Welcome to this week on oh-yeah-there’s-also-a-dungeon! Today we have an idiot announcer, magical syndicated network television, and what happens when management is in charge of logo design.
So let’s be up front here – these first four episodes could have taken up a season and a half in any other show. This episode in particular felt too rushed. The problem isn’t a lack of material – I think the show runners are just afraid that they don’t have too many episodes left. It’s a shame though, because this really is an interesting look at the inter-familia dynamics. As it was, these War games felt like a mechanism to get Hestia a new house and some new members – not really that satisfying.
Rather than gripe about the pacing of this episode, there were some things that I liked. I enjoyed seeing a lot of abilities come out that had previously only been referenced – Welf’s magic swords that he hated making, Lili’s illusion magic which we hadn’t seen either. Also bloomer elf using magic weapons, which apparently is a big no-no for elves. As a side note, I love the mythology references – the prophet who is ignored but always right was one of the funnier curses that I remember from the Greek stories. I did enjoy all the cheating, especially Freya giving an overpowered item that saved Bell from certain defeat. Basically, Hestia family should have hands down lost that one, but everyone hated Apollo/loved Bell so much that the fix was in. Except Loki (although she probably knew about the training). I also really enjoyed everyone showing off their fighting, albeit vs weaker opponents (which I guess makes sense if Apollo recruits just based on lust, rather than actual talent).
In short, this whole mini-arc ends and, as the Loki family said, it’s time to get back to the Dungeon, which is where the real interest of the show lies. I wish they would have fleshed this out a little more with probably 5-6 more episodes so we could have seen some real fights and had some real tension, but I understand some of the constraints in only having 1 guaranteed season. So I was disappointed, but I am looking forward to getting back to the progression raiding…and more Ais. We could use some more Ais.
We aren’t going back to the dungeon till a hypothetical season 3. The next dungeon arc (9-11) stretches three volumes, so unless you want to see the War Game arc pacing or worse replicated (and the War game waa a single volume!) throughout the whole season, it isn’t going to happen.
The next arc (Volume 7, 50 percent longer in length than Volume 6) simply takes the relatively simple case of inter-Familia politics between Apollo and Hestia, and shows what happens when much bigger Familias are in a state of inter-familia rivalry in a cold-war that’s on the verge of turning hot. Naturally, Bell would be swept up into it. I can see why they afforded that arc potentially up to 7-8 episodes because there’s alot of moving pieces in that arc.
Ah, I’m an anime only fan, so that’s news to me! Actually, that sounds pretty good though, so I’m excited (Guessing Loki is involved). Hopefully they can take their time with the second half though.
Hermes is involved – Loki has the Sword Oratoira plot to handle.
Now you’ve got me hyped! ^_^
If they adapted out the two to three maneuvers Hermes did to make this next arc happen, it would be a shame, and would probably make the plot difficult to follow. I hope that this doesn’t happen.
Well, let’s hope that JC Staff can capture the essence of that arc well enough, since the story is one that starts relatively sedate (which the title of the next episode suggest), initially take the air of farcical comedy, before escalating again and again through the chapters to an explosively dramatic conclusion. If JC Staff could capture the dramatic nous of the plot with the additional episodes a faster War Game grants the upcoming arc, then this truncated version of the war-game which shortened the fight between Bell and Hykanthios by around 70% might be worth it.
If they indeed treat this story well, then it raises my hopes that a hypothetical Sword Oratoria season 2 results in a better adaptation. The Sword Oratoria volumes that do correspond to this arc touches on both the background buildup and the aftermath of this next arc, so I can see why they might prioritize the next arc.