Alderamin on the Sky

Episode 13

Re:Zero was my pick for the top anime of the season, but no series I saw this season ends on as strong a note as Alderamin on the Sky. It takes almost everything that it's done best up to this point and accentuates it with an emphatic, eye-opening final plot twist, which shows that the overarching story is going in a distinctly different direction than you might have expected.

The episode starts with its most predictable moment: the future Lazy General meets the future Unsleeping General face-to-face for a final battle of wits. Even knowing that this is coming, the way it plays out is still a thrill to watch. It has the expected back-and-forth, with each commander shrewdly second-guessing the actions of the other and maneuvering for the best advantage, but ultimately the conflict hinges on one factor: Jean, the Unsleeping General, has misconstrued who's actually in charge of the Imperial forces (and thus the character of the enemy commander), while Ikta hasn't. Because of that, Ikta is able to thwart Jean by playing against his personality rather than his tactics. Since Jean seems to enjoy controlling battlefields, what better way to disrupt him than to foment chaos on the battlefield and use it to play a bluff that Jean can't ignore no matter what? His comments to Jean as they part ways across a wall of fire are also cutting: he fights to protect people rather than country, which Jean cannot comprehend because he sees the two as inextricably connected.

The juiciest meat comes from the aftermath, though. The original general in charge of the North getting demoted to private and then executed for instigating the whole situation seems harsh but fitting given the calamity that has spun out of his actions, but that's just the stepping stone to the proposal Chamille makes to Ikta. She may well have a thing for him, but in one masterful stroke, she makes clear what she actually wants from him: to rise to the top of the military ranks and engineer the Empire's defeat to the Kioka Republic in such a way that they retain enough power to ensure their own identity. By doing so, she hopes to infuse the country with new ideas and purge itself of the elements that have been dragging it down.

As shocking a revelation as this is, it's entirely sensible given that Chamille has seen firsthand how the Empire is rotten and holds no illusions that her nation is on a good path. She knows that Ikta is the one man with the viewpoint, talent, and motivation to make it happen, and she also apparently learned her lesson from the whole Imperial Knights business; people are best boxed into doing what you want if you play to their own sentiments rather than against them. When she comes of age to rule the Empire (or what's left of it) herself, she'll be terrifying. When that concluding scene from the opening theme finally rolled around, I got the impression that Ikta might have been thinking, “I taught her too well.” This is not an entirely novel approach, (I've seen it in Zipang, among possibly others), which again makes me wonder if some subtle historical commentary about Japan's past isn't intended.

The episode ends the way that the series absolutely should, with a final epilogue scene between Ikta and Yatori. It makes the connection to the final scene of the flashback episode, which I always thought had been left hanging, but was perhaps included with this particular scene in mind. After all, what Ikta tried to do then was remove Yatori from being in the kind of situation that may now be inevitable: being obligated to defend a dying nation. That means that Ikta, if he goes ahead with the princess's plan, will have to execute it while playing around the fact that Yatori knowing he's involved and figure out how to keep her alive (without losing his own life!) in the process.

Heroes die from overwork, as Ikta says at one point, but is that now to be his fate? There's been no confirmation at this time that more of the story will be animated, and frankly, I'll be surprised if we get more (though I'd certainly welcome it). If this is all the animation that we get for this story, then this is the best possible stopping point.

Rating: A

Alderamin on the Sky is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.