Oh my gosh. This episode was REALLY good. Nowhere near as spectactical as episode 19, but the pacing and just the overall content in this episode was great. I didn’t even realize I was reaching the end of the episode because I was so sucked in. But I think the biggest shocker for me was how they changed the opening. I wasn’t expecting them to change it to match the events of the episode. Though I feel like I should have seen it coming since they’ve always tended to do that, but I guess I forgot because they haven’t changed anything from the second opening this season yet. Still a great surprise as the added visuals were stunning and just so PLOT RELEVANT I CAN’T EVEN (continues to rewatch the opening).
Anyways, enough of me gushing about the opening, let’s get into the episode. We start where we left off with Golgius having woken up in the Boar’s Hat and Elizabeth treats him to some soup. Unfortunately, just like Meliodas, Elizabeth can’t cook for beans. (Which is unfortunate ‘cause these two are gonna starve lol) I love how Hawk already knew it was Golgius because of his smell and the guy leaves since he just could not understand Elizabeth’s way of thinking. Though it was pretty hilarious how he told them not to say they saved him despite being an enemy that they couldn’t let him suffer and Elizabeth just stays silent because that’s exactly what it was. While I don’t particularly care much for Elizabeth, I do admire how much she treasures life and hopes to instill some hope in people to keep living and protecting others.
And man, so much deja vu in this episode with the a mysterious armored knight walking into the tavern. Hawk even states it feels like deja vu lol. Shockingly, the mysterious knight turns out to be none other than the the Chief Holy Knight, Zaratras, the one’s murder who was pinned on the Seven Deadly Sins. Thanks to Melascula’s magic, Zaratras was also giving a physical body (if not temporarily just like Elaine). Not to mention he was also at the battle tournament. I remember thinking to myself, who is the armored guy. Guess I got my answer.
I don’t know what kind of person I was expecting Zaratras to be. Though I probably was expecting him to be a serious and dignified guy. However, what we got was this huge, obnoxious dork and I love it. Elizabeth even comments how he’s a lot more dignified when he’s on duty lol. Though I the fact he couldn’t resist the fish pie that Hendrickson offered him (that was obviously poisoned) was hilarious. It’s kind of hard to view this guy as Gil’s dad… well maybe just a little. Gil definitely has his moments of dorkiness, especially when he’s hanging out with Griamore and Howzer.
And we get the confirmation of why Zaratras had not appeared to Fraudrin. The spirits that haunt him currently are the ones who resent him. However, Zaratras reveals that he mostly hates himself for not being able to save Dreyfus and Hendrickson and holds absolutely not animosity towards them. Zaratras is turning out to be a really great guy. And it’s definitely sad to know that this guy won’t be permanently staying. But it’s also sad to see how much Zaratras actually hates himself. He also is completely distraught when Elizabeth brings up if Gil knows he’s here right and just starts sobbing at the thought of Gil not even recognizing him and that he was more attached to Meliodas. And while Gil does show a lot of affection for Meliodas, it was very blatant in the first season how important his father was to him. So I’m sure you meant a lot more to Gil than you realize, Zaratras.
We move into the really interesting part of the episode where Elizabeth shows Zaratras Meliodas’ body that she had been taking care of all this time. As it was stated previously, Zaratras also had druid abilities and sends himself, Elizabeth and Hawk to witness Meliodas’ past memories to see if they can find an answer to how they can bring him back. As someone who knows a pretty big spoiler about Elizabeth I couldn’t help but go “ooooh” when Meliodas comes out carrying her as a baby literally right after he destroyed Danafor. She literally reincarnated as soon as Liz died. That’s some fast reincarnation lol. No wonder she has no memories of her mother. Doesn’t seem like she had one.
Anyways, it was really interesting to see Meliodas and Zaratras interact. Ranging from intense to silly. They looked like nice friends and I wouldn’t mind seeing them interact more. I also got a confirmation of a scene way back in season 1 from this episode. It was when Diane first met Meliodas. I thought it was weird that Meliodas had already been searching for Diane before she even committed her sin and was wondering why he was searching for her. This episode definitely cleared things up as to why Meliodas would somehow be looking for these certain individuals. Due to the king’s future sight, he was able to see who would be the ones to save the Kingdom from the Ten Commandments. Definitely a big OOOOOOH moment.
There were so many confirmations on a lot of questions that I had but a lot of new questions also sprung up (even though I know the answer to some of them already due to spoilers). One of the questions was how Meliodas was cursed so that he could never die. Poor guy even tried ending his own life… And he’s been alive for over 3000 years. There are so many questions surrounding Meliodas, but they all will eventually be answered. And can I just say that Meliodas interacting with a little Elizabeth is just downright adorable? It just felt so pure and it was nice to see none of the gross groping and whatnot (‘cause at that point that really would be disgusting), but I digress.
Speaking of Meliodas, looks like he’s taking a nice little stroll through purgatory and being taunted by his father, the Demon King no less. Interestingly enough, whenever Meliodas dies, his soul gets sent to purgatory, where the Demon King extracts a little of his emotions each time. I guess that’s why Meliodas didn’t want his emotions to be taken away during the training arc. If he had let them go, he would be doing exactly what the Demon King wanted. Since without his emotions, Meliodas would return to being the most powerful demon he was back in the day. But man, the Demon King’s form was INTIMIDATING. The size and shape of him alone… I’m curious to see what he actually looks like.
