Oh god, we’re doing this, huh?
I think this section of the rewrite, more than anything else, is going to have the most significant changes. While there wasn’t anything to ridiculously different from the original anime in theory last time, there are going to be significant alterations to storylines, including the removal of certain characters. We’re still going to start with the arrival of Shea in episode 6 and end with the end of that little village arc with Hajime’s teacher in episode 10, or 9 in the rewrite’s case. We don’t have one singular arc to tackle from beginning to end, instead dealing with two intermediate stories and a 3-episode arc, which I will turn into two multi-episode arcs. Here we go.
Episode 6: We cut to Kaori and the gang teleporting back into the labyrinth after taking some time to rest. They proceed to the 31st floor and Kaori begins wondering what Hajime must be up to right now. We fade to Hajime and Yue driving on their ATVs with no idea where they’re going since Hajime ends up asking Yue if she knows where the closest labyrinth to them is, and she doesn’t know the answer. Suddenly, a dinosaur head falls right in front of them. We see an amusingly bewildered reaction from them, and then cut to the OP.
We find a bunny girl being launched before landing, ready to combat a horde of dinosaurs. Here, we see her speed and strength, as she’s able to wrestle a few dozen and even pop off the head of one of the raptors. Still, she finds herself bitten, clawed at, and tackled. The raptors aren’t much slower than her either, so she can’t simply run, especially now that she’s been damaged. Though seemingly outmatched, she refuses to give up since she knows she’s killed a few of them. We then see a gun shooting at them, killing the horde, much to her shock and gratitude. Hajime and Yue who have just arrived, begin to step off so they can examine the corpses. The girls thanks them and introduces herself as Shea, much to their chagrin as they’re literally just there to kill creatures, eat, and then leave. They don’t have for this hyperactive bunny girl who keeps trying to talk to them, know who they are, and hug Hajime with her bloody self, etc. Hajime, pissed off, points a gun at her and tells her to go away. Yeah, we’re keeping that here, except when Shea gets sad, Yue tells her that they’re just here for the meat they shot. As Hajime creates a knife and some containers to harvest the meat, Shea asks if they have any healing items. Hajime barks, yelling that they’re out of healing items. Yue tells him to calm down at ler her handle this, and then adds that they used the last of them in the labyrinth. A seemingly down Shea says ok before starting to wander off, and then she registers that they came from a labyrinth. Excitedly, she asks if they’re adventurers looking to go through all of the labyrinths to take on the mavericks. Yue asks if she knows where the next one is after telling them that they’re not really adventurers, and Shea proclaims she’ll tell them over lunch cuz she’s starving and she did kill at least some of those dinosaurs. Before Hajime protests, Yue sits down and asks him to create a fire and then some cloth to wrap around Shea, who is still losing blood.
They talk about it while eating, and then Shea, now bandaged up, volunteers to tell them where the next one is if they take her with them. Hajime asks why they should do that and not just make her draw them a map or something, and Shea tells them that she’s seen some adventurers get in there and that she was the only survivor since she was one of the only few that knew how to maneuver some of the traps and obstacles there, and she wasn’t as weak as most of them were. Hajime groans, telling her that they’ll take her with them if she doesn’t get in his way. Shea asks for one of those containers from earlier, Hajime questions her, and she answers “just in case”, with him giving an unsure look before she taks it. They then begin driving, and Shea explains that from what she’s heard, the labyrinth they were in was the largest of the bunch, though she mentions that she never bothered completing the upcoming labyrinth and just trudged back once no one else was there, calling it a horrible time. She has more faith in them given what quick work they did, and the fact that one of them is a vampire. Yue questions how she knows about vampires, and she tells them that vampires became stories of legend in her village, remarking that they were once a proud race before sealing their most powerful member away and slowly losing power before eventually getting wiped out. She assumes that Yue is the one who was sealed away, and while Yue feels somewhat warm about the exchange, Hajime tells her to “stop bothering Yue and focus on getting us there”. Annoyed, she tells them that they’re almost there. She stops at a rocky location and feels things out. Yue asks what she’s doing before Hajime realizes that the labyrinth is beyond a hidden doorway they have to open. That gets confirmed immediately as Yue opens it, and they begin as Hajime eyes Shea suspiciously.
