are cool but their names are as ridiculous as Neptune’s. Crystal Flavor (who is in charge of these names) has an ability where she can make bubbles made out of special solvent that can make the foam stick onto anything when it pops. Igni’s ability seems to be his creepy snake coins, but I feel like there’s more to him since he seems to be the focal character. Rosemary Pinkgold (WHAT IS THIS NAME) has an ability where he can summon very thick thorns that almost seem metallic. Ability-wise, the English got the upper hand since they are all shown off right off the bat.

On the Japanese side, Haramachi got an upgrade as he has a gauntlet that shoots needle projectiles made by the Research team. Sazame also appears last minute to showcase his ability, which is using his umbrella to cut through sharp objects. Sekiei, the target that both sides are after, has a copy ability. The only bad thing about the Japanese side is that the characters don’t showcase their abilities right off the bat because they don’t have good control over them, like how Amaba had to risk his life to stop Neptune and had to untie his hair in the process.

Crystal Flavor is voiced by Ayana Taketatsu who voiced Nino Nakano in The Quintessential Quintuplets, Aura the Guillotine in Frieren and Nadeshiko Yamato in 100 Girlfriends. Igni is voiced by Yoshiyuki Shimotsuma who voiced Takeda in Assassination Classroom. Rosemary is voiced by Makoto Yasumura who mostly voiced a lot of supporting characters, but also voiced Layle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.

Anyways, I do wonder why they decided to showcase this “war” between the English and Japanese this quick? Aren’t these types of plot points usually towards the end? What are they cooking? Let me know your thoughts on this episode!