Bean Counter's 12th and final episode goes through a lot of stuff - it spans six-and-a-half manga chapters' worth of events, after all. A lot of that is centered on another climactic scene a la Episode 6 - still my favorite episode of the series - but instead of talking about it scene by scene, I wanted to take a similar approach to what I did with the Episode 6 write-up and talk about Episode 12 character by character. Or rather, character dynamic by character dynamic.
Like I alluded to above, this episode spans Chapter 36, 37, 38, half of 39, 42, 43, and 44 of the manga, which does mean that there is a lot of scenes that they either shortened or outright skipped entirely. Unlike my previous write-ups, though, I won't be making much comparisons to these chapters, as only Chapter 36 has been officially translated to English, being the last chapter included in Volume 6. I'll just be sticking with the anime and bits of the second light novel for this one.
I wanted to focus on character dynamics here as I believe this episode features the culmination of several of Seiichirou's relationships with the rest of the cast. It's obvious how that applies to one of them, but I think the anime choosing this as a stopping point (as opposed to also going through the events of the third light novel) did feel like it recognized that the end of the second light novel sees the payoff to the build up of Seiichirou's dynamic with several characters. (And it does mean that the possibility of more Bean Counter anime content will always be there, as the third light novel features its own set of conflicts, and there's a fourth light novel releasing in Japan very soon as of the time I'm writing this.)
Let's start with the most obvious one - SEIICHIROU INITIATED A KISS WITH ARESH WEE WOO WEE WOO. Seiichirou has been wrestling with his feelings for Aresh for quite some time now, and it is both very sweet and very hilarious that what finally does it for him is Aresh making sure that Seiichirou still gets his work done before they take a vacation. But you can understand why this is a big deal for Seiichirou, too - Aresh has spent so long trying to get Seiichirou to work less (and he will continue doing so even after this scene), but now it looks like Aresh has accepted that Seiichirou being a workaholic is part of him, and instead of suppressing it, he'll be adjusting their plans to suit those needs.
As many, many fans who have read the manga and light novel will tell you, the culmination of this relationship does involve a sex scene that did not make it to the anime, and it's a special one as it is the first time they do it without Seiichirou needing magical healing along the way. So if you're interested in that part of their culmination, the other canons have you covered.
But there's another part of this dynamic I want to tackle. During the climactic scene with the magical bomb, Aresh protects Seiichirou as it is about to detonate, and Seiichirou laments that this would be another case of Aresh getting hurt for the sake of keeping Seiichirou safe. This is definitely a callback to the previous episode and his conversation with Valtom, and while these circumstances are a lot more dire and a bit more out of Seiichirou's control, there is now a larger part of him that wants to keep Aresh safe. So when, in the carriage scene, he says that he doesn't want to be the only one being protected anymore, he is making sure that both him and Aresh enter this relationship as equals.
It's a sentiment that Seiichirou has expressed a lot in the past, though with a rougher edge - his insistence to make it up to Aresh for the magical healing sex that he's been receiving, for one. But this declaration in the carriage feels a lot more encompassing, as instead of just making sure that one doesn't owe the other, it's making sure that both of them give and receive from each other. (There's probably some funny accounting joke I can make here, but I don't know the lingo, so I'll just bring it up in case one of you can make it yourself.)
We go from one purple-eyed beauty to another as there's also an interesting evolution to Seiichirou's dynamic with Siegvold happening here. Hilarious insistence of Siegvold wanting to be treated as informally as Aresh aside - sorry, Siegvold, there's a long line of people who want to be Seiichirou's "friend" - the whole speech in the prayer room about faith and beliefs puts a hurdle into Siegvold's own idolatry of Seiichirou as Abran's disciple. With his disciple and the Holy Maiden pretty much challenging his and the other churchgoers' faith by applying their own beliefs from their original world - which is basically the age-old debate of polytheism vs. monotheism - Siegvold is left to ponder if his views of Seiichirou, and by extension Yua and even Abran, still hold up.
Before I continue, can we talk about this 100/10 shot like maaaan in another universe this is what we were building 12 episodes up to. They knew what they were doing with this one.