The rest of the episode up until the very end plays more like the first half of episode 7 (well, them going to and then entering the labyrinth was also part of episode 7) with the new maverick and her labyrinth pissing everybody, especially Shea off as she takes the brunt of the damage. Where we start getting to the differences is when it turns out Shea up slowing the group down in some instances without anyone to really bounce off of, and no weapon or magic of her own like the others have. She does manage to brute force some enemies, but that’s it, and it really gets to Hajime, especially when they end up circling back towards the beginning. Hajime and Shea have reached a breaking point. Shea starts yelling at the disembodied voice, vowing to clobber the female voice when she reaches her. Hajime snaps at her for even thinking she’ll get that far when she’s been of no real help to the group and has instead been slowing them down and getting in his way. That was the one thing he told her not to do and she did it, and the two keep arguing. Yue tries to get them to stop but they snap at her before Hajime accuses her of deliberately holding everyone back so she can get them all killed like with the previous party she was with. He adds that perhaps she killed them herself. Offended at the baseless accusations, Shea walks off, telling them that she’ll prove she can hold her own and get through the labyrinth all by herself and that once she does, Hajime will have to respect her as a teammate and person given her contributions. She calls them worse than her village, and runs off with tears in her eyes. Hajime reinforces her decision to “get out of here”, stating that she’s a liability anyway. We cut to a wide shot of the two groups heading in different directions to attempt to clear the labyrinth, and the episode ends.
So, you might have noticed that I pretty much just omitted episode 6. I doubt many would care as it’s the least liked episode of the bunch outside of episode 1. I also removed the obnoxious comedy the show had with Shea for the most part since I don’t want any real shades of a harem this time (it doesn’t offer any benefit to the show). The bunny village storyline was tedious, rushed, and just a massive waste of time that only existed to we could get a new party member and so Hajime learned that there were 6 dungeons and that he would have a place to backtrack towards once he was done with all that. In part 1, I gave him the info that there were 6 labyrinths to conquer, and honestly, he doesn’t need to know the latter right now as it won’t be relevant for quite some time. I also made it so that Shea became more of the energetic type who wears her emotions boldly on her sleeves as opposed to being a fanservice machine who bumbles around trying to make love with Hajime all the time while also being the loud and cheerful one. I alluded to her village not accepting her, which we will touch upon in the next episode. Think of it like Shea’s backstory from the original episode 6, except it will actually be relevant and not absurdly hamfisted.
Episode 7: We start with Yue asking if it was really a good idea fo go off on Shea the way he did. Hajime coldly retorts that she’s lucky he didn’t shoot her, which startles Yue. She then asks if he really believed she would actually be capable of sabotaging them, let alone killing them, when one of them could blast or skewer her in a second and the other is a vampire, one that Shea even respects. Unable to properly answer now that he realizes just how stupid that all sounds now that Yue laid it out, Hajime brushes off, telling her that maybe they’ll pick up Shea once they head back, believing that there’s no way Shea can handle this on her own.
After the OP, we see Shea looking down as she walks towards a group of enemies to defeat them. She remembers when the people at her village ridiculed and chided her for being stronger and more aggressive. We end the flashback with her putting a hand on her head, solemnly muttering the word “idiots”. The voice controlling the labyrinth asks if she’s referring to Hajime and Yue, and Shea flips out, vowing to pummel her and present her as an offering to the duo as she tears out a large stalagmite and starts swinging it around angrily. We cut to a horde of enemies being startled by the sounds of footsteps and screaming. Shea then appears and obliterates them with ease. One of them lands a scratch on her, reopening a would from the previous episode and causing her to stumble into a wall. She then notices a glow and heads toward it, and it turns out to be a healing rock. Recognizing it, she smashes a piece of it and grinds it into a liquid that heals her, and then thinks back to when Hajime made containers. She takes one out and smashes another piece of the rock put in there. She puts the container up and runs off.
