Night Wizard 6- Even Mini-Renji Is Gar

Mmmmm the gar content of this show doubled this episode, with what sounded to me like Nobuyuki Hiyama providing the voice for the guest character Nightmare. You may remember him from other gar-ish roles such as Viral (Gurren-Lagann) and Ikkaku (Bleach). This episode features him as a dream expert who leads the gang through Elis’ dream world that sure is tasty.

The gang is having another meeting at the castle headquarters where they are introduced to the aforementioned Nightmare, who claims to be a dream user of some sort. Anzelotte proceeds to pull out what looks like another jewel, inviting Elis to take it and when Elis touches it she passes out, becoming locked in her own dream world. Nightmare says he will accompany the team to save Elis, and takes them into her dream world. Bell Zephyr watches what is happening and decides to send her throwaway villain of the week to disrupt their attempt and keep Elis locked in the dream forever. When they get to the dream world they realize that Elis has shrunk into mini-Elis, a child version of herself who is looking for her ojii-sama. When she runs off the gang gives chase, going outside into her dream world which is filled with tasty looking treats. While looking for her they run into my hated enemy Kirihito who acts like a dick as usual and then walks off.

Despite many attempts to chase mini-Elis down and convince her to come with him they have no luck and run into a tall guy in a white suit who claims to be her ojii-sama, which Elis believes at first. It becomes pretty obvious that he’s shady and Nightmare gets his gar on and recognizes him as an outsider who is trying to interfere with Elis’ dream. Renji and Nightmare prod Elis to really look closely at this imposter and she then sees him as the fake that he is and rejects him. Elis runs off, and as Renji begins to give chase Nightmare tosses him a container of tea from Anzelotte. While Renji goes to find Elis, Kureha, Nightmare and Akari stay and fight the intruder. Renji finds Elis inside a door that he is too small to fit in so he drinks the tea he was given, and it shrinks him down to size, and is he ever so adorable. He goes inside and makes a promise to protect her, sealed with their pinkies.

Back outside the team is struggling in their fight against the suit man when Renji shows up and tries to help them. Unfortunately his demon sword is a bit too heavy for him to effectively wield in his current state, and it’s up to Elis to protect the team. The impostor, unable to get Elis on his side drops his disguise, revealing himself to actually be a woman, the evil looking woman Bell Zephyr sent after them. After the emulator wacks Elis’ friends around a bit she gets pissed and shifts into blue eye mode and locks down the evildoer enough for Renji to slice her up with his demon sword. After her defeat, the team is able to return to the real world in their proper shapes, and Elis wakes up with no memory of the events. Afterwards, this scene shifts to Anzelotte on her knees giving a report on the jewel search to a mysterious figure she refers to as Geza, who apparently commands her. Next, we are shown the defeated subordinate of Bell Zephyr wandering into a door in Elis’ dream world and seeing something that we are not shown, horrible enough for her to scream out in terror. Kirihito shows up with an evil grin and finishes her off.

Next Episode:

The next episode suggests that Renji and Elis will be going on some sort of ice skating date and suggested nothing of a new jewel. But with 7 episodes left and only 2 jewels they have to insert something in here, the show is in need of some side character development anyways. So the next episode furthers the Renji x Elis angle, we shall see how it turns out.

Impressions:

It’s pretty obvious now that Anzelotte and Kirihito have some devious agendas of their own and that Elis has something nasty locked up inside of her that both of them have kept from her. I really have zero empathy for both of those characters now, Anzelotte continues to pile on the deceptions and distractions in an effort to get her way. She is apparently subordinate to this Geza fellow, but with what has been revealed about Anzelotte’s character so far I am hesitant to declare her loyalty to anyone. She may be trying to play Geza as well, she definitely has lost the happy feeling I got from her character at the start. Not to say that’s necessarily a bad thing, as plot twists, hidden agendas, and devious scheming have driven many great shows.

Now I liked Nightmare, I enjoy random humorous characters like that. While if overdone it could be a problem, I thought his random occasional insertion or chanting of “dream” was kinda amusing. Plus when Nobuyuki Hiyama gets serious or starts to yell out passionately it just oozes manliness and you get the urge to flex your muscles and punch something. I mean hell, garness and looking pretty was the only reason I watched GL, it sure as hell wasn’t the plot or anything. However, that didn’t take away enough for it not to be an entertaining ride along the way. In addition to Nightmare, Renji got his gar on as well, even when he was shrunk down he was ready to lay some smackdown and be badass doing it.

This show’s plot really exploded for me in this episode. Despite the humorous and silly overtones of the dream world, the revelations about Anzelotte, Kirihito, and something terrifying in Elis’ mind suggest some interesting and dark plot twists ahead. While in the end it will probably be the gang teaming up to protect their friends, defeating the bad guys, and Renji and Elis walking off into the proverbial sunset, I think it will be fun to watch anyways.