Anyway, it's that culmination that leads into this straight-out-of-a-BL shot. Siegvold mentions here that he's recognized that he needs to broaden his perspective on the situation. And it's easy to make the connections on how this relates to Seiichirou, in that Siegvold also needs to broaden his views of Seiichirou as Abran's disciple. Sure, Siegvold would still be a devout priest of Abranism - and with Seiichirou being Seiichirou, I'm sure our favorite hot priest will continue to be smitten with everyone's favorite hot accountant - but this entire arc gave him new perspectives on how to better approach his faith to make it more open-minded and inclusive.
We already mentioned her, so let's talk about Yua next. Everyone in that room owes her their life after that stunt she pulled, and she attributes this quick thinking to what she's learned from Seiichirou, likening her actions to what he did with the Demon Forest. Seiichirou deflects this and says that what Yua did with the bomb is a lot more impactful, as he only made the plans to seal the Demon Forest instead of actually executing it, but Yua insists that it was exactly the fact that he was behind the plans that makes it attributable to him, giving Seiichirou credit where credit is due.
This can all be seen as simply a build up to that comedic AreSei scene - and don't get me wrong, it still is, and that's one of my favorite scenes from the light novel - but I think it's such a great culmination of Seiichirou and Yua's dynamic. I mentioned all the way back in my write-up for Episode 1 that this was one of the dynamics that I was looking forward to develop the most, and while a lot of that development happened outside of this episode, this short scene between them felt like a great way to show what all that progress has done. Yua has learned to be more independent and make her own calls, while Seiichirou now respects Yua and sees her more than someone he needs to take care of, even being proud of her as a senpai would to a kouhai. (Which is what leads to that hilarious scene with Aresh.)
I mentioned in an earlier write-up that Seiichirou being an older brother figure to the younger members of the cast is an interesting side of him, and we don't really get to see much of that compared to his relationships with people closer to him in age. But I think it's an important aspect of his character, and how his treatment of not only Yua but also Sigma and Selio evolve over time is really fascinating to see.
Speaking of, there's also a bit of a culmination for Seiichirou's dynamic with Selio happening here, as we see in one of the early scenes that Selio has taken Siegvold's lesson to heart and sees Seiichirou less as a threat to his religion and more as a person with good qualities. It's a pretty straightforward growth to his character that we're always glad to see, but we also find out later on that Selio's gonna miss Seiichirou's visits, seeing as he won't be around the church much anymore. I can relate, Selio - I'm gonna miss Seiichirou a lot too.
It's not time to be sentimental yet, though, as we still have a few more characters to talk about, with Prince Yurius being up next. This one's a more curious one, as for a majority of the series, we do get the sense that Yurius doesn't like Seiichirou at all, with the major scenes we had between them featuring him just taking advantage of Seiichirou's connection with Yua as otherworlders. They don't suddenly become buddy-buddy this episode - and it would've been weird if they did - but they do reach a certain level of understanding about what role the other plays in their respective lives. Yurius knows that he's merely part of Seiichirou's plans to expose the church's scheme, and Seiichirou knows that he's merely part of Yurius' plans to grow closer to Yua - and they're both fine with their dynamic staying that way.
That sounds a lot harsher and colder than the previous dynamics, but it does mean that there's now a level of respect between them that wasn't there before, and that's really the most you can ask for them. Mind you, I use "respect" here very loosely considering Seiichirou himself admits that he doesn't even treat Yurius with respect (which Yurius acknowledges), but the fact that they're able to come to this understanding at all is already a big step into their dynamic, considering how antagonistic they were to each other in earlier episodes.
Radim is a lot more optimistic about it, as he sees the improving relationship between Seiichirou and Yurius as enough ammo to recruit Seiichirou to work directly for the prince, since he knows that Seiichirou is instrumental to getting Yurius and Yua together. I love that they included this bit since it really is full circle - Seiichirou went from Yurius not wanting him to be in his orbit at all to being recognized as someone who would serve the prince well, much to Seiichirou's own horror.