Back in the real world, the Ten Commandments are closing in on Liones, spreading panic and fear. I internally screamed when Grayroad just kind of oozed through the roof of the hiding place where Jericho was looking after Guila’s little brother, Zeal. Because that was one FREAKY entrance and would instill fear in anyone. GO AWAY GRAYROAD. NO ONE WANTS YOU HERE. LEAVE THE CHILDREN ALONE.
Another confirmation or at least somewhat strongly hinted was how Estarossa stopped Meliodas’ attack. A group of knights, including Gil and Ban were all rendered helpless under Estarossa’s commandment of love. Those who bear hatred in Estarossa’s presence will become weak and unable to fight. And man does everyone have a reason to hate Estarossa considering he was the one who ultimately killed Meliodas. But MAN. Escanor walking up to Estarossa and just talking down to the man was SO EPIC AND SAVAGE. This man literally has the best lines. “Why would I hate those who are weaker than myself? I only pity them.” DANG. That was one heck of a way to end off that episode. Usually prideful characters annoy me, but someone talking down to the Ten Commandments is just too good. I look forward to a good Escanor fight.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think it would be amazing if Henri were to become a precure too. The moment he recognized Emiru’s brother was hurting, and did the 
Lastly, let’s take a moment to talk about our new villains! Okay, so only one showed up today, the new villainness Gelos had an interesting way of making an entrance, by only doing so after she was defeated. It looks like she may actually be part of a trio, since during her negative wave sequence, it featured not just her, but the other two men, who looks like twins and are probably her butlers or something. But damnnnnnnnnnnnnn~ they are good lookign! All three of their character designs, on point! *swoons* I can’t wait to see them in action.
We get a small glimpse of Makoto, the school council president following Ren around (with her upside down magazine), we find out why later. The first section, I suppose, of this episode is the gang having to do a social studies assignment and pick some place to study. Mishima had mentioned a TV studio, so Ren and the others decide to go there too. They all get to work and learn how studios work, we get a Hifumi cameo (shogi queen), and then the students get to take part in a TV program recording as part of the audience. The guest of the talk show is none other than young detective, Goro Akechi. He appears as a clear opposing force against the Phantom Thieves, saying that they should be tried under the law for their actions. While, yes, they have revealed the ugly case of Madarame and made him admit to his crimes, to which he agrees are terrible, he does not agree that the Phantom Thieves are using justice with their own judgment. He wants to believe that they really are just, but he also brings up the link between the auto and train accidents that have been rampant lately. Which…they actually haven’t really talked about much in the anime, which is ridiculous because it’s important, but whatever. He also brings up the how. How are they able to change people’s hearts? He and Ren have a little “confrontation” as the hostess puts Ren on the spot. Also, the weird bit of character Ren had last week? Gone. He could have shown some sort of aggression towards Akechi in the question portion, but Ren’s back to being a blank slate again. :/
The next part of the episode is dedicated to Makoto and the trouble in Shibuya. We know Makoto has been given the task by the principal to get info about the Phantom Thieves, and the anime doesn’t even show or tell us why unfortunately. That’s why she’s been pretty sneaky, and this time she was able to get a recording of them while they were all talking to each other in their usual spot in school. One thing about that scene I did not like was Ann turning on Makoto about the whole Shiho and Kamoshida incident. The reason why I didn’t like it in this case was because of how random it was. Again, the anime didn’t give much details or anything after the Kamoshida case, but in the game, the player finds out that the parents of the abused kids and the school faculty actually knew about the abuse cases but chose to ignore it. With Makoto working so close with the principal, it’s natural that Ann would think Makoto would be one of those people as well, even though she wasn’t. But the anime never mentioned that, so her bringing all that up…ugh.
The other students, still paralyzed by their fear need to work out a plan. A plan that doesn’t involve fighting, because the more they reflect on it. The more it all rings true. They can’t go in and fight. Because they aren’t licensed, because of the liabilities, but mostly because they would be hindering All Might even more.
All Might makes a speech to All for One, as the smoke clears and there is not nearly as much damage as there should be on our villain. He says, he’s heard those exact same things before.
Episode 10 is titled ‘High school recruit, college recruit’ and tells the tale of 2 different players who came under the limelight for the first time for the very same reason: they were recognized as valuable infielders who played amazingly during a summer Koshien high school tournament. Bonda’s team is at Koshien about to play against the Osaka Tempters, the team that ended up drafting the 2 players mentioned before.
Makoto Ezure, on the other hand, went to college after high school. He joined the Osaka Tempters after graduating and he had a signing bonus of 100 million and a contract of 15 million. He had now become the golden rookie while his previous rival was sort of fallen into oblivion. There’s things being expected of him so he got the number 7 to reflect this. Now the two players are on the same team and although their abilities are more or less on par, the fact that they took different paths does influence how they are perceived.
Another charming part was when ‘Robo Bonda’ started listing each player in the at-bat order and remembering his contract numbers like a self-sabotaging mantra. It was a warning of how doom he was, but also pretty cute. I do wonder if it’ll ever be obvious to other teams that he has this weakness though because I must say that after the way this game went down while he pitched, I’d think it’d be pretty obvious. The fans yelling and the mound rumbling are definitely added pressure, too.
