Ilycied's Anime Blog: Outbreak Company 06

Worship the ball.

Outbreak Company proves itself to be a classy, fun harem show with good references and silly jokes.

This episode kicks off with a bang as Minori substitutes a school bell for her handgun. The jokes were simply relentless here.

Of course, there were a ton of small jokes scattered throughout, like Elbia obsessing over Minori's soccer ball and Minori threatening to shoot Elbia as a result. But what really took the cake was the hilarious reference to Shaolin Soccer, yet another fantastic martial-arts comedy in Hong Kong style (which, frankly is a must-watch). Just like the movie, the dwarves were ridiculously overpowered, shooting the ball faster than the eye could see, ripping up the field and destroying the net. The elves, of course, brought their own power creep with the rule change allowing magic, creating a whole new level of overpowered on par with dragon-ball power upping.

When I watch Petrarca sitting on Myuseru's tornado, it really puts into perspective the level of warfare their society may have faced. It's easy to think of Petrarca's nation as a backwater, medieval country, but magic changes everything. When it comes to our modern society, regardless of nation, we seem to struggle with discrimination issues regarding race, gender, skin color, and the like - but none of them result in significant biological differences to the extent that we see here. Looking at the soccer match, the dwarves seem to possess a superhuman strength - with even the weakest, smallest dwarf probably magnitudes greater than our most powerful weightlifters or athletes. The elves, likewise, possess their own immense, unthinkable power, an innate advantage unique to their own race. To think that Myuseru is able to control a tornado with a level of precision necessary to maintain a little girl stable on top, from years of training as a childhood soldier? It's just unbelievable, and rather tragic, to think about what kind of childhood she must experienced. It may be speculative to claim a hellish warzone full of unnecessary bloodshed and conflict, but I doubt that's unrealistic. Of course, one has to wonder how the hell the humans maintained control, with the sheer physical strength of the dwarves and the magical prowess of the elves.

Thank god it's just a moe comedy, or the feels would be too crushingly powerful.

Shinichi, of course, never lets up on his harem-making. He implies to Myuseru that he arranged the soccer game for her sake, wanting to improve half-elf relations and discrimination. What a badass.

Overall, fantastic episode. I hope it only gets better.