Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2

Episode 6

After last week's episode (which could have easily worked as a season finale), it's no surprise that this week's is a lighthearted one in order to let everyone decompress. That said, it does throw a lot of information at us by introducing two guilds.

The first is the “Weiß Flügel Landsol Branch.” They are a group of completely incompetent spies that are too self-absorbed with their own fetishes to do much more than cause trouble for everyone around them. Of course, they are also the primary source of comedy for this episode. We have a young girl that wants to be treated as an adult, a narcissist, a masochist, and a firework-obsessed samurai who talks in a painful “gaijin” accent. Thankfully, all of these (except the last one) are more funny than annoying—especially Kuuka, thanks to her subplot with Yuuki.

And while the whole “Kuuka hording a pile of porno mags she found” joke is hilarious in and of itself, what's great about the whole situation is that it subtly shows just how much Yuuki has recovered since we first met him back in season one. As you'll recall, Yuuki was so much of a blank slate at the beginning of the series that he didn't even understand what money was. However, he has now developed mentally to the point that he can grasp abstract concepts—like what the Twilight Caravan guild might be doing to random, innocent waitresses. And when he finds Kuuka, he is able to make the logical jump and decide that the magazines are Twilight Caravan's newest experiment and are responsible for Kuuka's perverted nature. I mean, sure, he's completely incorrect in his assumptions, but the fact he can even think in such complex terms—not to mention figure out multiple plans to deal with the problem—shows just how far he has come.

The other side of the story introduces us to “Nightmare”—i.e., the royal guards. For all intents and purposes, these are our enemies. It is their job to protect Kaiser and carry out her will. However, the twist is that despite Christina being the vice-commander of this group, the rest of the guild members are noble and honorable. They genuinely care about both knightly ideals and the common man. The very idea that Jun, their leader, could have become a serial killer greatly disturbs Tomo and Matsuri, but they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep people safe—even if they have to take down someone they love and respect.

This also explains why Christina is almost always seen on missions alone (or paired up with Kayrl). Christina cares nothing for concepts like right and wrong; she just wants a good fight. She has no illusions about how evil Kaiser is; it simply doesn't bother her. The rest of Nightmare, on the other hand, would never carry out the dirty jobs Kaiser wants done. This is why, even when the rest of Nightmare doubt Jun's innocence, Christina does not. She knows Jun doesn't have it in her to be on the side of the devils. Christina can see the truth of people and accepts what she sees—be that in others or in herself.

All in all, this was a slightly chaotic episode, but one that had a fair bit of characterization going on behind all the comedy and drama. Now the only question is which of the few remaining guilds from the game will get the spotlight next week.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Interestingly, this is the first episode for me where, after playing the game, one of my favorite characters (Jun) was featured front and center. I feel sufficiently pandered to.

• I was surprised we meet Jun unmasked from the start. That's kind of a big payoff when playing the game.

• Speaking of the game, Pecorine's “Princess Strike” is such a garbage Union Burst that it's always a bit odd to see how awesome it is in the anime.

• So as for the Twilight Caravan connections in this episode, I see three possibilities. Either it was A) a red herring, B) setup for a future episode, or C) they were behind the creation of the slime monster. I honestly don't know which.

• I hate, hate, hate, Ninon's “gaijin” accent. It's such a lazy stereotype. After all, why bother talking like an actual person who learned Japanese as a second language when it's so much easier to just keep the grammar perfect and put the emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAbles?

Princess Connect! Re:Dive is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.