Recap: The trials have ended and the wedding is completed with no further resistance from Icognito. Of greater concern to Kon is the wedding night, as he just can’t accept the thought of Ecarlate consummating the marriage.

Jel’s Thoughts: This was the most subversive and unsettling episode of anime I’ve seen since the end of Humanity Has Declined, which is to say it was brilliant. Not coincidentally both involved some manner of talking doll or puppet to amp up the creep factor, but in Ixion’s case it also involved a grown man trying to seduce an 8 year old. Pretty hard to top that on the Disturbing Plot Elements scale.

While that premise alone is enough to put a knot in your stomach, the presentation injects just enough humor to keep the show in character without dampening the gravity of the situation. Things get “Brains Base Weird” as I like to call it, presenting Jugglabark’s creepy mating rituals almost like some kind of stage play, spotlights bearing down on the actors. For most of the episode I couldn’t tell if the whole thing was a metaphor or Kon’s twisted imagination, so finding out that’s what actually happened somehow made it even more disturbing. My only complaint is I kind of wish the whole thing had been Ecarlate’s plan all along, to go in as an assassin knowing how she would react on the wedding night.

But I suppose at some point Ixion has to acknowledge our princess is still a child, and as strong as Ecarlate has been until now it may have taken something this big to get her to show it. More importantly though this whole incident galvanizes our party as a close group of friends and sets us up resolving the bigger issue… whatever that is. Judging by next week’s preview it looks like we may finally get some answers in that department, but you never what Ixion might have lined up next. All I know is after this episode it’s going to be a lot harder for Kon to say goodbye to this strange world he’s been in for quite some time now, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out.