May I Ask for One Final Thing?

Episode 9

I began this week's episode of May I Ask for One Final Thing? feeling a little surprised that we were getting a flashback to Diana's childhood this late in the game, but as soon as she started to wistfully whisper about how envious she was of Scarlet's skill and confidence, I realized exactly where we were headed. Sure enough, it turns out that, in addition to Dios, the second traitor to the Dianist cause is none other than Saint Diana herself. Dios, being a spy was hardly a major revelation; every single male character in this show speaks as if they are walking the thinnest of tightropes between playing the gentle seducer and cloying psychopath, so it was bound to happen that one of them would fall into the villainous half of the divide, eventually. For Diana to betray the trust of her beloved Scarlet, though? I have to give May I Ask for One Final Thing? credit where it's due. This is a pretty good twist.

There are major positives and negatives to an episode of this show spending so much time on more table setting and plot development. On the one hand, it makes the conflict between Terenezza, Scarlet, and their respective holy armies feel that much more climactic. There are only a few episodes left in the season, so May I Ask…? had darn well better make Scarlet's final pilgrimage of pain for the year into a spectacle to remember.

I also very much welcome the added complexity to Diana's characterization. She worked just fine as the ironically cutesy and comedic foil to Scarlet's superhuman prowess, given that she's the public-facing saint of an entire religion and all. It's good to know that the show remembers that even its silly characters need to be written like real human beings, and I believe that Diana would be pushed out of fear and self-loathing to sell out her people after spending so many years feeling like she can't live up to her best friend and idol. I am less enthusiastic about Dios turning out to be Diana's secret half-brother. We've seen the “troublingly affectionate brother weirdo” done a million times before, and to be frank, done with much more gusto. I'm going to need a lot more from Dios beyond acting like a cringey dork and writhing on the floor like some mid-2000s rom-com protagonist with a little-sister complex. It's 2025, Dios. You're going to need to get even more weird and deranged with your shameful, shameful feelings if you want to stand out from the crowd.

The downside to all of this pesky story and character development, of course, is that May I Ask…? simply isn't the most dramatically compelling anime out there when its heroine isn't actively walloping the piss out of whichever Powers-That-Be have it coming on any given week. To be clear, it's not bad at the more narrative-driven storytelling that this episode prioritizes. It's just that there simply isn't much for me to remark on besides acknowledging that the show did a perfectly acceptable job getting us from Point A to Point B. The direction, writing, editing, and so forth are never much more than “perfectly acceptable” when fists aren't flying. This is okay. Not every anime in the world needs to be on the level of a Chainsaw Man or a Paranoia Agent.

So, we end this week much the same as we did the last: Scarlet has her work cut out for her when it comes to dealing with threats from without as well as within. Thankfully, Our Lady of Bloody Knuckles has a good head on her shoulders and is keeping the trouble at bay. For now, at least. With less than a month to go before the season wraps up for good, if there is anything I would love to see from May I Ask for One Final Thing?, it would be a challenge that forces even Scarlet El Vandimion to break a sweat.

Episode Rating:

May I Ask for One Final Thing? is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.