The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent

Episode 12

How much cheesiness is too much? That seems to be a balance that the final episode of The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent is trying to find, and it sort of wobbles back and forth on the issue. On the one hand, we never get an actual confession of love from Sei towards Albert (or even a declarative statement from him, although plenty is implied), and what may have been a kissing scene does a good old-fashioned fade to black. But then on the other, we have the explicit statement that the Saint's power is love and the scene where Albert holds Sei's hands so that she can heal the forest, with both of them limned in gold. It ends up being less satisfying than it could be while also feeling kind of corny, so I guess the balance the episode was seeking never quite comes through.

But it's still a very nice way to end the series. The episode wraps up the Klausner Domain storyline, with Sei successfully purifying the miasma swamp in the forest, learning how to best use her powers, and even realizing a few new uses for them, such as regrowing the entire woodland. It's not hard to see why she felt she should attempt that last; not only did it get burned down in the first place because she got distracted from casting and Yuri had to step up and inferno the whole forest, but it also feels like a natural progression from what she already knew she could do: heal people, regrow limbs, and enhance herbs. All of those things could easily apply to the plant life in the woods; it simply became a question of scale. And it is worth noting that this is a much grander scale than even her major area heals in the hospital – no matter how many people were there, she's regrowing trees (old growth ones, at that), grass, herbs, flowers, weeds…and maybe even injured animals here. It's an enormous undertaking and a major triumph for her, but it's also not surprising that she fainted immediately afterwards.

Whether she'd have been able to do it without Albert there holding her hands is an interesting question that the episode doesn't delve into. Since he begins to glow gold as well, it seems possible that she's channeling through him, using his natural magic as a conduit for her own, or perhaps converting his ice magic into holy magic to back herself up. It's probably simply intended to show how strong their feelings for each other are, because not only does Albert refocus her after Yuri gets in her face, he's also the catalyst for her magic power. Holding his hands helps her to think about him and thereby engage her Saintly powers. I'm not 100% sure that he's not just taking advantage of the moment to touch her, because as far as we know she hasn't informed him that he's the reason she can cast what Yuri calls the Saint's conjury. But that could have happened in the fade-to-black moment when he walked her back to her tent the night before. (Or he could just be reiterating to Yuri that he's not a distraction. I feel like Albert may have some low-key jealousy or competitiveness going on.)

Parts of this final episode wrap things up a bit too neatly or too quickly, like Sei leaving the Klausner Domain or pretty much everything involving Aira. It's great that Aira finally gets a part to play in the decisive battle against the miasma, but it also feels a bit like too little, too late, although her peeking through her fingers at Sei and Albert towards the end is pretty great. Similarly, I'm not sure that we needed that glimpse of Kyle in the very end; while there was some effort made to make him sympathetic, as a book reader I have a hard time getting behind that. I don't feel that his redemption is necessary to the story as laid out by this adaptation and would have preferred to see Aira and Liz forming more of a friendship. It's not enough to sour the ending, but it is a minor annoyance.

On the whole, though, this series really managed to get its feet under it after what felt like a shaky start. Watching Sei grow into herself and her role has been a good time, and I definitely found myself looking forward to each week's episode. It's too bad the anime ends here, but at least the novels are being translated into English so we can see where the characters go from here.

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The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent is currently streaming on Funimation.