Thank you for visiting Anime Rants today. The Spring 2026 season is about over, but I’m still 2 or 3 weeks behind. Thanks for your patience, readers. The following notes are for the episodes released between June 7th and June 14th, 2026. My favorite episode of this week was actually Re: Zero because the dark thriller aspects have once again captured my attention and interest. I’m also very excited about the last few episodes of Dr. Stone.
Contents
- The Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 4
- Dr. Stone: Science Future Part 3
- Go For It, Nakamura!
- Re: Zero Season 4
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4
The Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 4
Episode 10: First Material Gathering
This episode introduced the fascinating and cool character Eustachius, whose name in the light novels was Justus. (And neither version of his name is what is actually being said in Japanese; if you listen closely, the character’s name is more like, “Eustocks” or “Justoks.”) Since I’m an anime-only enjoyer for now, I will call this character Estachius. He is one of Ferdinand’s personal retainers and the son of Rihyarda. The most interesting thing about Eustachius is that he sometimes cross-dresses as a woman on his missions. In addition, Eustachius was voiced by Toshihiko Seki, a talented and respected voice actor known for voicing Muzan in Demon Slayer. I know him best as the voice for Dr. Irie from the classic horror series, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry).
Anyway, Rosemyne was sent to collect taxes and see the celebrations for the Harvest Festival.She also stopped to see the mayor of Hasse and lay her plans for a trap. When that was done, Rosemyne, Eckhart, and Eustachius went to the town of Dorav. (Brigitte and Damuel were also there for backup.) They had a special mission to harvest a magical Ruelle fruit under the light of the full moon. The fruit was one of the ingredients in the potion needed to treat Rosemyne’s case of The Devouring.
Unfortunately, while they were trying to harvest the fruit, the party was attacked by feybeasts. One of the beasts evolved into a huge monster called a Goltze. Eustachius sent a messenger bird asking Ferdinand for help. The knights did their best, but were useless up against a rampaging Goltze. While they waited for Ferdinand to arrive as reinforcement, Rosemyne used a magic air cage to keep the Goltze contained. It was draining away her mana quickly, however. If the High Priest didn’t arrive soon, everyone would be in danger. To be continued.
Dr. Stone: Science Future Part 3
Episode 11: Giant Step
This episode mostly took place in space as Senku, Kohaku, and Stanley traveled toward the moon. It was cute to see everyone – Kohaku especially – enjoying their time in space. At the end of the episode, they finally reached the moon and Senku was the first to set foot on it. His first words were, of course, “Sozoruze, kore wa,” meaning “This is exhilarating!” But before all that, there were was a complication. An important piece of circuitry had been blocked and broken by a human hair that was petrified by the medusa. Without a replacement, it would be impossible to dock together the five pieces of the spaceship as planned. The mission was almost a failure.
Fortunately, Ryusui arrived piloting one of the other four pieces of the elaborate spacecraft. With him and Stanley together, the docking was possible. Ryusui also brought a spare circuit to replace the broken one. It was not explained how Ryusui was controlling the ship piece so perfectly without a reaction wheel. Plus, it would have been impossible for Ryusui to launch a shuttle by himself. For those reasons, I found this plot twist ridiculous and forced. Ryusui should not have come to space. But that’s the decision the writers made, so I’ll deal with it. Thanks to Ryusui, the mission was saved and the group landed on the moon three days later. To be continued.
Go For It, Nakamura!
Episode 11: Grab It! The Presents Scramble! /
Makeover? The Hair Cut Challenge!!
The first half of the episode was about Nakamura and Matsumura both trying to buy an Aquapet tee-shirt for Hirose’s Christmas present. This episode was pretty boring for me and difficult to write about for some reason. In the end, Nakamura and Matsumura proved their priorities by helping a child lost at the mall even though it made them miss the sale on the tee-shirts. It turned out that Hirose pre-ordered the shirt anyway. Nakamura bought two matching octopus pens and gave one of them to Hirose for his present.
The second half of the episode was about Nakamura’ haircut adventures. His sister, Kana, carelessly caused him to cut part of his bangs too short. Furious, Nakamura went to a fancy hair salon to get his hair fixed. Unfortunately for him, the hairdresser gave Nakamura much more than a bang trim: a whole new clean-cut style! Nakamura’s family was shocked by his stylish new hair and Hirose didn’t even recognize Nakamura at school the next day. I guess that’s all for this installment.
Re: Zero Season 4
Episode 10 (AKA 76): Murder Becomes A Habit
Just after hiding Meili’s body, Subaru was called to the library to find that Beatrice had discovered the Book of the Dead with Meili’s name on it. The book would prove that Subaru (or some cursed copy of Subaru) had killed Meili. Emilia and company had perfect trust in Subaru and allowed him to dive into the book, wherein he learned the story of Meili’s life. She was a princess-mononoke-ish character who grew up raised by beasts in the forest. She was captured and forced to live with Elsa as a killer cultist, under the occasional supervision of Capella herself. I loved learning Meili’s past and it made me appreciate her character a lot more. Anyway, Subaru witnessed the copy of Subaru strangling Meili. When it was over, his mind was haunted by hallucinations of Meili taunting him and reacting to his lies to the other party members.
After this point, Subaru was unable to stay sane, and I can hardly blame him. This arc is confusing and dark. I now think that one of the Gluttony kids or Capella stowed away with the group and took Rem’s form to kill Subaru. The killer can also copy Subaru’s form. That’s my current hypothesis, but it’s also still possible that Subaru has a dark alter ego that takes over at certain times. Shaula was acting weird, leading Subaru to feel even less trusting of those around him. He also had thoughts of killing Beatrice when he mistakenly thought she had seen his scars. Seemingly haunted by Meili’s spirit, Subaru went back to verify that Meili was actually dead. He couldn’t find her body. Just then, he was called out by Ram. A few other things happened, but that’s the gist. To be continued.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4
Episode 10 (AKA 82): The Master of Greed
This installment was entertaining as it featured some action, flashy magic, and the reveal that Yuuki is plotting world domination and has been faking being under Maribel’s control the whole time. I was slightly disappointed that Maribel was defeated so easily, but that just goes to show how powerful and determined Yuuki truly is. Maribel was a cool villain with some sympathetic angles, but I didn’t feel bad for her when she was killed. After all, her action of summoning the Chaos Dragon will probably cost many innocent lives. Even if Rimuru saves everyone, Maribel was still willing to throw away those civilians. Her death was a bit brutal, but I can’t argue that she didn’t reap what she sowed. Unfortunately, I don’t have more to say about this episode, as I’m at the end of my writing energy.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
Anime Rants 