Roll Over and Die

Episode 6

I believe Flum, Milkit, and the audience all deserve some fluffy domestic lesbian bliss, and this week, Roll Over and Die agrees with me. Welcome to the breather episode. Note that the title, “An Ordinary Life,” doesn't fit into the “X and Y” naming pattern we've seen so far, and the title card similarly lacks the usual inversion animation. The dark fantasy plot can (mostly) wait. We're eating dessert right now. Open wide.

Seriously, I've been asking for this! Flum and Milkit desperately needed downtime together to better establish their chemistry, and that is the exact function this episode performs. After a few establishing shots, the first thing we see is the two of them cuddling in bed. Their breakfast mishap is no less adorable. And the part where they say each other's names back and forth at least a dozen times would be sickeningly saccharine if not for the darkness of the previous episode. The sapphic levity is a sign of healing.

Evidently, the narrative also heard my complaints about Milkit, because she takes a more central and active role in this week's installment. Her miniature arc is about learning to speak her mind, and it has a simple yet satisfying payoff. Eterna, too, graduates from sketchy side character to wingwoman, as she aids Milkit's efforts to talk openly with Flum. I like seeing Eterna pick up on Milkit's nonverbal cues of her discomfort. Being in tune with your own emotions is important, but it's equally important to be aware of your friends' and partners' feelings.

I once again admit I may be reading too much into Roll Over and Die's themes, but I don't think it's that ridiculous to consider that, as a yuri series, it may be interested in gender politics. Cooking and baking, which are traditionally feminine-coded, continue to bear importance. While reflecting on their memories in the Heroes' party, Eterna states that Flum, via the food and fun she provided, had been the glue holding their group together. Flum's “soft skills” were less valued than her stats and battle aptitude—quantifiable and male-coded qualities—and that was Jean's stated reason for ejecting her from the group. Yet the party has fallen apart without her, and now we have explicit textual confirmation of such. Notably, Eterna does not suggest that Flum, with her newfound stats and abilities, should rejoin the party or fight Jean to regain her honor. She only laments not realizing sooner how valuable a companion they had. This is a refreshing deviation from the vengeful bitterness that can consume other series in this genre.

Furthermore, food is the vessel through which Flum and Milkit's connection deepens. In the opening scene, licking the food off each other's fingers and faces is a hilariously brazen pretense for their intimate physical contact. I award the adaptation zero points for cutting away from the “action,” which creates a goofier tone when a more sensual one would have been more appropriate. We can enjoy a fluffy tone and treat the story's core romantic relationship seriously at the same time. Later, the act of sharing a meal at the same table, sitting down next to each other as equals, signals Milkit's growth. She is not an ornament dangling from Flum. She's her own person, and she is allowed to have cheesecake spooned directly into her mouth by her lover. While the true depth of her scars remains unprobed, she's becoming more open to receiving and accepting affection.

Roll Over and Die still has its weirdness, though. I'm not sure what Flum was trying to accomplish by returning to the guild, because she already knows Dein sent those guys who tried to assault Milkit last week. If this was a power move or part of her plan for revenge, I'd want the narrative to make that clearer. While I like her conversation with the receptionist Y'lla—two women taking advantage of Dein's superiority complex in order to conspire behind his back unnoticed—I don't know if it justifies Flum waltzing in there in the first place, especially after her emotional and violent reaction last week.

The narrative's treatment of Flum's slave status also feels inconsistent, as if the story only acknowledges it when convenient. Her brand is on her face. It's not something she nor others can ignore. However, it only becomes relevant in the final scene, when she and the audience are reminded that she does not have human rights in the eyes of those soldiers. To be clear, I'm glad this pops up as a complicating factor in Flum's arrest, because it reflects the real dangers too often inflicted onto oppressed minority groups via agents of “justice.” The law is a tool, not an immutable set of morals. But as is often the case when these Narou narratives invoke slavery, Roll Over and Die seems neither capable nor interested in commenting on the full abhorrence of state-sanctioned discrimination, persecution, and imprisonment.

For all of its flaws, though, Roll Over and Die remains a story about the rehabilitative power of women loving women. That's never been clearer, and I hope this interlude is a sign of strong developments and more girl kissing to come in the season's second half.

Rating:

Roll Over and Die is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sylvia is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. You are not allowed to ask her to roll over. You can also catch her chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.