Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest (Episode 16) - Black and White

Arifureta From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 2 Title

After defeating one hundred lava snakes, Hajime is ambushed by a demon and an army of dragons. They’re trapped inside the Grand Gruen Volcano and appear to be on the defensive, but that’s never stopped Hajime before!

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest (Episode 16) – Black and White

What happened?

So, the demon that wasn’t too happy that Hajime defeated the demon that attacked the hero’s party has finally caught up with Hajime. Everything that happened up to this point was to get Hajime to this location so that he could be ambushed. Even so, it’s going to take more than an army of dragons ridden by giant tortoises with defensive magic to stop him. Yue and Tio put up barriers to hold off the attacks, but it could all be for nothing if Hajime doesn’t get back in the fight.

Of course, he climbs back to his feet and hits the demon hard, knocking him back and even cutting him. However, the dragons are a problem. Luckily, Tio realises it’s her time to shine and transforms into her dragon form and helps Hajime out. They force the demon to retreat but not before he destabilises the volcano. Hajime as Tio to fly out and pass a message to Kaori and Myu. He’s staying with Yua and Shea as they have some things to take care of.

Arifureta From Commonplace to Worlds Strongest Episode 16 Hajime ready to fight back

What did you think?

It’s the return of the black dragon and it looks barely better than the last time we saw her. Maybe a little less shiny, but that’s about it. Anyhow, the actual battle was pretty good. It certainly had an epic scale with the dragons and tortoises, as ridiculous as that looked and sounded. The best thing about this episode was the way that Hajime spoke to his party. At long last, he’s treating them as companions and not just tools. The lack of bickering also helped.

Then, once Tio escaped from the volcano we shifted our focus back to the palace where Shizuku and the other students are based. I’m glad that they decided to keep checking in with them, although the scene in the woods where the guy that tried to kill Hajime originally was talking to another student in secret about what to do. My gut tells me that’s not an actual student he’s talking with, but it doesn’t really matter because all the context that we should have had in season one wasn’t there. That made this feel like it had been added as an afterthought.

Arifureta From Commonplace to Worlds Strongest Episode 16 Tio Shea Hajime and Yue

What have you learnt?

So, Tio changed into her dragon form after pondering something her father said many years ago. After the Dragonborn became enemies of God, she was told to hide her true identity until a time when she would feel like it was needed. Wise words from a dying father, trying to protect his daughter. However, I have to wonder how flying around on a mountain trying to eat nobles and Guildmaster’s children figured into this plan for secrecy?

Just like how we missed a lot of foreshadowing of the guy that tried to kill Hajime back in episode one, it’s important that if we try to attach a reason to the action, it should also make sense and not have a glaring hole in the plan. This season is undoubtedly better than the first season and seems to be trying to undo some of the mistakes from before. I also think that is going to have an impact on the pacing as they try to pull a lot of messy threads back together.