I’m currently at “The Panicking Boy” Pt. 4 in the game, which is only one subchapter further than where I was last episode review. My save file is still ahead of the anime but I really need to find time to play the game.
Episode 3 primarily adapts a side questline involving one of the game’s NPCs, Barbara (Kyoko Hikami). Ryza offers the Blessing Ointment she made last episode to Barbara and the elder finds the medicine to do wonders for her aching legs. While talking with Ryza, Barbara reminisces over a flower she once received as an anonymous wedding gift. With Klaudia’s help, Ryza sets out to identify the flower and she eventually learns that the flower was sent by one of Barbara’s old friends, Pat (Mitsuru Ogata), and that it was adorned with a special incense. Ryza manages to find the flower in the mainland and recreate the incense with alchemy. After Barbara receives the scented flower from Ryza, she reunites with Pat and the two visit the grave of their friend Walter.
I actually got spoiled here. At the point I am in the game, I haven’t unlocked Barbara’s last sidequest (which does involve you synthesizing the incense) so the anime goes a bit ahead of the game in this regard. To be fair, I don’t think spreading out the subplot across different points in the main story would work as well in the anime as it does in the game so I get fitting it all into one episode. Funnily enough, one of the items Ryza needs to craft the incense is in an area that you wouldn’t get to by this point in the main story. The anime actually addresses this by having Empel hand the material over to Ryza from his inventory.
Since I didn’t unlock Barbara’s last side quest, I did not know ahead of time that Pat is the one who sent her the scented flower. With Pat being involved in this subplot, the anime has to also adapt his introduction and some of the cutscenes featuring him in the game. This includes the revelation that he used to run a dyehouse back in the day and his subconscious and awkward tendency to analyze the handiwork done on people’s clothes. Oddly enough, Pat has his own subplot so I’m curious to see if the anime will adapt that.
There is actually another NPC introduced in this episode. During the scene where Ryza locates the flower, she receives aid from a random goat. That goat does appear in the game and its appearance is meant to be perplexing. I chuckled when it showed up in this episode. I figured it’d get cut from the anime.
While mostly adapting some of the side content, this episode does progress a little bit through the main story of the game. During a hangout, Klaudia finally reveals to Ryza why she was all alone in the mainland during Episode 1: she was trying to find a quiet place to practice her flute. Klaudia is coy about the backstory surrounding the flute but the broad picture is that she’s too shy to play the flute around anyone, including her father. Despite her shyness, Klaudia decides that she wants to play a song for Ryza and she eventually becomes confident enough to do so after seeing Ryza work so hard.
In the game, Klaudia playing the flute for Ryza sort of just happens along the way. Her getting inspired by Ryza is there but it’s stated in a broad sense. I didn’t mind that in the game but I don’t think it would work as well as in the anime so it’s a smart move to intertwine Klaudia’s character development with the Barbara subplot. By doing this, Klaudia gets to see a specific case of Ryza’s hard work and she has a more of an impetus to her confidence boost. Another change is the location in which Klaudia plays for Ryza. In the game, she plays in Ryza’s room. Here, she plays outside in a field of flowers along a cliffside. I kind of prefer Ryza’s room as the location, it offers an intimacy and a strong sense of trust to Ryza and Klaudia’s relationship. That said, I must admit that the cliffside is a prettier and more unique sight. Given the importance of this scene, I get wanting to make it stand out more.
Watch Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout The Animation on Crunchyroll.
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