So there is some “gaming force” trying to railroad the story back into its track! Mostly acting as Alicia’s compulsions.
Yumiella and Alicia in the dungeon was everything that I hoped for, plus a bit more! Stating by the dragon-sized puppy transforming the guard’s hear into a pool of saliva. Then Alicia calling for her granny to save her. Then Yumiella forcing Alicia to grind the dungeon over and over. Then Alicia seeing her dead grandpa, who says that she isn’t ready “for this place” (afterlife) yet. It was fucking perfect.
…and it shows how much over-protecting someone might cripple them. Alicia made far more progress with Yumiella gently encouraging her into a risky situation than the three stooges did all this time by protecting her. (“Gently encouraging”? Who am I trying to fool? She simply threw Alicia into the fire!!)
I just caught up to this episode and there have been some major changes compared to the WN version of the story. The plot compelling Alicia’s actions seems to be an anime original creation. At least, I don’t remember it in the WN, and after some quick searching, I don’t think it is in the LN either.
Trying to find out more info, I found that in the afterword of LN4, the author does write about how they weren’t happy with the original incarnation of Alicia’s character in the novels, and that is why they made changes to her in the manga adaptation of the story (which is yet to reach this point I think). So, it could be that the anime is adapting the updated story and this version of Alicia is new to the WN/LN readers.
Finally, I just realized that this whole season of anime is only adapting a single LN volume. It makes more sense now why the pacing has felt slow at times. I can’t think of any other shows off the top of my head for which 1 cour = 1 volume. Eminence in Shadow came close at 20 episodes for 2 volumes, but that included two episodes of content not in LN1 or 2.
Weird. LN4 is the one that made me hate Alicia. Comparing that version of the character to the anime is just jarring.
Apothecary Diaries is doing one LN per cour so far, but that story has enough for each volume to carry a cour…
Ryu’s CGI is alright imo but wtf is this
They should appreciate Yumiella’s methods more. It’s extremely effective and safer than it looks.
Minor LN spoiler below this point
I wasn’t entirely sure if what Alicia did to Yumiella at the Demon Lord’s boss fight was because of the game compulsion or because that’s just who she is. I joke about Alicia being stupid but in reality I think she just ignored her own potential, and she isn’t really all that different from the average character from this kingdom. I guess it makes sense in a way.
I just caught up and apparently the author made some serious changes to Alicia’s character because they weren’t happy with her in the original story. The new events are supposed to be in the manga adaptation, but the manga hasn’t caught up to where the anime is currently. So, we might be seeing more surprises coming soon as source readers.
Interesting. I wasn’t planning to read the manga but depending on how the anime goes I might actually give it a try (after it’s caught up with the first arc).
