Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Episode 4

Chivalry of a Failed Knight seems to be moving kind of quickly for only four episodes in, and while that really makes me feel as if events and emotions are being glossed over, at the same time the show is growing on me. This week brings us the showdown between Ikki and Kirihara, a bully with a seriously inflated sense of his own awesomeness. Last year, when Ikki was still struggling for acceptance at school, Kirihara took advantage of the situation to “challenge” him to a duel. That was really a thinnly veiled excuse for him to beat up on Ikki with no consequences to himself: if Ikki fought back, he'd be punished for reacting to the provocation; if he didn't, Kirihara could claim a legit challenge that absolved him from blame and still let him pound the unpopular Worst One. Ikki held himself back, but the undisguised glee with which Kirihara repeatedly shot magic arrows into him left lasting scars. After learning last week that his first challenger in the Seven Stars event would be Kirihara, Ikki's been trapped in a panic prison that no one but Alice really seems to notice...possibly including Ikki himself.

In almost any other show, tournament based or not, this fight would have taken at least two episodes; Chivalry of a Failed Knight resolves it in one, and not even all of one – the battle takes up the middle third of the episode. I do like this, since it gives us time to really observe Ikki and Stella as they deal with their emotions as he goes in to do battle. Stella is perfectly confident that Ikki will carry the day, mostly because he beat her, but also because she's come to respect and like him as a person and not just the guy whose body she clearly admires. So when things start looking bad for Ikki, it feels like the moment when she truly understands how the rest of the school, and possibly the wider world, views him: as utter garbage.

It's a pretty horrible segment that brings this home to Stella. Kirihara, after mercilessly wounding Ikki again and again, whips the crowd to a frenzy as Ikki lies bleeding, encouraging them to chant “the worst one” over and over again to complete his humiliation in a totally unnecessary way. It's disgusting to behold, and Stella's outrage when she puts a stop to it is a wonderful moment. It holds a hint of what I'm hoping her relationship with Ikki will turn out to be – supporting each other when they get into a situation that traps them, either physically or emotionally. Stella becomes Ikki's strength when he has none, a move that leads nicely to the larger romantic moment at the end of the episode, which is really sweet.

It's also pretty fast – granted, living together in close quarters could hasten a budding relationship along, especially one where both parties clearly already have a physical attraction, but we haven't gotten to see a whole lot of it. Last week they were on a date, and now major confession time? It just feels too quick for us to really buy into it, much as this episode tries its damnedest to put us in the moment. That's the major narrative problem with this whole episode – how has Alice suddenly gained such insight into Ikki? What happened to Shizuku's infatuation with her brother and why is she suddenly so respectful of Stella? Why is that lady in the falling-off kimono so irritating? Okay, maybe that last question isn't an issue of rushed storytelling, but the rest feel like they're asking us to take too much behind-the-scenes action for granted. Likewise some more build up to the tournament itself might have been nice, although as I said before, I very much like having it over in one.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight is definitely raising my hopes and expectations, even if I'm really feeling as if I need to have read (or to go read) the novels to get the full story, which is rarely a great sign. I do wish it would lay off the floral imagery – the oddly drawn butterflies on the photographed flowers and the veritable blizzard of sakura in the end feel very overdone – but otherwise this seems to have more pacing problems than visual. With a new story arc promised next episode, I'm curious to see where things are headed, and hopeful that it will slow down and live up to its increasingly apparent potential.

Rating: B-

Chivalry of a Failed Knight is currently streaming on Hulu.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.