In the fourth episode of Isekai Quartet 2, Ainz of Overlord fame gets finds himself in a bet with Konosuba’s Aqua about who will do better on an upcoming test. It all leads into an excellent time stop-centric joke–but one that requires you to have watched all four main series to get.
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The whole situation begins with Ainz. In Overlord and Isekai Quartet Ainz has a major problem: all of his minions believe him to be an all-knowing god. While he is no doubt the most powerful being in the Overlord world, if all his lieutenants ganged up on him, he would almost certainly lose. Thus Ainz has to portray himself exactly as they imagine him to be in order to remain safe–something that can be hard to do when you only have a middle school education to fall back on.
To make things worse, the various other characters in Isekai Quartet have come to believe the hype surrounding Ainz. Even the ever-egotistical Tanya sees him as her equal (perhaps her only one).
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So when it comes time for tests, everyone naturally believes that Ainz will get a perfect score. And when Aqua says that she can beat him, he has to rise to her challenge to maintain his facade. Now, of course, Aqua is dumber than a box of rocks and there is no chance of her winning. However, because of the challenge, he has to publicly display his test grade to the rest of the class.
While he does his best to study for the test, all it takes is one look to realize that it’s just simply too hard for him. Thus, he has only one choice: to cheat. His method of cheating, however, doesn’t go quite as he expects.
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Using the 11th level spell “Time Stop” he plans to copy from those around him but before he can he notices something: despite time being stopped, Aqua is still moving. And soon, Ainz discovers that she’s not the only one who can move freely when time is stopped–Tanya and Subaru can too.
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In Aqua’s case, this is simply because she is a Goddess. A lot of magic doesn’t work on her in her own world and, as a heavenly being, It’s unknown if she even perceives time as mortals do–especially when in the heavenly realm.
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As for Tanya, she’s old hat at being time-stopped. Every conversation she has with the god of her world, Being X, takes place in one after all. It makes sense that if there ever is a time stop in her vicinity, she’d be pulled in.
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Then when it comes to Subaru, he’s messed with time more than anyone. By the time of Isekai Quartet, he’s already a veteran of many time loops in the Re:Zero world. And then there’s the fact that whenever he starts to tell anyone about “Return by Death,” time basically freezes and the shadow hands of the witch appear from an unseen void to wrap around his heart. I’d be more surprised than anything if he wasn’t able to move freely in a time stop.
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So while it’s a bit hard to understand what’s going on if you haven’t seen the source material, it’s a darn funny situation if you have. Personally though, I am sad that we didn’t get a shot of Chris sitting alone in the midst of a frozen Class 1, wondering what was going on. But maybe that’s too much of a spoiler for Konosuba fans who haven’t figured it all out yet.
Isekai Quartet 2 can been seen on Crunchyroll, Funimation, AnimeLab (AU/NZ), Aniplus (Asia), Muse Asia (Singapore)
Top image source: KADOKAWAanime on YouTube
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