Twelve Days of Fantasy and Ash (Christmas Special Part 3)
When someone loses their memories, it can be hard for them to determine whether their current beliefs and feelings are in line with those of their past selves. It kind of makes me uneasy watching Moguzo cooking for everyone, speculating about how his past self would have cared about cooking for others. I myself have quite a bad memory, so sometimes I fear losing sight of who I was and how I acted in the past.
The next scene serves no purpose other than making you hate Ranta more, so I will skip it. Next up is a few scenes of the party trying and failing to track down goblins. Despite not making any money, they managed to live on for several more days, so they must have been cutting costs somehow. The only explanation given is that they haven't been buying any new clothes, but not buying new stuff doesn't pay for food, so I have no clue what they're living on.
After several days of nothing, the party decides that maybe getting a few kills in would be a good idea. They head for an abandoned city crawling with relatively low-leveled goblins hoping to isolate and pick off some loners. This part helps solidify the characterization of the team. Haruhiro is sent out to scout for goblins while Manato stays in a base camp mapping the area out. By taking a few out in their sleep, the team manages to make a small living, but it is obvious this lifestyle will not last; both in terms of loot, and the people. They are not training at all to take out living and fighting goblins. The problems with this style is highlighted with the final quote before the episode split: "Before we know it, maybe we'll start thinking and acting like volunteers." The issue is that they have no skills, and not having someone experienced on their side keeps them from understanding the true means to make progress and thrive. They are simply betting on dumb luck to keep them alive, and they don't even realize it.
Of course, after a long day of slaughtering defenseless goblins, the party has to celebrate. The writer at this point actually did something I disliked for once, going back on the promise of fixed market prices. Haruhiro manages to haggle down the price of new pants by 17% despite the man from the previous episode saying that prices are always the same. I get that a fixed price makes the show seem more like a video game world than a true fantasy show, but clearing that up isn't worth making me question the setting this early in.
The art and character designs in this show are top tier. If after watching this, you disagree with Yume being best girl, you will be sacraficed to a mob of goblins.
I don't know if the dialogue between the characters is actually bad in these scenes, or if I've just seen the show so much that it's become stale, but I don't exactly see the appeal in the next conversations. Yume tries to encourage Shihoru to talk with the guys despite her shyness, and Haruhiro thanks Manato for willing to be his friend. Part of the weakness of the scenes I feel is the lack of development for Shihoru. Her entire arc makes perfect sense, and it would unlikely play out any other way in real life, but this is anime, and subtlety can incorrectly make events seem unimportant. Despite this, Haruhiro does make the important step of realizing their past selves do not matter anymore. You can hardly care about that guy when you're busy keeping you alive. He tries ending the episode on a positive note, saying people can adapt to any environment. While he is right, he doesn't realize his fatal flaw: They are not yet fully adapted.
