English Dub Review: Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense “Maxing Defense and Setting Up a Base”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
The main portion of the eighth event begins. The members of Maple Tree work as two teams to try to acquire medals, then come back together to set up a base for protection against the stronger monsters that come out at night.

Our Take:
We have now reached the juicy part of the game’s eighth event, which is a team-based competition compared to the preliminary round. The Maple Tree members have reached the highest ranks thanks to their new monster companions. However, they’re also placed in the highest difficulty for the event, meaning things could get interesting for this unique team. But, of course, for Maple, anything can be possible through the power of teamwork, friendship, optimism, and her profound defense.
The eighth event requires the guilds to form teams to earn ten medals they can use to trade for powerful skills. Maple Tree splits into two groups, with Maple’s team consisting of her, Sally, Yui, and Mai traversing through the fields. Meanwhile, Kasumi’s group features her, Iz, Kanade, and Kuromu exploring the forest.
The episode mainly focuses on the two teams getting their medals, each fighting the most formidable opponents to earn them. Maple’s team faces off against a group of mud monsters after finding a hidden area thanks to the map Sally found. Fortunately, they trounced the monsters with Mai and Yui’s new iron spiked balls. I still love how confident the twins are now compared to when they first started playing the game, and this episode proves it.
However, Kasumi’s group wasn’t so lucky with their opponent, a ninja-type monster that was also invisible. Thankfully, Iz’s explosives proved to be useful once more as they gave them the advantage they needed to destroy the undetectable creature. But, unfortunately, those monsters were just the event’s appetizers, as they’re also tasked to build a base that’ll defend against a wave of more profound enemies that come out at night. So the Maple Tree gang established one in a dummy dungeon and filled it with poison and multiple traps, which proved successful.
But, of course, that was just the beginning of Maple Tree’s quest for dominance during the eighth event, which would likely serve as the main focus for the season’s remaining episodes. The element involving the guild defending their base is a mild callback to the fourth event in season one, which had the Maple Tree guild protecting their base full of orbs from their opponents. Fortunately, “Setting Up a Base” offers enough differences in the event’s guidelines to retain the game’s creativity and the show’s charm and innocence. Since the monsters will grow even stronger daily, the Maple Tree gang must keep their guards up and have their base fully protected as the event progresses.