I decided to bundle two episodes again since Episode 8 was just Ushi getting a ton of money thrown at her animations to be really cool.
But man, Leonidas gets my win. Apparently they made his Noble Phantasm look like that starting from FGO Arcade but seeing it animated was a sight to see since he died unceremoniously in the game. You can make a point about how dying so easily adds to Gorgon’s power but Leonidas definitely came out a champion in the anime.
More Solomon foreshadowing and flashbacks at the same time with another shot of the ending for London as well as giving us a glimpse into the Temple of Time. With the tablet of destiny at hand, the crew is sent with a sizeable force to check on yet another city and that’s where we mostly spend time on where we see Enkidu and see big-Medusa. The point to discuss from this episode is Ana’s conversation with Merlin, noting about their inhuman nature and how they’re merely going along with the others. Merlin’s important take-away being that being inhuman doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t interact with humans though. This message is made immediately apparent with how Merlin acts but Ana will show her true purpose down the line aside from showing loli leotard fanservice and getting propped up in her own chains.
Leonidas is the one to get some screentime, talking about the nature of fear and all that. I can never seriously get over the fact that he’s voiced by Shinichiro Miki though. The muscular characters aren’t usually the type he voices, at least not recently. Despite the post title, there wasn’t that many Sparta jokes to be had. Despite all this, Leonidas’ true moment comes later. Benkei doesn’t really get one as great as Ushi and Leo though, which is a shame because he hardly gets any focus ever.
The fight scenes in Episode 8 were something else, and I can only hope that this level of animation is retained in the larger fights to come. Ushi’s fight was really elaborated on and honestly, I’ve seen some really ambitious fan-made videos of how this fight played out a while back before the anime started airing. This wasn’t far off from it only it has Ushi leap across buildings and have Hassou Tobi have her literally split into eight afterimages or something. The wonders of animated adaptations with a sizeable budget and passionate animators.
Speaking of, Leonidas got himself a hell of a last stand where the aforementioned Noble Phantasm had its full showing compared to what he does in the game. From that sweeping shot through the gates, Spartan javelins flying, and sending a spear right through Gorgon, Leonidas died in the most spectacular way that I simply did not expect and I was thoroughly impressed with just that.
Lair of the Idle 