Reign of the Seven Spellblades

Episode 9

Well, I kind of got my wish with this week's episode of Reign of the Seven Spellblades. The focus here is very much on the main group of friend characters as a group, with only a little bit of Oliver co-opting the spotlight. Those trace amounts feel fine, since they keep us in mind of Oliver's surreptitious vengeance quest even as he hasn't had cause to act on it in recent episodes, and indicates how that's going to fuel his guidance of his fellows even as he keeps them innocently ignorant of it. The rest is about how the kids all support each other as their activities branch out. Yes, their getting grouped in the first place felt very rigidly mandated from a pure plot-mechanic perspective, but by now there have been enough interconnected moments that I think they're properly sold as genuine friends. An episode like this one thus serves to show them actually interacting as such.

Seven Spellblades smartly know to use some of its priorly put-forth details to facilitate that. We return to the subject of Pete's reversi condition, not just for more world-building on the various magi-biological systems at play here, but because doing so gives his friends more ways to engage with him. Is the ability to use one's womb to activate some sort of magical Kaio-Ken kind of a weird power? Sure, but it's also neat that Chela jumps to that explanation because she realizes it can help her friend with something he's been struggling with. I'll take a dozen more odd asides like this over any crass jokes about Pete's magical sex change, or awkward arrangements about his friends suddenly being sexually attracted to him, which I could see happening if Spellblades were just a slightly stupider series.

It's not just Pete's coming-out party though, as this episode also brings back a few stray elements of Katie's previous plotline, gesturing at the whole Miligan situation. Not enough for me, mind you, as I'm still rather put out that Spellblades never managed to settle on saying anything about Miligan's approach to magical creature rights activism. Instead, we're here to find out that Katie has been bequeathed one of Miligan's old workshops offscreen, which is less about giving Katie anything to do specifically, and more about giving our whole cool kids club here a secret base they'll be able to congregate in.

Arriving at that as an idea all works out well. Yes, it's wryly amusing that the rest of the gang still tacitly looks to Oliver for ultimate approval on whether they and Katie should go through with using the workshop since the show's story can't escape his shadow. But that shadow and the light that casts it are kind of the point here, as we get to witness just a little internal assessment from Oliver on how he wants to support his friends on their noble pursuits even as he's seeking out his bloodstained vengeance. It adds some inherent nuance to where he might want to ultimately arrive in the effective revolution he's slow-rolling: He will need to see a good version of the academy built up just as much as he's tearing down the bad version of it.

It's a conceptual foundation that I can only hope comes into more foregrounded play as Spellblades moves into what may be the final phase of its season since the rest of this episode falls very much into basic, Harry Potter style quirky world-building showcases. This latest dip into the labyrinth for the kids, despite initial warnings from Oliver, comes off a good bit less directly dangerous than before, with the actual traps only resulting in some mild Scooby-Doo-esque comedic injury shenanigans for our intrepid investigation crew (specifically Guy, who otherwise continues to be to one on this team who still has had absolutely nothing to do). Otherwise, we get to see Oliver and company encountering an eccentric underground shopkeeper or a monster-meat barbecue crew that mostly serves to remind me about the upcoming Delicious in Dungeon anime.

It's all nice enough in the way we get to follow everyone down for the sleepover they end up having in their new workshop. There is an aside indication that Oliver will be using it for his surreptitious purposes. And the otherwise artifact of the tournament plot which started up last week (which Rossi himself, absurdly, drops out of in this episode) will seemingly escalate a bit to catch up with the gang in next week's episode. Otherwise, the primary development here is just our group of main characters reinforcing their status by taking the name "The Sword Roses" as a formal title for themselves. It's earnestly cringe in that extremely endearing teenage way, something Oliver acknowledges.

More than that, I enjoy the spirit behind it that Nanao explains as she provides the name. There's something resonant to the point that she makes that "Warriors cannot speak of the future", and puts me in the mind of what I like so much about Nanao's portrayal as an actual soldier. I don't know that they'll be able to give her and/or everyone else too much more to do as things pick up for Spellblades's last few episodes of the season. But if the plot points doled out in this one felt like scattershot snippets, the tones touched on therein were at least nice enough.

Rating:

Reign of the Seven Spellblades is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is back for another season of calling wizards nerds. Feel free to disagree with him on that on his Twitter (for however much longer that lasts), or check out his irregular musings on other nerdy subjects over on his blog.

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