I of course pointed that out as a segue to our next character, Camile, who also wants to recruit Seiichirou into his own department. That should be less of a surprise, though, since Camile was on the line to be Seiichirou's "friend" long before Siegvold arrived. I've said many times in previous write-ups that Seiichirou and Camile see each other eye to eye in a way that even Aresh has trouble keeping up with, and that's on full display with this episode's first scene, as Camile already knows what Seiichirou plans to do with his church assignment before it even crosses Aresh's mind.
But the culmination here isn't in where they do see eye to eye, but in where they don't. Camile makes a suggestion of what the next step could be after Seiichirou's church investigation - putting a "leash" on the church - and Seiichirou immediately recognizes it as something that is not only out of his capabilities as an assistant director of the accounting department, but also something far larger than what he himself wants to deal with. You see him deflecting this suggestion by reporting what he's already done amid the investigation's aftermath, and while Camile looks shocked at the rejection, he does recognize it for what it is - Seiichirou setting his professional boundaries.
This is the best shot of the episode btw, no contest
Anyway, Camile's expectedly impressed with Seiichirou for being able to maneuver his way out of the assignment, and his attempts to recruit him later in the episode means that he's not afraid to challenge those boundaries, but I do see this as a culmination in the sense that they now know where the other stands, similar to Seiichirou and Yurius. This is one of the times where I do think the elaborations made by the manga and light novels make this dynamic a lot more fulfilling to see, but it's still a treat to see it play out in the anime.
OK, one more before I wrap this already long post up - let's talk about Norbert. We don't actually get much of Norbert in this episode, save for being an unwilling participant of the above lunch scene with Camile, but we do also get Seiichirou passing down his role as arithmetic tutor of the school to Norbert in the end, which is what leads to that scene with Selio I talk about above. That does feel like a mini-culmination, as it's an extension of how Seiichirou has become better at delegating tasks instead of doing everything himself.
But I wanted to bring Norbert up specifically because of something that wasn't included in the anime. If you noticed in my intro above, I skipped certain manga chapters when I mentioned which ones were covered by this episode. That's because the second half of Chapter 39 as well as Chapters 40 and 41 of the manga take a little detour from the plot and focus on a set of extra chapters from the light novel called Norbert's Reports.
Basically, Norbert's Reports are a series of letters that Norbert writes to the king of Romany - which, as a reminder, is his biological father - who tasks Norbert of keeping an eye on the Holy Maiden's tagalong, giving a bit more color as to why Seiichirou was appointed to the accounting department. I mention this because I cannot stress enough how absolutely wonderful these bonus chapters are, as it not only takes us through a lot of the plot through Norbert's perspective, it also gives us what is, essentially, the 12-episode culmination of Seiichirou and Norbert's dynamic. I'm not gonna go into it more since I'd like you to read it yourself when you get the chance - and I have a feeling that Norbert's Reports are going to be what the OVA is about - but I wanted to dedicate a few paragraphs for it since it's one of my favorite parts of the light novels, and I was overjoyed when I found out that it would eventually be adapted to the manga.
I didn't wanna end this without mentioning him again, so I LOVE YOU SIGMA YOU DESERVE THE WORLD!!!
And that's all I have for you! This anime adaptation was by no means perfect, but I enjoyed it very, very much. Bean Counter continues to have one of my favorite storylines among all the BLs I've read, and I'm glad this anime has introduced this incredible series to a lot more people.
Both the manga and light novel are still ongoing, with the light novel in particular getting an unexpected fourth installment after the third one was meant to be the ending. If you're interested in picking up where the anime left off, the anime covered all of the events of the first and second light novels (which is also where the manga is at right now), so you can start the third light novel to see what happens next. But I still highly recommend you read the manga and earlier light novels, as there's a lot of nuance and elaboration happening in several scenes that the anime didn't have the space to cover.
But before that, thank you very much for reading these write-ups! I'm honored to have people reading all my yapping, and it's been really fun putting these out as I follow the anime. Maybe I'll do one more write-up once the OVA becomes easily accessible, but until then, thank you for reading!
