English Dub Review: Farming Life in Another World “Castle in the Air”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The village must face a flying castle inhabited by demons.

Our Take:

It’s not an isekai anime without some vicious demons running amok, and Farming Life in Another World is no exception, thanks to the season’s penultimate episode.  There’s literally no better way to cap off another isekai-related season than with the protagonist’s confrontation with these dangerous beings.  Though initially seen as a potential threat for Hiraku, the demon piloting the floating castle, Kuzuden, was immediately outmatched by his power before the battle could even begin.  Given the number of times the show has flipped the script on its so-called “antagonists”, this hasn’t come off as a big surprise.  However, it still leads them to battle demonic creatures and encounter new faces living inside the castle, including the castle’s chief assistant, Bell Foguma.  So at least there’s still some confrontation outside the village, even though we can’t see the action ourselves.

With this being the second-to-last episode of the second season, Farming Life aims to provide one last “conflict” or, in this case, investigation, to elevate its peaceful life.  The result is yet another fine change of pace for the anime’s usual slice-of-life formula, despite not being as overly exciting as we’d anticipated.  But again, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since the show usually focuses more on the lighter side of the isekai genre.  Additionally, it briefly highlights Tia and the angels’ origins, noting that they were once referred to as demigods who took control of the castle before losing it to the demons.  So at least there was some hint of development for some of the show’s massive group of characters before its conclusion.  Besides its abrupt ending, “Castle in the Air” is another amusing introduction to the village’s new arrivals and calls back to Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 film about a floating castle.