Granbelm Episode 4 Review: Feng Shui Master Lin Fen Fen

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Granbelm, where cute girls with magical powers insert themselves in fancy neon-colored robots and try to kill each other instead of talking about their feelings. It’s a good time.

Plot

The episode starts with a robot battle. We get brief shots of Anna angrily referring to Shingetsu as Ernesta – but then again, that’s all she ever does, isn’t it? I haven’t really seen her perform any other dimension of her character apart from the angry-towards-Shingetsu one. Whatever. They’re fighting, I think. Screaming is involved. The white-haired girl who’s got sister issues is also present and, well, she talks about her sister a lot. Okay. Mangetsu is also there, fighting with the rest of her gal-pals, which makes me assume that she has finalized her decision of competing at the Granbelm. A green light shows up and everyone seems to be in distress. It seems like it’s coming from Nene chan, Mangetsu’s sister’s very cute friend, the one who is also a triplet. She chats to her mother while she tries to incinerate the rest of the girls in an attack of green lasers – or at least that’s like the vibe I’m getting?

Away from the battle and into a flashback, we see the triplets and their mom. Judging from the outfit, they’re of Chinese descent, and specifically, from Hong Kong, if I can remember correctly from the previous episode. Nene is being told off for using magic for something else other than summoning monsters, which is kind of a bummer I suppose, having magical skills that you can only use for harm and not convenience.

Back in the battle, Shingetsu and Mangetsu are trying to figure out Nene’s power, while Anna is being louder and more annoying that any anime character I have ever seen and Nene makes it rain lasers everywhere. The token white-haired girl is also on the defense. Shingetsu decides to lead herself and Mangetsu into hiding. In the meantime, the remaining Anna goon, Suishou, finds Nene’s hiding spot, where she’s been shooting lasers from, and the two of them engage in direct battle. White hair joins in. Suishou seems excited to be seeing a new Armanox so she blatantly ignores Anna’s calls and picks a new fight. However, the moon is setting, and a darkness envelopes everyone as tonight’s battle is over.

Mangetsu wakes up on her bed, Shingetsu on the floor by her side. Mangetsu declares that she now wishes to win the Granbelm. Okay. While she’s at it, her younger sister, Kibou, still hangs out with Nene, who is being located by miss white hair on their way to school. Listening to Mangetsu’s sister’s voice, miss white hair realizes that they’re probably related. Somewhere else, Suishou is being yelled at by Anna, whose younger sister has just found where Shingetsu’s high school is. Nene is trying to find miss white hair, but instead ends up in Mangetsu’s house for tea with Kibou. Somehow, white hair (now known as Kuon), Mangetsu, and Shingetsu are all there having a little meeting on Nene. They agree on teaming up to defeat Nene, but instead find her outside their door. They try to detect her power, but as she’s wearing a protective talisman, they fail. Nene explains the situation to her triplets over the phone.

Mangetsu, Shingetsu, and Kuon are taking a walk, and Kuon makes the very obvious point that at some point they’re going to have to fight each other. Mangetsu gives a very oblivious response to that, which will probably not stop her from going into battle later. The next day, Nene walks up to them and confesses that she’s a magician.

It’s not you, it’s me

Maybe I don’t see the appeal but this is incredibly boring. I’m not even sure what is going on or why it matters…

How did you find this Granbelm episode? Let us know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check the rest of the Summer 2019 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!