Heaven’s Lost Property (Episode 18) – Forte: Mortal Combat! Hot Spring Snowball Fight at 1.4° Below

It’s the first snowfall of the year and what better way to celebrate than by having a boys versus girls snowball fight? Oh, and the winners can make the losers do whatever they want! Suddenly, everyone wants to play.
Heaven’s Lost Property (Episode 18) – Forte: Mortal Combat! Hot Spring Snowball Fight at 1.4° Below
What happened?
So, Mikako seems to be determined to cause even more problems for Tomoki and she’s using Astraea to do that. The first snowfall of the year appears at the perfect time as Mikako decides to enlist all of the students for a boys versus girls epic snowball fight. Only in this fight, you win when you take out the opposing commander. That’s right it’s Mikako versus Tomoki.
Tomoki, however, isn’t interested in the slightest. That was until Mikako revealed that the winning team can make the losing team do whatever they want. Well, of course, this awakens the inner commander in Tomoki and before you know it the snowball fight has turned into total war.

Tomoki and Sugata came up with some interesting tactics to ensure their victory. The one that no one was expecting was when Tomoki and a small team of boys charged straight up the middle and targetted the girls’ strongest fighter. No, not Astraea. It wasn’t even Ikaros or Nymph who were off looking for a hot spring on Mikako’s orders. They charged straight up to Sohara and buried her in the snow. The result was looking like a foregone conclusion.
After the first day’s fight, the teams settled in for dinner. Tomoki and the other unpopular boys then turned their attention towards the captured girls including Astraea. It was a little shocking to see that the boys had completely lost their minds, including Tomoki who painted an elephant on his body!!!
However, that rather jarring scene was interrupted by the revelation that the girls had built a hot spring. While Tomoki was peeping, the popular boys staged a coup and released the prisoners. They then sided with the girls to take down Tomoki. However, he wasn’t going to go down easy, but then something truly unexpected happened – the appearance of the abominable Snoharaman! War is hell!

What did you think?
I liked this episode, it was a little bit crazier than usual and coming right after Mask du Pants probably hurt it. I mean how do you follow that? There were lots of hints at Mikako and Sugata’s past but nothing was revealed. I hope that one day I will find out more about what happened to leave Sugata living in a tent and I know it’s going to involve Mikako somehow. Anyhow, this episode was a lot of fun, especially with what happened to poor Sohara!
However, I can’t walk away from this episode without talking about the creepy stuff with Tomoki and his captives. Sure, other shows have done creepy before like Kazuma and his wiggly fingers in KonoSuba, but this was on another level altogether and kind of soured the episode. At least Tomoki got rightly dealt with by Sohara, but that was probably a bit of a let off.
Of course, Mikako has once again introduced even more insanity than you would have thought possible. I’m not sure what she has planned with Astraea, but I feel like she’s just enjoying the chaos it causes. Then, she was also responsible for finding the hot spring and giving us the delights of outdoor bathing! Mikako is wildly unpredictable and I love her for that!

What have you learnt?
Amazingly, they managed to slam a point to the episode at the end which was both surprising and impressive. Astraea came across a snowball bound Tomoki and realised that it was her chance to kill him and return to the Synapse. He recognised this and pitied her for the way she would follow orders without question. If that wasn’t a commentary on war then I don’t know what is. Soldiers follow the orders their given.
I am constantly impressed with how this series manages to look at issues way bigger than it should. I mean this episode was basically a giant snowball fight that highlighted the horrors of war without being gratuitously violent. There’s a lot to be said for the “spoils of war’ and the way it was depicted here. If that scene didn’t make you feel uncomfortable then I think you missed the point.

Other reviews in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – A Full-frontal Hero Arises in the World!
- Episode 2 – An Airborne Prismatic Panty Adventure
- Episode 3 – Angeloid Directive Zero
- Episode 4 – Love and Triangles, Revisited
- Episode 5 – Hot Night With the Big Fish
- Episode 6 – Swimsuit Surf Brigade, Go! Go! Go!
- Episode 7 – The Brainy, Heart-pounding Transfer Students
- Episode 8 – For Whom the Shooting Festival is Held
- Episode 9 – The Delusional Story That Began With a Lie
- Episode 10 – Where the Melodious Words Of an Angel Go
- Episode 11 – Off We Go To My Bathhouse Paradise
- Episode 12 – Chains of No Escape
- Episode 13 – Queen of the Sky
- OVA One
- Season Two: Forte
- Episode 15 – You Strip, Too! The Return of the Full-frontal Hero
- Episode 16 – Bombshell! The Angel is a Big Boob
- Episode 17 – A Proud-fought Battle
- Episode 18 – Mortal Combat! Hot Spring Snowball Fight at 1.4° Below
- Episode 19 – The Brother Who Came From Heaven
- Episode 20 – Reach a Decision! The Up and Down of Heaven and Hell
- Episode 21 – Eating Watermelon Tomoki
- Episode 22 – The Song of the Angels Echoes in the Sky
- Episode 23 – Shoot-out! Fishing At the Jumbo Carnival of Dreams
- Episode 24 – Peek Into the Fantasy Field
- Episode 25 – The Edge of an Indiscriminate Requiem
- Episode 26 – Forte Wings Soaring for Tomorrow
- Movies

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