Recap: Another fruit rises in the small village town our heroes have passed through. Since nothing better is going on, the pair take a moment to reflect on their past.

I get where Tempest is going with this kinda modern magic story. However, the thing that really stretches the limits of suspension of disbelief is this whole black iron syndrome. In this information age, no one would believe, even with a quarantine, that no one would be able to contact their families outside of the affected areas. Plus, are magically affected individuals the only ones able to see these fruits? Something tells me I’d be able to notice a giant asteroid sized monstrosity of pure horror if it was just flying around. Still, despite my problems, the scene with the two children was pretty well set and while killing children is an easy pity grab I felt they gave it the gravitas it deserved.

Next we get a bit of backstory. Yknow one of my pet peeves about a lot of japanese stories? Children are inexplicably knowledgeable. This is by no means a knock on children, children can be smart, but the level of worldliness these elementary school children have is far beyond reasonable expectations. I suppose you could chalk Mahiro’s cynicism to his upbringing, but there is no reason as to why Yashiro somehow has the ability as a nine year old child to conduct a complete police investigation on his own. It just really brought me out of the whole thing to hear him talk like he became possessed by the spirit of Conan Edogawa or some shit. It was a nice way to show how these characters are connected, but it really didn’t do much else for me.

I’m also left to wonder how exactly these two are supposed to do anything. We already have been shown that Samon’s stepping up this game, and these are just two dudes on foot with no idea where to go to stop this whole world destruction plot. I was also once again forced to ask myself who this show is really for. After this episode I would think this is some kind of fujoshi bait with the inexplicable bath scenes. That just makes Hakaze’s fanservice moments even stranger. Is it trying to appeal to both sides of the aisle or something? Oh well, at least the next episode looks to bring back the action, which is really what kept me with this show to begin with.