Grimoire of Zero

Episode 9

Grimoire of Zero seems to have finally found its speed, and I'm quite happy to report that this episode continues the uptick in quality that the show started last week. The first two thirds of this series were perfectly okay, but the lack of any driving momentum or stakes in the plot were really starting to weigh the series down. Now Holdem has arrived to round out the team, Albus has a renewed sense of character and purpose, and the show just generally feels more kinetic, more adventurous, and more fun. I still wish this shift could have come a few weeks earlier, but better late than never, I suppose.

The opening chase between our heroes and Thirteen's assassins also continues the trend of decent action beats in GoZ; the banter between our heroes and Albus getting a few hits in herself is just another way the show has managed to raise the stakes and get the audience more invested in the proceedings. The transition from last week into this week is pretty seamless, and it got me thinking that GoZ might be much more suited for a binge watch than week by week consumption. Looking back, the first two thirds of the series do have their own sense of escalation and worldbuilding that works better knowing the context of this final arc. As standalone weekly episodes, a lot of those stories failed to connect, but viewed a handful at a time over the course of only a few sessions, I could see them working much better.

Yes, after eight weeks of very measured pacing, we can finally start to feel the buildup toward some kind of climax. Albus even has a gutsy plan to avert the war between Witches and Humanity, which involves creating a country-wide magic circle that Zero can use to deny the country of magic altogether. Not only does this give Holdem and Albus a clear goal now that the latter has been rescued, it also binds things nicely to Mercenary's personal quest to reunite with Zero herself. In trying to help Mercenary along, we even get a surprising callback to the pervy clothier who bought Zero's tattered robes way back in episode 3. While I still don't think the comedy of that episode works very well, the sting of it is alleviated by the fact that this scene actually ended up being somewhat important to the plot. This is another example of why I think this series might best be served by a solid binge-viewing, where the viewers can appreciate these callbacks and payoffs within a more reasonable amount of time.

With the arrival of a newfound sense of urgency comes the growing pains of figuring out the right pace with which to approach things. I was surprised by how fast the episode went from planning out our heroes' mission to carrying it out. On the one hand, I still relish that things are actually happening in GoZ now, but it did feel a bit rushed, like a course correction that's veering too much in the opposite direction. With Holdem and Albus running around the entire country painting magic circles, and Mercenary only barely making progress in scaling the tower to find Zero, the passage of time in the last half of this episode felt kind of wobbly. Granted, the intrusion of the Sorcerers of Zero has made sure that things don't go too easily, but it also means that Albus (and Holdem) are captured again after only a couple of episodes, which seems like an unnecessary step backwards.

Still, I have very little to complain about compared to the progress Grimoire of Zero has made in only a small handful of episodes. I care more about the story and the characters now than I have in any of the previous eight weeks, and it looks like the show will be doing its best to maintain that upward trajectory for the remainder of the season. Reviewing the first eight episodes of GoZ felt like all work and no play, but I'm really starting to enjoy this show now – better late than never, indeed.

Rating: B

Grimoire of Zero is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.