Shinchou Yuusha's 5th episode ends on a rather sad yet epic note, with a huge revelation that not even our wary hero could have foreseen. However, we can't forget this is a comedy isekai anime, and it definitely shows. I mean, we already have cute and sexy goddesses helping Seiya, and the grievously humiliated god trope was flawlessly deployed when we met Cerceus, so... can Shinchou Yuusha use these again and get away with it? Of course!

Enter Adenela, the disgusting, lonely, and creepy Goddess of War that serves as Seiya's new mentor. Sure, she may not have a menacing warrior-like look if we were to compare her to Cerceus or the more powerful Valkyrie (Goddess of Destruction), but she definitely looks like a vicious goddess that enjoys being weird and making her enemies suffer. At least at the beginning, since everything changes once she starts training our unwitting womanizer. Without context, it wouldn't be hard for Ristarte to think that every training session is just an excuse for sex, with Adenela's dialogues implying she enjoys Seiya's attitude and power in more than one way. However, the cherry on top of the cake —pun intended, kind of— is that, other than settling for another perfect execution of the same trope, this anime makes Adenela go the extra mile and change her looks in a desperate attempt to make Seiya fall in love with her... and she surely has a cute, girly side! I for one was not expecting this wicked goddess to transform into the most adorable girl ever, but on the other hand, Seiya's stance and Ristarte's jealousy were extremely predictable, which is good.

Thank you, Adenela; your boldness won't be forgotten, even if it only shows how cruel love can be at times. I'm sorry for you, yet I'm even more sorry for the guys in charge of stopping the now rejected Goddess of War!

Senku has been ready for Tsukasa to eventually make his move against him if —and when— he learned he was still alive. With our 18th episode, the time has finally come to begin the Stone War! Without much warning, Kinro and Ginro find themselves defending the bridge from unknown assailants. Senku quickly learns from Gen these are Tsukasa’s warriors and Kinro goes from on the defense to quickly being overpowered. Luckily, Senku uses a fake “gun” to cause the assailants to flee and allows him time to come up with a much needed plan to defeat Tsukasa’s first wave of warriors. Using the power of science, Senku arms his team with katana and during a stormy assault, our heroes of the science kingdom gain a much needed power. Unfortunately, the masked warrior Hyoga seems to best the warriors and it looks like the kingdom of science might be in trouble... or does it? Senku we learned, gave Gen a hidden knife by having Suika follow a hidden trail--left by Gen--and that allowed Gen to sabotage Hyoga’s powerful spinning spear! For now, it seems as if Ishigami Village might have a chance at winning their first battle but will this early fight be a false road to victory?!

It’s all been leading up to this – Askeladd’s men betrayed him and the opposing army caught up to them, so it’s time for the Welsh warrior to reveal his true colors. His mother had always believed that King Artorius would return from the magical land of Avalon one day to lead his people to prosperity, so she told him to serve that worthy king when the time comes. This explains Askeladd’s hatred of the Danes, since he sees them as violence-obsessed idiots who are only out for their own glory.

He valiantly fights off 50 men on his own while Bjorn leads Thorfinn and the prince on a frantic carriage ride to escape the turncoats. After several episodes of downtime, these high-intensity action scenes are a gorgeous feast for the eyeballs – WIT Studio brought out the big sakuga guns for this one! But as soon as Thorfinn realizes that Askeladd is in grave danger, he goes into full anime badass berserker mode. He jumps off the crashing carriage, kicks a horse rider in the face in midair, flips to land on the horse the correct way, and veers it around to race towards Askeladd. Unfortunately, Thorkell the Tall has already arrived and cornered the man (but not before intimidating the turncoat leader into dying from a heart attack at the mere anticipation of fighting the giant one-on-one). If Thorfinn wants to secure his position as the only one who can kill Askeladd, he’s going to have to go through Thorkell first...

The boys practice with their new partners. Maki unveils his ideas for the new tennis pairs, only to be met with confusion by his teammates who see the pairs as the worst possible combinations. Maki plans to pair Rintaro up with Itsuki, Tsubasa with Shingo, and Nao with Taiyo. Despite their hesitations, each pair is able to win in their practices matches with Maki and Toma. Even though Maki and Toma don't try their hardest in the matches, the rest of the boys still learn a lot about each other and how they plan to play with one another going forward. To deepen the bonds further, the pairs are forced to spend all of their free time at school together.

It sure was exciting watching these new pairs compete. Even though they were just short practice matches, it is still great to see how far the boys have come since the first episode. The best part about this moment was seeing how all of the boys struggle at first with their new partners but then were quickly able to adapt to playing with each other. Everyone except for Maki seems to be progressing at a realistic pace and it just adds to how enjoyable Hoshiai no Sora has been thus far. With a practice match against one of the best soft tennis teams in the country on the horizon, the boys are going to need all the practice they can get.