Okay, that was interesting… almost no angst, no heavy emotions. Just Firiel, Eusis and some others travelling to the dragon. Only the final minute of the episode showed the heavy drama of Good Witch of the West. I’m surprised that the creators managed to squeeze such a slow-moving episode in the fast pacing of the plot.
By the way, I strongly advice people who want to see this at a later stage to just marathon the entire thing. Otherwise, you’ll forget important facts, which only make you more confused when they get used again. For example, I still have no idea whether the queen (Firiel’s mother) is alive or not. I also found out that she has a sister, and the sister was the mother of Leandra and Adele. That actually explains a lot. Firiel isn’t the sister of Leandra and Adale, she’s their cousin. With Leandra and Adale either being sisters, or half-sisters (you wonder why Adale got adopted in the first place). Another example is that I already forgot about the big bird’s feather because of all the events that happened. It was to slay the dragon in the name of the country of the Good Witch of the West, wasn’t it? Or some strange country?
Ah well, enough wondering. Fact remains that the episode did build up perfectly. It has two major purposes. The most obvious is, of course, following Eusis who gets to tame a unicorn in order to beat the dragon. The second goes much deeper: following Firiel who follows Eusis, in an desperate attempt because Roux left her, while trying to act naturally. This goes well, until the climax of the episode.
Still, despite the fact that this episode was nice and slow, even now, there were some rushed parts, namely the people who lost their homes because of the dragon. So many nice things could have been done with this, but the anime just spends a small moment on them. Strange. I’m not sure whether I like the new unicorn-mascot, by the way. It depends on how it’ll act in the following episodes.
The fact also remains that while Firiel and Eusis were on their little trip, nothing was shown of Leandra, Roux, Adale, Vincent or the mysterious guy from the previous episode. They probably used the entire episode to scheme their little plans in order to bring a great final, which will probably come once the dragon has been taken care of.
Overall, did this unusual episode make for a great episode? To be honest, this peaceful mood does not suit the anime. The power of Good Witch of the West is its incredible use of awesome dramatic scenes. This is one of the few anime which is just entirely drama. A slow and laid-back episode doesn’t really fit in. Still, I did enjoy watching it. The climax seemed to return the show to its usual, overdramatic self, so I’m curious about the last four episodes.
Firiel’s mother was Edelyn, who is dead and buried back in Sellafield. It’s her grave that Roux hid the ephemeris by, and why he keeps prodding Firiel to go back to Sellafield so he can retrieve it.
Firel is Adele’s cousin. We’ve known that since about episode 2 or 3. What wasn’t clear until now was that Firiel (and Leandra!) had the same mother, and it wasn’t Lady Margot. So that means the Adele and Eusis are at most half-sibs, and maybe not even that.
“Big bird’s” feather?? Do you mean the firebird’s feather (Hi no tori no hane)? That apparently was a riddle/prophecy rather than an actual feather, and left the Queen candidates to choose two paths that might lead to the throne: sponsor a dragon hunt, or intervene in a dispute with . Adele chose (1), Leandra chose (2), and it’s looking like Firiel will end up doing both. So I guess that makes her Queen (surprise, surprise).
Ah, ok. Thanks for clarifying. 🙂