SHOCK!: I think the full title of this episode is trying to tell me something but I'm not sure what.
With the main party of four now together, plus 5th guest character Sylphiel, the series can finally start with my favorite running joke: everyone intentionally and inadvertently dunking on Zelgadis. He tries
so hard to be the brooding badass type but the facade always cracks against the trio of Lina, Gourry, and Amelia.
The diversion to the clone lab is funny, and I love that Sylphiel just goes along with the cloning Gourry experiment as he's asking for her help. That and the way she's contently watching the tubes as her second Gourry is growing reveals a subtle darker side to Sylphiel that we don't see enough of. There's the bit in season 2 when
she reveals she learned the effing Dragon Slave in order to be on Lina's level I guess.
I kinda wish she got to keep one of the mini-Gourrys, it'd make a good pet for her.
But as the party decide to head straight to Rezo's secret lab to
loot the place stop him they get ambushed by the baddie and after a brief ANIME FIGHT between him and Zel he decides he just needs to flex and casts a Mega Brand (that spell Lina used at the end of the wedding episode) which promptly levels Sairaag. Rezo has clearly been doing some power leveling if he got his magic stat THAT high.
Oh and Sylphiel has the heartbreaking loss of her father, but if that's the worst thing that'll ever happen to her it's not so bad.
The juxtaposition of Rezo leveling Sairaag here against Lina casually doing the same to the village in the very first episode is... weird. I guess it's safe to say she's morally grey.
(and yes,
Rezo's theme music does do a lot of heavy lifting for his overall presence)
TROUBLE!: But enough tragedy, time for some SHENANIGANS! Well, almost. Really this episode is half fallout from the end of the previous episode and half wacky battle against a singing, flying fishman. Say what you will of Rahanimu, dude has a style and is committed to it.
So the party mourns the tragic loss of Sairaag and its people. Or, half of it? They seem to imply some of the city survived the blast but we never see any of those survivors, nor do they seem to come looking for who is responsible for who dropped a magic nuke on them. We just know for sure that Sylphiel's dad is dead. That is very important. So important that Zel has to make sure to spell that out when asking for her help just in case she forgot. Such a considerate guy, that Zel!
But after some more shipping bait between Gourry and Sylphiel, and another haha boob joke at Lina's expense, Rahanimu arrives to absolutely shatter any emotional weight that was building. Amelia and Zel get a chance to start bonding in the middle of the fight, and Zel once again has to save Lina from a freaky fish guy.
Oh and Gourry and Sylphiel get separated from the rest for a bit and he has yet another match with Zangulus, who almost gets the upper hand before Sylphiel interferes. We see that the merc has just a little bit of honor (maybe???) as Gourry observes he could have struck her down but pulled back, but despite having Gourry in a weakened position without his weapon Zangulus decide to withdraw yet again. Gosh I hope they wrap up this little rivalry soon, why I figure I can take exactly
one more episode of this!