Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 2

Episode 10

Eschewing a cold-open, this week's episode of Arifureta cuts straight from the theme song to the main event all those previously preliminary matches were leading to: Hajime vs Noint! Given how well the previous battles showed off this series' most fond indulgences for itself, I have no problem letting it continue right along into Big Fight: Part Two here. The issue with this episode, however, is what comes after, and the question of whether the big spectacle we just got to behold was actually instrumental to the whole of the story being told by this season, or simply a spectacle of a distraction from Arifureta's far less involving attempts at what it thinks 'intrigue' is.

But for the first eight minutes or so, at least, we've got that fight. This continues to be the best Arifureta has looked across either of its seasons, so even the now-expected shots of Hajime whipping increasingly-big, stupid guns out of subspace carry the action briskly. For as quick as the confrontation between Hajime and Noint ends up passing by, it still paces itself out effectively by keeping us apprised of the levels of power involved here. I talked about this a bit way back during my first season reviews, but the show has generally been decent about Hajime being powerful, but not that much more powerful compared to some of the high-level enemies he goes up against. There's a reason so much of his winning strategies come down to relying on equipment he previously prepared, or getting support from his harem of party members. Stripping some of those advantages away by the circumstances of this battle with Noint helps confirm that our hero isn't unbeatable, and that while we can still expect him to win here, that question of how will drive the action enough.

Indeed, I can appreciate it when an uber-powerful protagonist still has to get clever with the applications of their various powers to succeed. Arifureta occasionally has the problem where a winning magic combination by its characters won't appear to be more than a big blast like all the others, before a post-victory explanation throws some spell-sheet babble at us to sound impressive, but thankfully that's not the case here. The fractures in Noint's blades are foreshadowed, and Hajime's use of the portals to catch her off-guard with shots to them is well-timed and clearly communicated. It makes for a satisfying setup before the final spectacle of his Giant Lightning Mecha Sword provides the big finish, ending up trading on why we and Ryo Shirakome are here in the first place: Arranging everything to make fights like this as cool as humanly possible. This, and saving Sensei, is the main reason Hajime came here, so at least it delivers on that front.

But then, as I alluded to, the story has to figure out what happens after that, and Arifureta ends up landing back on some of the same shaky ground it's occupied previously. On the one hand, I appreciate them also slotting some character development to Ai-Chan-Sensei in the margins of this, focusing on her desire to contribute to the battle effort and doing so by applying her power-up potential to Tio. But then they don't actually show the resulting destruction of the barrier and the church, which feels like a bit of a rip-off for something that was previously pointedly thriving on spectacle. More seriously, the realization that she also was responsible for killing the people (antagonists though they presumably were) washing over Sensei doesn't hit with quite the intended pathos, coming off more like the dark undercurrent of an aside gag in how we and Hajime just previously arrived at the sight of the destruction. That's a missed opportunity, since Sensei coming to terms with her role in hurting and killing people and how that arises from her desire to become more directly involved in assisting Hajime is an important step, but it basically gets glossed over here as just another beat on the way to our hero discovering he accidentally cleared a whole other Labyrinth while he was taking care of all that other stuff up til now.

That's the issue with the actual plot progression I alluded to earlier: Noint's drop-in and battle with Hajime was ultimately a sidebar, a distraction from the actual demon-army-invasion plot that's been happening on the ground which he, honestly, seems utterly disinterested in. With the revelations of this latest labyrinth-clearing criteria, it almost comes off like Noint's inclusion was entirely for the dual purposes of providing a cool big fight scene, and creating an excuse for Hajime to immediately obtain another labyrinth power-up. That's some pretty basic stuff that undercuts a lot of the swelling importance the show previously seemed to be selling that segment on.

And if that kind of allocation is an indicator of the overall importance Arifureta places on the ostensible 'overarching' plot, then it's even more of an indictment in the last chunk of this episode when it has to roll the timeline back by several hours just to show what Hajime's classmates on the ground have even been up to all this time. So much of this already feels perfunctory, from bits like designated-Hero Kouki acting astoundingly un-cautious for someone who's communal plans have been sabotaged several times already, clashing even more as we already know about the subterfuge in the ranks leading up to this. But then the story still seems determined to deliver 'twists' that can't properly land just due to how barely-familiarized we still are with this crew of characters. I hope you have some recollection of who Eri is, because Arifureta is barely going to remind you that she's the unassuming one with glasses before it 'surprises' you by having her betray everyone! I do still like Shizuku as a character enough to hope she makes it out of this okay, but I can barely be taken aback by her shockingly seeing her pals all slaughtered on the orders of her former friend because I can barely remember anybody else's names. Arifureta is a show that thrives on spectacle, the solid episode-and-a-half of big fights confirms that. But trying to pivot from that to a 'spectacle' built on a storyline it hadn't fully gotten us to engage with just ends up falling flatter than any middling battle animation would have.

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Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 2 is currently streaming on Funimation.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.