Hajime and Yue make quick work of whatever enemies they come across and find themselves in new floors as Hajime remarks that he was right all along. Yue doesn’t respond, and they keep plowing through foes. The voice haughtily remarks that they shouldn’t get cocky, as they’re approaching a boss that makes for the second most powerful enemy in the labyrinth. Hajime cockily retorts that the previous labyrinth took so much longer than this one did, and then an armored beast appears. They then begin firing volleys at it while dodging its attacks. While their attacks seem to faze the creature, even the buster rifle doesn’t seem to do too much damage as Hajime suggests that they may be in it for the long haul with this enemy. Eventually, Yue’s mana starts depleting and the creature’s attacks start getting harder to avoid. Without any healing items or any reliable way to do significant damage to this creature, Hajime eventually suggests falling back before Yue asks if he hears something. Hajime then hears footsteps and angry noises, and right when he realizes who it is, Shea jumps up to smash a piece of armored plating off the creature. Hajime finds himself taken aback. He quickly snaps out of it, then busts out his buster rifle and runs over to shoot at the newly formed weak spot at the right angle to pierce its heart, killing it in one blow. Shea casually mentions that this is the fifth stalagmite that she broke, and Yue then thanks her for helping out back there and Hajime begrudgingly remarks that she did save them a lot of time there. Shea chortles with a sense of satisfaction. Yue then asks Hajime to let her bite him to restore her energy but Shea interrupts, pulling out her container telling her that the liquid from the healing rock also restores one’s mana. The duo is shocked at her resourcefulness before Yue thanks her and asks where she found it. She offers to lead the way, and Hajime allows it, providing a big mallot for her to wield and telling her that after this, they apparently only have the maverick left to deal with.
In true CBF Arifureta Rewrite fashion, the second half of the episode plays a lot like the second half of episode 7, with them confronting a gigantic suit of armor that Hajime formulates a plan to beat which involves using Shea’s brute strength to force an opening for Hajime to blast his way through (except more involved and with acceptable visuals). They then find out that this maverick is actually alive and is a small being that they proceed to clobber before getting flushed out with their rewards. Yue’s and especially Hajime’s respect for Shea grows as Hajime understands her role in the group, and once they come out and Shea seems to have drowned, he gives her CPR just in time for her to wake up. Instead of what she does in the original, she’s instead a bit flustered cuz she’s never been “kissed before”. Yue is still baffled by this, and Hajime tells her not to get the wrong idea since it was just CPR. He adds that he doesn’t want that to be thought of as a kiss since it basically isn’t, and he’s saving it for someone that he loves. They then decide to hit the sack for the night and Shea starts feeling a bit bummed out, asking if they’re gonna leave her tomorrow morning since she won’t be able to guide them too much. Hajime, slow to respond, gets a nudge from Yue and then tells her that she can stay now that he knows a role for her to fulfill, and also because Yue seems to have grown some kind of fondness for her. That comment puts an embarrassed pout on Yue’s face but makes Shea glow. He then apologizes for the accusations, stating that after being betrayed in the first labyrinth by the party he was with, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t duped and left to die alone twice by people who never cared about him and hated him instead. He still wants revenge on the one that did this to him, and he just leaves it at that for now. He expresses genuine guilt, embarrassment, and resentment, having finally let his guard down to Shea, which is perhaps even more important to her than simply knowing that he gets what it’s like to be targeted as it finally allows their relationship to progress. As they begin preparing to sleep, we see Shea monologuing in her head to her mother, telling her that she finally found people that she can relate to, and that they’ll be able to rest easy soon. Hajime then begins wondering what Kaori and the others are up to before looking at his companions and figuring that there might be some hope for him after all, joking to himself that Kaori might get jealous.
So, I made the labyrinth 2 episodes. You might be wondering why I decided to go right from one labyrinth to another when the show also only did two labyrinths but covered the second one in episode 7 which allowed for some breathing room between the two (not much but still). Well, I felt like Shea’s arc in episode 7 wasn’t substantial enough and I needed to justify her inclusion and storyline in this rewrite without just doing what the anime did cuz it was so boring and awful. Episode 7 was actually one of the few vaguely not abysmal episodes of the show for me cuz I saw what it was going for, and felt a character dynamic growing there. I wanted to expand upon that. Another reason is that the structure of this show is so fucked that to space out the labyrinths and cover all of the world-building details properly and with a good sense of pacing, escalating, and varied storytelling, would require so much time and several arcs to the point where I would be dramatically altering the very structure of this show in a way where one cour wouldn’t even be feasible, it feels. There is one more reason, but we’ll save that for when we’re balls deep into the next arc.
Episode 8: It’s midday. Hajime and co. are seen driving towards a nearby town the first set of adventurers Shea ran into told her they came from, but once they see a fork in the road, Shea directs them there, saying it leads to a cottage and farm for them to rest up and eat at without as much contact with people. They comply, particularly after she notes that she feels awkward there both because she had to apologize for the death of that one party, but also because of the racism present there. Hajime isn’t the least bit surprised at this. With that in mind, they head towards the cottage.
