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ENDRO!
Episode 7

by Christopher Farris,

How would you rate episode 7 of
Endro~! ?
Community score: 3.5

It's standard protocol for a new character in a story to spend some time getting to know the already-established cast. Princess Rona was actually brought in a couple episodes ago, but the last one focused on Mao instead (a wise decision). So now we're back with the precocious Princess this week, as she attempts to endear herself to the party members of her would-be betrothed. This goes somewhat frustratingly exactly how you might expect, with little of the creativity or depth the past couple weeks of the series have displayed.

The biggest issue with the ‘story’ presented across this episode is its repetition. Rona's central gag of being a Princess with a fixation on the storybook hero-courting scenario she feels destined for has been a solid foundation for the character, but this episode takes that further in a different direction. Rona's now very clearly a ‘fangirl’ of the destined Hero, down to having memorized factoids about all their incarnations and party members. So she tags along with Yusha's friends one at a time, remarking the whole way how this or that character trait is in-step with similar aspects from previous incarnations. Now if these remarks were just delivered as little codas at the end of each interaction, they would probably work well as a recurring gag. But instead, Rona keeps bringing up comparisons to the point that it feels like every other line is a repeat of this bit.

It takes what could have been a decently cute character quirk and cranks it up to repetitive annoyance. It's too bad, because when the scenes aren't rounding back to this singular joke, the dates out with the party members are charming enough. It's nice to see what these girls do when they're apart from the group, not doing anything to do with adventure-school assignments. Granted, we don't get a ton of ‘new’ insight into their characters, instead imparting such shocking revelations as ‘Seira is responsible’ and ‘Mei really likes Cartado’. But that's another reason the repetitive past-hero comparison gag becomes so grating; we know these character traits well enough already, so we don't need them reinforced by Rona going on about how apt they are for their role.

Thankfully, things finally even out by the episode's halfway point, as Rona takes an extended wilderness retreat with Fai. The comparison gag does continue for a little while as this gets underway, but just as we might feel like we've had enough, Rona decides the same and attempts to peace out, as Fai's wild ways prove too much even for her heroic dedication. This turns the episode around, as the show chills out on that one running gag and feels like it's actually doing something with this whole ‘Rona gets to know the party members’ concept. With respect to that, Fai's probably the character you would least expect Rona to end up bonding with, so that proves to be an appealing story direction as well.

Only at the end do we see the true potential this episode had all along. There are some funny sight gags and cute visuals in Fai and Rona's visual trek, and Fai's willingness to assist the helpless-in-the-wilderness Rona sells the former's selfless heroic nature while casually giving us a way that this pampered princess could survive such a trip at all. It seems to be a simple story of Rona learning to respect Fai on her own terms, not simply because she reminds her of some other hero from her stories. This is exemplified by the climactic melon-eating contest at the end of their journey, when after being figuratively and literally carried the whole way by Fai, Rona realizes she has to jump in and assist in the challenge herself.

Between that moment and her easing off the past-hero comparisons, the idea seems to be Rona understanding that her fixation can't be dictated by the past; she has to focus on the heroes of the present as individuals. Based off the minimal next-episode preview, that may carry over next week in how the Princess tackles her burgeoning relationship with Yusha. All in all, that's not bad as an idea for character development, but I just wish that they'd framed it around a more interesting set of running gags.

Rating: B-

ENDRO! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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