We’re back in the fantasy world, this time with the original ten side stories narrative. To the staff of Wit Studio, It’s a fun way to flesh out the background and build on the main narrative while (hopefully) preparing for a full-blown second season in the future. There are a lot of interesting characters, and there are plenty of threads left for the crew to keep using when the first season ends. For example, we also need to explore the full story behind Milancho and the demon. Bosch has an entire travelogue that includes imperialist-facilitated exploits that are left to be explained. We know very little about Hiling’s life before marrying Bosse. The opening sequence teases some of this and more (tell me anything about the Underworld family!), but the first two episodes stick with two mostly inconsequential outings with Bojji and Kage. The first episode is Fluffy back during training with Bojji and Kage with Despa(Takahiro Sakurai
Reprising the role after a scandal cost him to several others) After Desper woke up with a new wrinkle, he acted like a total queen and sent Kage to find a rare Mushrooms to restore his beauty. Ultimately, Kage lands in a classic fairy-tale setting. He meets an old woman, completes a series of quests, and she rewards him with mushrooms. Later, Bojji and Kage try to get a job because Despa is a cheapskate and Bojji needs real world experience. They completely fail at this and end up being something akin to carnival revelers. This wouldn’t be if The industry listens to me, the opening episode of the season. I’m not particularly fond of Despa, aside from the comedy, and the events of this episode don’t add any color to the main narrative. It’s cute, but there’s not much else to say about it. Bojji doesn’t learn anything about how the world works other than how to set up a rigged game. The closest thing Despar has taught him to be moral is that charity is for fools and that we should lock poor children into 0% loans. The second episode is more exciting , if only because we see strange sky animals again and don’t learn more about them. In one of my favorite episodes of the first season, Bojji meets a king in the woods and together they perform a ritual dance to honor the dead. Then a huge cloud appears and absorbs the animal spirits, feeding the fresh animals back into the forest. This episode doesn’t add much more context to that, but it does add more weirdness. Ying and Baoji are Traveling back to Bosch Kingdom after finishing training with Desper (after episode 01, previous episode ). Confronting three thieves in the desert isn’t particularly fun, but the second part of the episode introduces an oasis (or mirage) that’s home to a group of animal spirits. Bojji and his entourage warm up to them quickly, until a giant spirit (which seems to be deliberately invoking the fable of the blind man and the elephant) appears to retrieve its baby. “Chased by a monster who just wants its cute kid back” is a shabby cartoon premise, but I love the extra Weird minutes where the entire oasis is sucked into the sky (via the Cloud God Thing) and disappears again. I do not need know why. The less I know, the more wtf-ery fun. In a medium that often over-explains combat tactics, character motivations, and fantasy worlds, I’m happy to assume all of that myself. However, these two episodes did not impress me. The technical work on display is solid, but not awesome, and the plot is too loose from the start. Part of what drew me to the original series was the emotionally intelligent writing, but the first two episodes lacked any sense of gravitas. The first season already did contextual errands, Treasure Chest of Courage need to take advantage of it. Rating: is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
