Delilah was one of the beast-girl maids/bodyguards from Italica who was sent to Alnus to provide security and translation assistance. She stayed in Alnus and has since opened an inn and tavern, which she seems to own a majority stake in, though it is an open secret that she's Italica's unnofical eyes and really big ears in the town. Delilah has a reputation of being something of a hard-ass despite her cottontail. You see, she takes no guff from anyone and runs her employees hard in order to make sure that inn she is proprietor of is well run and free of creeps. despite (and partly because of) this she is liked and respected in Alnus and her fastidiousness has paid off; her inn being quite successful.
Today...It hit her.
Mere months ago she was a maid and bodyguard in Italica, which as a slave and member of one of the "subject races" was about the best she could ever hope for. Now she owns a business. She can own property, keep nearly all of the money she makes while living in a town where the food and water are safe. Alnus is also completely safe from raiders and monsters. The various demi-humans in town are treated as PEOPLE and the citizens are not worked to death in mines or other hard labor and peace is breaking out all over.
Reflecting upon this, Delilah, perhaps for the first time in the many years since her country of origin was conquered, finally relaxes...and skips through the streets of Alnus singing the praises of "the town the sky has smiled upon".
Life is good...
But wait...what is that on the desk there?
Could it be a bill?
TO: Delilah D. Bunny
FROM: X
New orders STOP Proceed to JSDF hospital in Alnus STOP Locate fmr sex slave recently freed from Imperial Palace STOP Target name is Noriko Mochizuki STOP Kill her STOPGood HuntingEND
Well. This is awkward...With a heavy heart, Delilah puts on her war paint.
Before leaving, she gives prayers and offerings to...well she's not sanguine about her chances so she is comprehensive...
Afterwards, she quickly finds Noriko and is tremendously relieved to discover that the despondent girl, having learned that her parents and her husband are dead, blames herself and now wants to commit suicide.
Unfortunately, Noriko states that she doesn't want it to hurt...this flummoxes Delilah, who spends time pondering with her prey how best to painlessly neutralize Noriko.
Into the midst of these deliberations walks Yanagida. He is quite chuffed at having just closed an extortionist real estate deal that would make the founders of New Amsterdam proud...until he notices that there is a crazy bunnygirl in warpaint on the grounds, brandishing a knife in front of a Japanese citizen. He and Delilah...tangle and they both end up unconscious in expanding, intermingling pools of blood.
Noriko is thus left to her own devices.
Meanwhile, Itami...wait...that's right; Itami left town last episode with Rory, Leili, Crazyelf & Yao to track down the dragon that is menacing Yao's village. In comparison to Delilah, Yanagida and Noriko, THEIR day is much more successful.
Though not without its pitfalls...
Well, this is certainly full of surprises...well except for the dragon. We were quite prepared for there to be a really big dragon in this episode.
This show is genuinely interesting. I am quite glad that, unlike some other people, I have not seen the manga, so I do not feel let down and this show's future is an unlit road for me.
I think now is a good point in the show for those of us who have not read ahead to ponder and speculate on what we know:
The show is ambiguous as to who Delilah thinks she is working for. We, the audience, know that this assassination order ultimately came from Tyuule, but it is also revealed that Delilah has sworn to kill Tyuule, and that Tyuule is fully aware of this and considers Delilah a traitor. "The warrior bunny who impudently seeks my life" and she is thoroughly pleased that she's got the potential to be killing multiple birds with one stone. She seems to be trying to implicate Princess Piña and thereby bring down the wrath of the JSDF upon the Empire. She refers to Delilah as her spy in Alnus, but I wonder if "unwitting" was omitted from that description...it appears that someone in Italica was working for Tyuule.
When Delilah pray's before hopping off to war, she presents offerings to three of the region's gods: They are Emloy god of war(naturally) Hardy, god of the underworld, Deldout, god of oaths (loyalty?) and Paripan god of vengeance. Piña alluded to a pantheon in an earlier episode when she expressed disapproval of Rory's god, but everything that gets a name in this show has turned out to be significant to one degree or another. Presumably there are others like Rory running around.
It does appear that, regarding oil reserves in Elbe, that they are geological deposits as opposed to sunflower plantations. Yanagida drives a hard bargain and it is a pretty dickish treaty, with King Duran forced to give the Japanese mineral rights (excluding gold and diamonds) and refrain from taxing Japanese businesses at all. There were Banana Republics that got better terms. The conference with the general reveals that the Marco Polo Bridge school of international relations is official policy here, and not just Yanagida's machinations. I do note that this dopes not appear to be presented in at all a bad light. However that might be premature since it puts Yanagida actions regarding the Itami suicide road trip in a slightly different light, especially since Yanagida seemed unenthused about his meeting with the King.
"You melted your plane!"
"He breathed fire on me!"
"You were playing chicken with a dragon the size of a frigate...What did you EXPECT was going to happen."
UPDATE:
One other thing: Steven has had some complaints about how the animal women have been toned down quite a bit from the manga. In general this hasn't bothered me since most of them have been domestics and so were specifically groomed and dressed to be nonthreatening. (The better to surprise with their formidable combat abilities). Some of this is obviously playing to the audience, but but it still works.
However, I must say that I'm in agreement with Steven in one respect. Delilah's war paint and ninja outfit in the Anime looks like...
Oh, for crying out loud.
I guess we'll see a lot of cosplayers in this outfit at Comiket...
A ceremonial outfit maybe, perhaps in anticipation of her eminent death...It fails at ninja though. It fails at combat utility worse. (Hell, an actual bikini would make more sense.)
It also does not give the impression of "formidable tribal warrior".
Compare what appears to be her war paint in either the manga or the LN
This is by Sao Satoru who did the manga (I'm unsure if he illustrated the LN). It gives a really good impression of ferocity and hints at a fierce warrior culture that existed beyond the frontiers of civilization which, of course, is that the 'Warrior Bunnies' were. After all, it has been mentioned that they were renowned as mercenaries and their kingdom was only recently conquered...by Zorzal.
1
A correction: she doesn't own the restaurant; she simply works there. If anyone owns it, it would be Lelei, but it's actually community property as far as I can tell.
2
I've seen all kinds of anthropomorphic designs, but I have to say, this is the first time I've seen one where only the arms and legs are furry, but not the body, hands and feet. That's kinda odd.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jan 31 23:18:26 2016 (5Ktpu)
3
@ Steven: Is this information from the manga? I don't remember any reference to Leili being involved in the tavern. I got the distinct impression that Delilah was running it and was at least a part owner .
You've mentioned the stylistic changes and the fact that the story is moving faster in the anime, but have there been big changes to the story in your view?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Feb 13 18:10:37 2016 (AaBUm)
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