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Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Episode 10

by Rebecca Silverman,

How would you rate episode 10 of
Chivalry of a Failed Knight ?
Community score: 4.3

You really have to appreciate it when a story goes out of its way to try and show what's going on with the less important characters. That's what Chivalry of a Failed Knight does this week: its tenth episode turns the spotlight to Ikki's sister Shizuku. Last week we learned that she would have to compete against student council president Toda Toka, a grossly overpowered blazer who came in to save the day during the golem fight. Unfortunately neither Shizuku nor Toka have been developed enough to make this focus shift really work, and it ends up just feeling like a standard narrated fight scene from any number of shounen tournament stories.

A large part of the issue here is that Shizuku has never really gone beyond “girl who really, really loves her brother.” We do know that her brother complex comes from witnessing the disproportionately harsh treatment he received at the hands of the Kurogane family, and an attempt was made to deepen our understanding of that when Shizuku returned to the familial estate last week. The result of that, however, was more that we got good reasons to dislike Papa Kurogane rather than understanding Shizuku better, and that issue carries over into this episode, which opens with Shizuku narrating her feelings based on her childhood. There is potential there, but the standard “I hate humans” and “Adults mess with kids because they can” reasons that are brought up are too familiar to carry much, if any, weight in this situation. Not that they aren't valid reasons; but they don't quite explain her romantic attachment to Ikki, nor her blatant distrust of Stella, who clearly makes him happy. (As much as he emotes, anyway.) It also doesn't quite cut it as a major motivating factor for beating Toka – it almost would have worked better to simplify the whole situation down to “I want to make it because I'm as good as my brother is.” That is there, yes, but it gets bogged down in the attempt at creating a believable motivation for Shizuku.

Not that the actual fight isn't pretty darn cool to watch – Shizuku's ultrapure water summoning magic is much more interesting than Toka's lightening strikes, if only because there's more that she can do with it; her real handicap is not magical power, but that Toka has been trained in a martial art technique that she can't evade. Most of the fight is colored in cool, almost icily translucent tones, really working to make Shizuku look at one with her powers, and the animation doesn't spend too much time focusing on Toka's very full figure, as some other shows might have – more attention is actually paid to the way her long braids move in the wind generated by the battle, which is a good gage for the amount of power being thrown around. Toka herself says maybe three lines in the episode, which makes her feel very like a monster of the week. This takes away from the urgency we're supposed to feel for the fight, as does the “silly break” that we get midway through the episode. Presumably it's meant to both break up tension and explain what Toka is doing that Shizuku can't fight off, but Nene's lolibait design and generally annoying personality really just distract from the meat of the episode and give an excuse for some cheap fanservice of her groping Stella's boobs. Given that Shizuku's clothes get blown mostly off, there was no need for additional fanservice that only distracted.

As seems to be the norm, Alice is one of the best parts of an otherwise mediocre episode. Her role is to be both observer and outside source of solace to Shizuku, and in this she really succeeds this week – her words to Shizuku are just what she needs to hear and bring more closure to the story than the end of the fight itself could. Clearly everyone in this show needs a friend like Alice.

Based on the title for next week's episode, it looks like this fight was merely a means to an end. With only a few episodes left, I'm beginning to worry about story resolution, and it seems almost certain that we will be left without any solid conclusions and a cheery, “Read the books, kids!” sort of ending. But until we get there, I'll just have to hope that Mysterious Portly Villain heats things up – and with an evil smile like his, that feels almost like a certainty.

Rating: C+

Chivalry of a Failed Knight is currently streaming on Hulu.


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