Hajime arrives and it turns out that his teacher and some of the other classmates are there. The teacher, Aiko tries to converse with him but he’s very standoffish to an almost douchey degree. She eventually gets to know his companions, and one of the knights working there starts getting pissy at Hajime for not striking up a convo with her. He then starts acting racist towards Shea, and she bites back at him, prompting a fight to nearly break out as everyone starts holding the two back. Hajime tells him that he’ll talk but that the knight has to “get out of here and never speak to one of my partners like that ever again” in the most threatening way possible. Aiko is impressed by the fact that Hajime was able to stand up for someone, and Hajime, not used to being praised by anyone, gets somewhat flustered and tries to brush it off. He then tells her he’ll get situated and then talk later. The girls follow him out.
I have tried up to come up with something, anything interesting to write for this section for a long time, because honestly, what do you do with the most boring section where little interesting happens on any front? That’s when I remembered that sometimes this show’s characters did indeed try to have moments of chemistry and emotion. That’s where this episode takes a different turn to the second half of the original episode 8. By now, I’ve taken care of pretty much all of the exposition the show would have only finished after this episode. This time, we’re going to focus on one of the few characters impacted by Hajime’s heroic “sacrifice” that the show tried to make us care about. Yuuka Sonobe was one of the few characters Hajime directly managed to protect for a short period of time in episode 1, and now that she’s seen Hajime in his new edgelord state, she wants answers. Since Hajime doesn’t want to talk with anyone and he’s off somewhere else, she asks Shea and Yue to explain what he’s done since he was separated from the party.
We’re actually going to be cutting between two conversations here, as the scene where Hajime and his teacher meet up again is being kept to some capacity, minus the exposition dump. Yuuka explains what happened in episode 1, which shocks the pair of Hajime lovers, and after she explains that Hajime fell deep into the labyrinth, the scene cuts to Hajime telling Aiko of his betrayal, namedropping the culprit in the process. The two girls and the teacher are shocked. One of her own students attempted to kill another classmate, and that’s unthinkable to her yet Hajime assures her that it’s true. She then tells him that she knew Daisuke (the bully and backstabber, yes I had to look him up) was acting strangely afterwards. She remarked that he seemed pretty shaken about Hajime’s death even though he hated Hajime more than anyone else in their class. Hajime gets a chuckle out of knowing that his tormentor was spooked by his supposed death. Yuuka tells him that she’s only going based off conjecture regarding who backstabbed Hajime, no one else has been acting as suspiciously as him, not that anyone is willing to talk about it. Yue tells them that she knew some of this from when she helped him get out of the labyrinth, much to their surprise. She lets them know how violent and bitter he was when they first met. Yuuka then asks what he has been up to, and Hajime explains the rough details to the teacher. He does not dominate the scene from then on, as we cut to Shea when she begins explaining how she encountered him. Yuuka thanks them for the information, stunned at who Hajime has become, both because he finally has the strength to protect people like he tried to beforehand, but because she sees what a darker person he has simultaneously become. What’s important is that now everyone is on the same page, as everyone has learned something that someone else knew, even if we don’t gain anything new outside of how everyone reacts to the news and feels about Hajime afterwards. Aiko tells Hajime that she’s glad to see him ok even if he’s borderline unrecognizable from how he was before. Hajime chuckles, and she comments that it’s the first time she’s seen him smile in a long while. Stunned by this, Hajime calls it a night and proclaims he’ll assist them tomorrow. After stepping out, he encounters the infatuated duo who have learned everything. Shea hugs him, saying that she finally understands, and with one look at Yue, he knows what they’ve learned before telling them that everything’s going to be fine. He has them, after all.
Episode 9: We are skipping the Tio episode.
