English Dub Review: The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar “Beautiful Moon”

This episode is legendary.

Overview (spoilers!)

Early in the morning, Run runs into Felicia. She asks what makes Felicia’s breasts so perky, and the two wonder what sort of women Yuuto is used to back home.

In modern-day Japan, Mitsuki’s friend Ruri hopes that Yuuto will come back soon. She invites Mitsuki over to meet her cousin Saya, who conveniently has a Ph.D. in Archaeology. Mitsuki avows to ask Saya about Yggdrasil.

Saya remarks on the number of similarities between Yggdrasil and Norse mythology. She wonders if Yuuto might be connected with both Fenrir (a mythological figure who is not explained in any way whatsoever) and fiery Surtr (a giant fated to destroy the nine realms). She suggests that Yuuto is participating in events that will become the origins of Norse myths. A terrified Mitsuki remembers that Fenrir dies at the end of the story. Her friends assure her that they don’t know what will happen to Yuuto.

After Mitsuki fails to pick up his calls, Yuuto sits and has some wine with Scarfior. He then abruptly asks Scarfior to punch him in the face as hard as he can (I’ll do it, Yuuto!). Yuuto is angry at himself for his weakness during the Wolf Clan’s battle with the Panther Clan. Scarfior instead offers him a drink and a promise that he’ll look after Run in case Steinthor returns.

Felicia, Linnea, and Ingrid ask for Run’s help in sewing a new cape for Yuuto. Meanwhile, Loptr (whose name is apparently Rungr now? okay?) fumes about how much he wants to kill Yuuto. It’s all very dramatic.

Mitsuki calls Yuuto to wish him a happy new year and tell him about Saya’s theory. She tries to confess her feelings, but Yuuto interrupts her, demanding to know whether Saya is a boy or a girl, because he doesn’t want Mitsuki hanging out with boys. Controlling, much? I mean, it’s not like he avoids hanging out with other girls.

Unable to sleep, Yuuto goes for a walk with Al and Chris. He breaks up a tavern fight—only to find a blonde girl who looks almost identical to Mitsuki. Dun dun dun!

Our Take

Compared to most episodes of this show, “Beautiful Moon” is dripping with interesting plot developments. Of course, there’s also some story elements that don’t make sense, and some cringe-worthy boob jiggles, but I applaud this episode on actually holding my attention for once. Bravo?

We open on one of those fated boob jiggles, leading into a scene that’s just as hilariously awful. Felicia’s line “I bet Big Brother prefers his melons to be big” pretty much sums it up. It’s so ludicrous that we have to watch greatest warrior in the kingdom feel self-conscious about her boobs. I mean, come on.

Speaking of breasts, the very first time we meet Ruri, she’s aggressively groping Mitsuki’s breasts against her will. When Mitsuki pulls away, Ruri calls her rude and fat and a killjoy. She then steals Mitsuki’s lunch. After watching this scene, I literally wrote down “Ruri is the worst friend in the world.”

But for the rest of the episode, Ruri is presented as a loyal and supportive best friend to Mitsuki—comforting her when she’s afraid, inviting her over to hang out, helping her with her problems. Why am I supposed to like this girl and believe she’s a good friend now? Ruri has the least consistent personality of any character in this show, and I’m frustrated that her assholery is just brushed under the rug and doesn’t matter anymore as soon as that first sequence ends.

I also love that Saya just happens to have a Ph.D. in Archaeology. To be clear, Ruri didn’t invite Mitsuki over to meet Saya because she thought her cousin could help with Yuuto’s situation. Ruri is just like, “Hey, you should meet my cousin,” and Mitsuki is like, “If she studied abroad, she’s probably smart. Does she know anything about archaeology?” and Ruri we like, “WHAT A COINCIDENCE, I think she has a Ph.D. IN THAT EXACT THING.” What a hilarious moment.

I’m disappointed that Mitsuki tells Saya she’ll start at the beginning of what happened to Yuuto, but then we skip to after the story is finished. I thought we would finally get to see the circumstances that led to Yuuto arriving in Yggdrasil (something with a shrine and a magic mirror?) because it’s only been hinted to up until now and I’m really curious.

Even so, the development that Yuuto is creating Norse myths is pretty interesting. I like the parallels they’re drawing between Yuuto’s story and Norse mythology, how it lines up but isn’t a perfect fit. And I like the idea that Yuuto may end up somehow destroying Yggdrasil rather than uniting it. That would be a twist worth watching.

Although I’d probably enjoy their conversation a lot more if I knew anything about Norse mythology. Maybe this stuff is common knowledge and I just missed the memo, but I have no idea who Fenrir is, and this show sure doesn’t want to explain it to me. I almost did research to try to figure it out. Please, mediocre harem anime, don’t make do research to understand you. Apparently, Mitsuki has perfect knowledge of Norse myths and is familiar with who lives and dies, but I don’t know why she does, and I’m not sure all viewers of this show do. (I’m more familiar with the concept of Surtr and Ragnarok, but mostly because I saw Thor: Ragnarok in theaters earlier this year. Side note: if you want a better take on Norse mythology than Master of Ragnarok, please watch that movie.)

Apparently, someone who has never seen this show in their life is writing the eye catch descriptions again. It says Mitsuki communicates with Yuuto via a mysterious bronze mirror, which is clearly false? She calls him on his phone in this episode? I mean, come on. It also says she’s been “dependent” on Yuuto since childhood, which is pretty worrying. I mean, that doesn’t sound like the foundation of a healthy romantic relationship.

In Yuuto’s conversation with Scarfior, he single-handedly undermines any emotional resonance that may have come from his conversation with Linnea in episode four. After telling Linnea that one mistake doesn’t make her a bad patriarch, that she needs to move on from her failures and try to do better in the future, Yuuto ends up beating himself up for his mistakes. No one points out this irony or reminds him of his own advice. Instead, Yuuto just wallows in his own “colossal failure” for letting soldiers die (even though they… won the battle in the end, right?). Yuuto even says he’s “a terrible patriarch” because of this one mistake. I’m also not sure what, exactly, he’s asking of Scarfior—Yuuto says that Run is the only Wolf Clan warrior strong enough to take on Steinthor, but then asks Scarfior to protect her because of that? If Run is so strong, why does she need a bodyguard? Ah well.

I’m excited that we finally get to meet the blonde girl from the intro, though—is she Simmara, the mythical wife of Surtr? Why is she involved in a tavern fight?

To be clear, this is still a booby harem anime, and its emotional honesty is still nonexistent. But this episode introduced some plot developments that kept me entertained and didn’t make me roll my eyes (rather than only focusing on military tactics and boobs), so I consider that a step up.