This episode offers a flashback depicting a key moment in Kuon’s past. Here, we see Shisui head off to participate in Granbelm in order to protect Kuon. I want to say the men in black who take Shisui away are working for a relative of hers. There’s a brief shot of a family photo that infers this. Whatever the case is, this is eerily similar to one of Nene’s flashbacks. I kind of like the idea that there are these shady factions involved in getting mages to participate to Granbelm. It goes to show how coveted the Magiaconatus’ power is. I just wish this was more thoroughly explored.
In preparation for the next Granbelm, Shingetsu helps Mangetsu obtain a spirit familiar. Almost all of the other main characters have shown off their own spirit at some point in the series so it was only a manner of time until Mangetsu gets one. It’s explained that summoning spirits is an extremely advanced ability but knowing Mangetsu, a lack of power isn’t an issue. What instead holds her back is her insecurity. Mangetsu has to find a spirit that resonates with her but since she feels she has nothing, she struggles to form a connection with her. Fortunately, she eventually obtains one by focusing on her friendship with Shingetsu. Mangetsu’s familiar is an orca-like being called…Orca. Yeah, it’s not a very creative name but to be fair, a lot of the other spirits’ names aren’t that much better.
As I said in the last post, Granbelm is very lopsided at the moment. Even if Kuon isn’t officially teaming up with Mangetsu and Shingetsu, it’s still three girls against Suisho. But knowing Suisho, defeating her would be easier said than done and sure enough, she puts up a good fight against our heroes. Countering Kuon is easy; all Suisho needs to do is tap into Shisui’s soul and mess with Kuon’s head. Meanwhile, Suisho mocks Mangetsu, telling the latter that she has nothing. Mangetsu initially assumes Suisho is just being hurtful but it soon becomes clear that Suisho actually knows something that Mangetsu doesn’t. What especially makes Suisho’s claim believable is Shingetsu appearing to know what she’s talking about, having also learned about it from Nene before Granbelm resumed. Shingetsu is the only one Suisho doesn’t have a solid counter against but this is a moot point since Shingetsu is preoccupied making sure Mangetsu doesn’t learn whatever truth she and Suisho know and her Armanox, Viola Katze, is still recovering from the fight with Anna.
I like how Kuon gets the upper hand against Suisho. Rather than focus on Shisui’s voice and mannerisms, Kuon instead focuses on the melody Shisui used to play on the piano, something which Suisho can’t easily replicate or at least doesn’t think to recreate. This negates Suisho’s tricks and enables Kuon to fight her opponent with a clear head. That the melody plays during the whole fight is a very nice touch. Apparently, Shisui actually gave part of her soul to Suisho on purpose to benefit Kuon later. I’m sure how Shisui’s soul would Suisho back but whatever, the former played some 3D chess and Kuon takes advantage of it to win the fight…too bad it doesn’t work.
That’s right, just when you think Kuon has won, Suisho reveals that she and her Armanox are perfectly fine. In fact, her Armanox, Drosela Nocturne, reveals a slightly different and presumably more powerful form, meaning that all her tricky from before was simply for kicks.
The ending has some interesting execution to it. I kind of like that the show makes you think Suisho has delivered a fatal blow to Mangetsu, only to reveal after the ED that she instead did somehow else to her opponent. That said, you can make the argument that this bait and switch would work without needing to split the scene into two parts. As for the twist itself, you can probably figure out it out from those last few seconds but just in case, I’ll save the discussion for the next post. I’ll say this for now: it is easily my favorite twist in the whole show. Once I realized or learned what is going on, I saw Mangetsu in a completely different light.
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