Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte

Episode 9

With a plot predicated on two characters smushing two other characters together, Endō. and Kobayashi Live obviously understands the thrust of a good ship. It also recognizes that tantalizingly teasing, frustrating your audience a bit in the process, is part of the experience. The show's able to get me invested in this dynamic, so that when Endō. laments early in this episode how he wishes he was Kobayashi's significant other, it provokes me yelling at the screen "My brother in Christ you two have been dating for like six months!". That's fair and entirely normal; this whole show is all about characters shouting unchecked romance reactions at their television, after all.

With the big climaxes of both portions of the plot still signposted as "Happening soon! Next week! Maybe!", Endō. and Kobayashi Live continues to populate its episode occurrences with more moments of micro-progress for our cute couples. The particular escalations in this entry seem to be about side-plots that aren't necessarily directly tied into the game and real-life worlds, alongside other elements which specifically are about the two dimensions bleeding into each other. For instance, Endō. and Kobayashi find themselves needing to compose entertainment for the school festival, with Kobayashi being the new president of the broadcast club. This little storyline briefly entertains the possibility of our lovely Let's-Players just recreating a Love Me Magically dialogue scene between Liese and Sieg, before being rerouted into an unrelated murder-mystery direction.

Part of the joke there is that all of Endō. and Kobayashi's classmates and clubmates can already tell how married these dorks are, and don't want to put up with their public displays of affection, because they clearly have no taste. But while it's obvious to anyone listening how down bad Kobayashi is for Endō.'s sultry speaking voice, it's still becoming apparent that vector may have run its course in getting these two to act on their obvious feelings for each other. They're oblivious in a cute frustrating way, not an annoying frustrating way, and only direct interaction with other real-world parties could possibly save them now.

The former president and other members of the broadcast club try their best, but it's the appearance of Kobayashi's sister who gets to really try to push things along. Her encouragement of Endō. rather intentionally comes off as a mirror of Liese's insistence that Bal quit dawdling with Fiene a while back. It makes for a commentary on the comparisons between the two worlds, if not a direct link in this case. Though Kirise Kuon, the mysterious guy who might be Game God, is still lurking in the background of this one, seemingly just killing time until we reach the end of the show when his plot is supposed to kick in.

That same sense of "it's gonna happen any day now" also applies to the prep for the Witch of Yore over in Love Me Magically town, but is similarly bolstered by the breadth of the show's antics. It's still sharp about demonstrating the cascading effects of Endō. and Kobayashi's interference, with Liese really feeling like she's leading the charge on her own rescue mission now. Think of it as parallel to Kobayashi ascending to club president. Except instead of arguing over performance scripts, Liese is pushing to attend a ball in battle-ready practical school-style gym wear, opposed by both Sieg and Fiene who may have some…less-than-pure ulterior motives for wanting to see her in a big, beautiful ballroom gown.

It's a cute bit predicated on the open communication and compromise reached by Sieg and Liese last week, and it's resolved with our favorite tsundere princess deciding to don a military-dress guard uniform, because this show has a brain the size of a planet. They've only teased us in the audience with what that'll look like so far, but that's an effective way to drive engagement, making me look forward to seeing the debut of that outfit way more than any climactic witch battle.

It's Endō. and Kobayashi Live continuing to pitch its most sugary-sweet priorities, confirming this ostensibly light little show as an enjoyable pick-me-up I'm honestly kind of surprised to find myself enjoying so much every Friday. A lot of the filling-in content is pure garnish, like an aside discussing Liese's little sister Cecilie winding up in a cute puppy-love engagement with Fabian, a character who was ostensibly important in the "original'' version of Love Me Magically, but who hasn't gotten to do much in Endō. and Kobayashi's run here. It's fun, alongside stuff like Liese's tsundere outbursts coming back in full force as it becomes clear how much of a wife guy she's become for her own wife guy. Scarcely animated as it's been, my only real issue with experiencing Endō. and Kobayashi Live in episodes like this in anime form rather than its original book format is that it makes it harder to clutch it to my chest and squeal, which is obviously the main thing this story is here to do.

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Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.

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