Dog Days 06 - Mirror Mirror on the Wall

In other words, she is a tsundere.

Well, we finally got our first "real" show of the grimdark turn of events. It was presented in a pretty straightforward manner, which was something I did not expect. How often is a huge change to the tone of an anime presented so directly? This is like blasphemy. I guess they opted out of the shock factor to win over fans.

Watching all of them wag their tails when they're happy is awesome.

I guess I'll start with what happened, first. This scene actually bothered me greatly. We saw the classic screenpanning to the background, and talking rather than the actual fight. I would much rather watch what is happening in the fight than see how sunny the sky is. I found it funny that the other guy is already trying to ship Eclaire and the hero together. That will never work out when you have a princess as the main character. ~Silly character not breaking the 4th wall. XD


The two ninjas got quite a lot of screentime this episode, too. Their identities are clearer now: mercenaries that declared they have a nationality of Biscotti so they are not obligated to defend. That is why they needed a request before coming to aid in the last battle. Still, it seems like they will play a major role in the things to come. Maybe it'll be a secret mission by another nation? It's hard to tell, but I believe that they have a greater purpose here in Biscotti than they lead on.


She sure gets a large amount of screen time for a character that's not even in the animal kingdom. My theory for her right now is that she will be summoned as a hero for another country. She will somehow be masked, and Shinku will accidentally kill her. That's actually highly unlikely, but here is to hoping? I actually doubt she will have any part in this story other than a change of pace at times. If she plays any part, it will be to say something to Shinku that affects him at the crucial moment of a battle.


I guess I should finally address the elephant in the room. Throughout the entire episode, they talked about reading the stars to see the future of other worlds. What they actually meant was staring at a mirror that showed them things. We finally saw Leo-sama's reason for constant attacks against Biscotti. I guess I assumed it was to show her dominance of her own country, since she is still a new ruler, by conquering other countries. It was portrayed a few times that Leo-sama and Millhiore were childhood friends. It's odd to keep attacking your friend, but what she really wanted to do was save her. It's a bit cliche, but I'll let it slide.

It doesn't look that powerful...

As they dabble more into this future prediction stuff, things could get very messy. It is even stated that, as Leo-sama tries to "fix" things, it is only getting worse. Based on the start of this anime, you would assume that a happy ending will ensue, but it will be hard to fit it in after it's portrayed that a butterfly effect is occurring. I did call the hero dying as a twist, but for the princess to die too means things would turn pretty bad. Either the "barrier" to keep them alive is turned off, or they venture into an area that is unprotected. I'm leaning towards the first one, with some links to maybe the two ninjas. You have Leo-sama trying to stop these events, while the ninjas are watching the same mirrors to fulfill the prophecy. Still, after that learning that the winner of the tournament that he came second to was his relative leads me to believe that they might be summoned too, giving him a rematch. I think it is farfetched but still in the realm of possible... At least we learned that he wasn't picked at random and was actually chosen.

Sometimes, bigger is better.

I guess, at this point, I can point out that I called the grimdark twist from back in Episode 2. It was much earlier than the general notice of this. *pats self on back* We got a good amount of information this episode, all that served to thicken the plot. The question will come down to how well-executed this twist will be done. I have faith in this anime. It hasn't really let me down plot-wise, and there were only a few animation hiccups.

~Pearz