After an action-packed premiere, Granbelm takes a breather in its second episode. Things start off with Mangetsu waking up in Shingetsu’s home (naked because this is an anime) and giving a cover story to her folks (who understandably reported her disappearance to the police). Once that matter is taken care of, Shingetsu tries to figure out what Mangetsu’s deal is. Since magic has been sealed away in the Magiaconatus, any mage left in the world ought to be a descendent of a pre-established family of mages. One then has to ask how a seemingly ordinary girl such as Mangetsu can use magic. And if these first two episodes are anything to go by, she’s potentially a very powerful mage to boot. Suffice to say, this is something to keep in mind as you continue watching.
The main concern here is whether or not Mangetsu should and/or wants to participate in Granbelm. Shingetsu first tries to make that decision for Mangetsu by erasing the latter’s memory but to her surprise, the spell doesn’t work. She thus transfers to Mangetsu’s school and spends the rest of the episode persuading her to forfeit the tournament, arguing that it’s too dangerous and insisting that magic is more a curse than a gift (which hints at Shingetsu’s own feelings about it).
Mangetsu dodges the topic. Along the way, we learn how she’s a huge pushover at school by caving into people’s requests and running errands for them. The bit established in the first episode, where Mangetsu cooks lunch for everyone, happens to be one such example of this. These two things end up going hand in hand with each other as Mangetsu confesses to Shingetsu that she wants to participate in Granblem. She explains that there’s nothing special about herself. No skills, no talents, nothing. The reason she is a pushover is because it’s at least something she can do and it gives her a purpose to fulfill. In that sense, being a mage and more importantly, one of the select few participants in Granblem, would be another means for her to feel special, the best in fact.
When I first watched this episode, I was perplexed and even a bit annoyed at this reveal. On one hand, I can relate with Mangetsu’s fear of ordinariness and I like the idea that she’s a more selfish person than she initially lets on. At the same time however, I sided more with Shingetsu that such feelings are really just in Mangetsu’s head. More importantly, I wasn’t sure if this justifies her involvement in Granbelm. Chances are, the other participants have more legitimate and more personal reasons to fight in the royale. Meanwhile, our protagonist, the one we’re following and rooting for, wants to fight because it’d simply and literally is just something for her to do? What would Mangetsu even do if she were to win anyway? It just sounded so weird to me.
Of course, I now know exactly what the deal is with Mangetsu. As I said in the last review, almost everything about this character is deliberate. Rewatching this episode and knowing where this character’s arc ultimately goes, things hit differently for me. I can’t exactly say why as that’ll get into spoiler territory but I will say that I sympathize with Mangetsu’s decision a lot more this time around and it’s a lot sadder hearing her talk about how there’s nothing unique or memorable about her.
This post was originally published on November 27, 2020
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