I am liking this series appreciation for myths and legends. The villains of the last arc were a group of Greek soldiers and had Medusa as a boss, and one of the villains here is a Will o’ Wisp. They even provide the scientific explanation for what is believed to cause the illusion (natural gas bubbling up and igniting from swamps). And then we get the main villains of this arc, who are based on the legend of the Pied Piper, and the show goes the extra mile once again by basing the villains on some natural disasters that are believed to have caused the incident. It’s a small touch, but I really enjoy it.

This episode was okay, with some great parts and some bad parts. The great parts were the designs and ideas; we got some really cool villains in the Pied Piper and Jack o’ Lantern characters and the ideas behind the challenges were cool. Izayoi was awesome as always, which is a plus. There was also a really funny scene at the beginning about skirts and why it’s better to never quite see the undergarments…

…and the image of the scrolls landing all around the town was really cool.

The kids were actually the bad part of the episode this time.  Yo appears to be starting an arc about having to rely on others, after making the stupid decision to not bring in a teammate to a match and ending up having to surrender, and Asuka is in the middle of an arc about how she feels weak compared to the others. These are both really generic plots, and it’s annoying to see them resurface here.

Just a few episodes ago you were perfectly fine with being the distraction

Particularly exasparating is the unwillingness of Yo to bring a teammate in; there is no drawback to bringing a teammate in, and she should be smart enough to understand an advantage when there is one. Her blunder just seems out of character and makes her appear stupid.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IDIOT

A minor complaint, but the way that Izayoi explained what they meant by “reveal the true legend” five minutes after that was introduced was baffling; the tension is gone, and if you were really going to go for any mystery, it’s all dried up.

The episode was still good, but not as great as earlier episodes. Hopefully this show gets back on track.