We have begun the next arc now featuring fan favorite John Smith; Cid's most recent alter-ego in which he fancies himself a super secret agent tasked to destroy and then rebuild Mitsugoshi. I actually think the anime did a pretty good job of motivating his actions here. I remember the first time I read the LNs I was a bit confused as to why Cid decided to destroy Mitsugoshi. If you are confused, his thinking is basically this:
- Mitsugoshi have become too successful too quickly, making enemies of established powerful entities like the Major Corporation Alliance (MCA)
- Being an upstart, Mitsugoshi won't survive the fight against the MCA
- So, in order to save his friends (Shadow Garden), he plans on destroying both Mitsugoshi and the MCA and reforming under a new name with the help of Yukime and her resources in the Lawless City
- This conveniently puts him at the top of the new organization where he can directly make lots of money instead of his friends making money off of his ideas
- It is important to remember that Cid doesn't realize that all of Mitsugoshi's money can be his if he asked. He just thinks that Gamma et al are running a business off his ideas but still play "pretend fight the cult as Shadow Garden" with him at night sometimes
- All the while, he is hiding his identity as John Smith from Shadow Garden because...it's cooler that way, duh
The anime also certainly added quite a bit of Delta fanservice this episode. I especially like the bit where he was mindlessly feeding her his food from the counter. Additionally, we got a tiny bit of Delta's backstory through her meeting her brother. If there is one complaint I have about this series, it is that I wish we knew more about the Shadow Garden girls and their backstories. We have gotten some glimpses here and there (especially if you include mobile game content), but there is a ton more that could be told.
The ED this week is sung by Mayu Minami (voice of Kai). We also briefly saw Kai (along with Omega, Nu, and Alpha) when they sprung their sting operation in the cold open of the episode.