JRPhipps

Jiro is an instantly likeable lead character and he just gets better as the episode progresses. Rago also had charm to him and they worked well as a pair, including comedic moments.

Honestly this reminds me of Inuyasha, in vibes and around the main character. Though this is likely to lean more into the historical than the supernatural. I assume that the 90s / early 2000s aesthetic has been retained from the source material, which may put some people off, but the story feels like it could be really good and I'm excited to see more. This was a successful establishing episode, thoroughly introducing a number of characters as well as the main plot without any unnatural exposition (aside from the typical villain thing of explaining your evil plan to your soon-to-be victim).

I feel like this will primarily be a cosy show with Victoria and Nonna settling in to their new lives. Though I do expect there to be some threat raised by Victoria's former organisation later on. I also wonder if Victoria's combat skills will need to be used along the way. I'm looking forward to finding out.

If anything bad happens to Nonna, I'm single-handedly burning the entire city down.

I suppose that characters with reputations like these must have something going on in their country. It'll be interesting to find out details. Poor Carolina in the meantime has feared for her life a couple of times already. She has still been very brave so far and earnest about not turning away from the realities of what the soldiers face. That has earned her a lot of respect. I hope that things get easier for her from here.

I'd say that the main risk of this show is the sequence of events becoming repetitive, but they could be more creative with it than I expect. Otherwise this is a fun premise and very noticeably has high quality animation - especially whenever Akaishi is being particularly cute, expressive and sparkly. I liked the environmental storytelling details, such as Akaishi having a whole set of coloured pencils but only the greyscale ones have been worn down with use. This said a lot before any conversation took place between the characters. I hope that Minami does continue to be sincere, the moment when he could have stepped away from Akaishi to save his own reputation, he instead took her side. I appreciated that about him and it would be horribly sad for that to be betrayed.

I'll admit straight away that I'm in no position to comment on the accuracy of how this country, time period or religion was portrayed. I hope that it was done with the correct amount of respect and reverence. I can confidently say that these two episodes left me feeling both entranced and emotionally devastated. The art style is unique and beautiful and the characters feel fully developed even if we only know them for a short time. This has enormous potential, so I hope that it comes to fruition.