As Hajime is unable to get any sleep, he begins wandering, only to discover a bonfire with Yuuka sitting in it. She asks if it’s him, to which he answers. He then asks if he’s the one who told Shea and Yue, to which she answers. She then tells him she never got to thank her for saving her and helping the class that day in the labyrinth, and that she can only imagine the resentment he feels towards them for not finding him and always treating him like shit before that event. He’s taken aback from a classmate other than Kaori and Shizuki showing him gratitude, and tells her that she was never someone he actively disliked before thanking her. Flustered, he sits down with her. He asks if she can’t sleep either, which comforts her as she admits to it. She then explains that everyone in this cottage left the party a few days ago to work on agricultural duties while the others work on combat and exploration of the labyrinth so she hasn’t seen Kaori or Shizuki since. Worried, he asks about them, to which she responds that Kaori felt particularly down for a while before showing more determination than ever before as she went with everyone to search for him. She also explains that the party sends a messenger who is one of their classmates, and some collectors from their location to this cottage so that both groups can update each other on what’s going on and share resources with each other. They’ve passed twice, and while the party has made it past the floor that Hajime fell through before, they still haven’t cleared it. The messenger and collectors were supposed to pass a third time, but yesterday, only one person made it, that being a frightened, wounded collector. He claims that the classmate was captured by demon lords and that the others were killed off as he barely managed to escape. He hasn’t been capable of relaying everything they need to know due to shock. Though he’s glad to know that some of his classmates still care, he’s alarmed by this news, and he knows that an army is approaching. He tells her that he’ll get some rest before a battle that is soon to approach them. He will get more information in the morning.
The next morning, Hajime is taken to the wounded person who’s lying in bed. He asks him about what happened when he got intercepted. The collector, still shaken, barely manages to say anything coherent about what took place, frustrating Hajime. Yue calms him down and takes over by comforting the man. He finally explains that he saw two demon lords. The collector continues by stating that last time he heard them before everyone got caught, they were beginning to summon an army in the mountains to head for the cottage before one of them split off to head for the labyrinth. Hajime hurriedly sets out as Shea tries to stop him. He explains that they might need to head into the town for reinforcements after all, and that they need to finish this quick because Kaori might be in danger soon. Aiko tells him that they actually sent someone yesterday for this exact reason, and they’ll be approaching soon so everyone should eat while they can. The collector finishes saying that one of the classmates went off in the other direction so while he knows everyone else was killed off, that boy might still be out there. This reassures Aiko but does nothing for Hajime as he begins walking.
We cut to a gathering of several soldiers and the people from the cottage assembling a strategy. They decide that Hajime and Yue will provide suppressive cover fire to deal with several hordes and any flying enemies while Shea and the knights press the charge against. The knight from yesterday tells Shea to not get in his or anyone else’s way, to which she asks Hajime to pass her a giant mallet. After some chatter, Hajime brings out a sniper to see when the enemy starts arriving. Once he takes the first shot at sunset, the battle begins as everyone gives it their all during the second half of the episode. It’s really as simple as it gets, just one giant scene of everyone pitching in with their powers, covering for each other, and getting the knights to curb their racism when Shea outclasses them and saves the knight from yesterday from a painful attack at one point before escorting him and some others to tents to be healed. Even Yuuka manages to defend Hajime for a minute, impressing him all the while as the two share a cute fist bump before launching back into action. Hajime attempts to snipe a demon lord, only to nearly get blasted himself. It soon becomes a sniping war that leaves the two exhausted and bleeding before Yue finally catches on. She looks at Hajime before firing a tremendous bolt of magical lightning at the demon lord. He avoids it, but the explosion of the attack sends him hurdling just long enough to be defenseless as Hajime makes the final shot. The body is out of sight, and what remains of the army gets finished off shortly thereafter. Though several casualties and injuries took place, our heroes celebrate triumphantly. Hajime tells Aiko and the gang that he and his party are going to head off to the mountains. They urge him to stay, but he busts out some ATVs and claims that he has to head off and that he’ll tell everyone that Aiko and the others are ok. After telling them he might make it there by nightfall with the ATVs, he thanks them and rides off. The episode, and the arc, ends triumphantly.
We skipped Tio’s episode entirely since honestly, she does not add anything of value to the anime. She does not get an episode focusing on her like Shea and Yue do, and isn’t really relevant to anything going forward. Perhaps she holds some significance past the point where the first season ended, but I’m not about to read the LN or manga to find out, and I’m sure as hell not going to bother watching the eventual second season, either. The episode she is introduced in is also agonizing. The idea of Hajime killing a disgruntled classmate who also hated him because mercy kill and he wanted to kill the teacher, I scrapped as well. There was nothing compelling to do with that idea. One last thing to note before wrapping up is the deal with Yuuka. The anime tried to do something similar to what I’ve attempted to do here, but I felt on expanding on that somewhat and making it feel earned. It just goes to show you that this show indeed had some potential. With all that being said, I will see you with the final part of this rewrite…whenever.
Carmine Castle 