Magic items are auctioned by a buxom auctioneer in a costume that for us would only be achievable with paint. Our idiot hero (?) keeps bidding daft sums, to universal consternation. It's surprisingly okay.

Visually, though, it's garbage. It's another all-CGI Chinese anime and not even one of the expensive ones. I liked the facial acting, but the movement is from a 1990s computer game.

It's a children's show from Korea, not Japan, and the episode I found on YouTube had an American dub. Ouch. It's also plastic-looking CGI. I lasted thirty seconds.

It's a lot like the Season 1 episode I watched. A girl called Takagi plays pranks on a boy called Nishikata, who'll have been trying to play pranks first. They're twelve years old. It's harmless and quite nice.

Good thing: they're doing it in class in only one of the episode's four segments.

Bad thing: Nishikata's attempted pranks are pathetic. He's supposedly twelve years old, not six.

It's pleasant and they're clearly best friends, but I ended up fast-forwarding through it.

Anime girls in maid outfits are also human swords! Is this Touken Ranbu? No, it's a based on a different mobile phone game about swords who are also people!

This bonus micro-episode contains no reference to swords, though, so in practice it's just time-wasting with yet more anime girls. Some have cleavage. Others have window-breaking hay fever. The latter idea had some comedy potential, but you still shouldn't be watching this unless you're following the franchise.

I watched the first half of this season, but I'll quit here. Yes, halfway through, on ep.14. The show had been good so far. It's funny. Our slime (Rimuru) solves problems through negotiation and alliances. Ultimately, though, he's overpowered even by wank isekai standards. He can eat anything and acquire its abilities, magic and/or physical form. He gains new superpowers at the drop of a hat. The show had worked around this so far, with diplomacy and the avoidance of fights... but this is the mid-point climax with, yes, a big fight.

Good grief, this was boring. I writhed. Big Bad #1 confronts Big Bad #2, yielding a Bigger Bad. Rimuru's toughest henchmen fight it and lose, showing how super-tough it is, so Rimuru has to fight it! He uses yet more new powers we hadn't known about (sigh), but the ending's inevitable. He eats it. Obviously.

In fairness, this is followed with better material about the Bigger Bad's sympathetic origins. Rimuru still eats him, but with compassion and a sort of redemption. The episode as a whole was begging for the fast-forward button, though, which is a bad sign for the rest of the series. Run away!

It's a war episode. The battle scenes are graphic, but a bit dull. Lots of killing. Sacred Beast people who turn into horrific shreddy monsters. There's no character drama, though, and I'd have dropped the show were this the best it could do.

The Sacred Beasts get a lot more interesting when they're human and off-duty. They have medical issues, coloured skin blotches and a beautiful Frankenstein creator trying to treat their symptoms. They have entertaining banter, despite having been implanted with a biological time bomb. Their captain's sympathetic, but their commanders are indifferent to their lives and their humanity. "They're just weapons. All we have to do is use them properly."

Yeah, I'm on board, although I wonder if this episode's (very) strong dramatic developments might end up merely being set-up for a more formulaic series. I also found Liza Runecastle's boob-revealing uniform a silly mismatch with the rest of the episode. Well, never mind. I'll watch the show.

The protagonist is a smart-arse who doesn't listen in class because he knows it all and is ready to humiliate the teacher. He's looking out of the window at the rugby. When Smart-Arse tells the teacher to challenge a blonde bloke who's asleep, though, the teacher says he's given up on him.

Smart-Arse later melts on seeing Sleeping Beauty play rugby. He removes his glasses, stares like a lovestruck girl and almost blushes. He also gives good advice on how to run, though, which leads to giving advice to the whole team and him ultimately joining them. The show's gimmick is that brains will compensate for his noodle physique.

If that's your genre, the show looks fine.

Schoolboys are doing Japanese archery. That was my reason for dropping the show in 2018, but it's no reflection on the show's quality. It's very good. (Also, if that's a factor for you, there isn't much archery this week.) This week, we learn that a nice, much trusted person claims to be motivated by revenge. Obviously, that's a big deal. The news leaks and we learn that stuff happened with his late grandfather. Could our heroes track down grandad's ex-colleagues and teammates and learn more?

The tone's gentle and understated. Sombre emotions are being expressed, but the cast are mature and supportive. (The episode's also capable of springing thematically relevant surprises.) It's a strong episode of what looks like a strong show. I'd have no qualms in recommending it.