[We’re kicking off our weekly GLORIO anime coverage with brief recaps and impressions of our favorite shows of the season. We promise to keep it safe and professional on the main page, but be warned: once you click “read more” we’ll be flying those spoiler flags nice and high.]

Recap: While the war games between Biscotti and Galette carry on, Couver, the Princess of the Principality of Pastillage, has set her sights on Rebecca as her nation’s ticket into the fun. Will Rebecca accept her call and finally join the battle?

ItsaTimmy’s Thoughts: 

If there is one thing Dog Days has consistently nailed thus far, It is expressing how much these characters enjoy competing in and watching these organised wars. Everything about them is flashy as hell and way over the top. It doesn’t take long before the two heroes finally meet up and partake in a “conversation” that escalates to them firing magical beams at each other. After the dust settles and one rather unfriendly artillery strike later our heroes find themselves, much to Cinque’s dismay of seeing his cousin stripped down to her cat-themed undergarments, minus some battle armor. While this is going on the heroes’ escorts, Galette’s Princess Leo and Biscotti’s Eclair and Yukikaze also duke it out with similar results. It is nice to see them step away from the outright nudity a little bit as it would have been just as easy for those two to end up naked. At this point the joke is already becoming slightly overplayed seeing as it was just in the last episode.

With the festivities on break for lunch Couver flies in to expresses her and her country’s interest in joining in on the  reindeer games so naturally they all conspire to stage a big flashy show with it. When things are about to get back underway Couver interrupts them, takes Rebecca hostage, expresses her infatuation with her and her intentions of seducing her, and dares them all to try to save her. These over the top antics are one of the reasons I enjoy this show so much and between this and the flashy introductions and reintroductions of the characters to the battlefield, Dog Days has been nothing short of stellar in this regard. Like I said before, these characters are having tons of fun doing this and it is being expressed perfectly.

Things kick off with Roland and Bernard teaming up to take out Liscia and Pastillage’s flying knights, whose magical rifles aren’t enough to defeat the pair and they ultimately fall to Bernard’s Emblem Cannon. (It’s Super Effective!) Meanwhile, the two heroes Cinque and Nanami find themselves facing off against Callaway. Cinque takes the opportunity to school Nanami in the use of her Bright Power Gear and they both end up taking out their airborne assailant. While the battle continues below Couver asks Rebecca to become Pastillage’s hero. She initially refuses but after a quirky pep talk and Couver saying the she feels exactly the same way she does, Rebecca finally accepts the call. At this point it has become obvious that Rebecca and Couver are going to be the focus this season as they try to keep up and hopefully surpass the friends they aspire too. Not a bad thing at all considering Couver especially is a very entertaining, quirky character that I no doubt look forward to seeing more of.

And then at this point one of the most bizarre magical girl transformation scenes I have ever watched happens. I appreciate the concept of it, the fact that they wanted Rebecca to be totally different from the other two, not to mention the dramatic shift to hand drawn art looks great. The problem is that in the end it just comes across as 50 seconds of mindless, bizarre, awkward fan service. It feels like this was a great idea on paper; make a pretty transformation scene while poking some fun at the genre in the process. The magical tentacles and extended panty shot just ruin the effect for me though. I sincerely hope this was a one time deal.

Other then this one hiccup this episode what otherwise pretty top notch stuff. Watching the characters go at it in over the top battles with cheesy grins on their faces never gets old, and there was more then plenty of that to go around this week.

Lifesong’s Thoughts That Transformation scene! I know I should probably be disgusted but I have to stay I am impressed by the level of attention to detail and how well the mix of animation styles worked. Another thing I feel really needs to be pointed out here is that Aoi Yuuki makes a great hyper active squirl girl. Most of her other roles to date have been a lot more subdued and it’s clear that she is having a lot of fun with this high energy role and in my opinion doing a great job with it.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts [Zigg is waiting on Crunchyroll to put up season one before he dives into Dog Days, but since he is our magical girl expert I showed him the transformation scene for his opinion.-Tim] The bit where it looks like she’s about to get assaulted by a space dildo made me want to punch my screen in.

Marlin’s Thoughts

Dog Days was a show that I watched mostly on Glorio recommendations. While it wasn’t the greatest show in my mind, I recognized it for being cute as all hell and decided to keep with it. This season was keeping up with the really cute and easygoing aesthetic that it had cultivated so far. Then Becky got tentacle raped. Well I guess she activated it. Tentacle Consensual Fondling? Either way that scene was wayyyyyy too creepy for me. Here’s to hoping they never do that again.

Simulcast on Crunchyroll