The World's Finest Assassin

Episode 10

It's interesting: only a few minutes into this week's The World's Finest Assassin and it's not hard to see the big picture of where the series is heading in its final few episodes. From the moment we're told that the man thought to be the Hero is attacking Dia's kingdom, the climax pretty much writes itself. Lugh will have to battle the “Hero” to save Dia—despite the fact that, should he kill the Hero before the Hero defeats the Demon King, humanity will be wiped out. Therefore, the job of this week's episode is to get everything into place—to explain why Dia doesn't just run away with Lugh.

What's great about how this is handled is that we get this information by means of giving Dia some much needed character development. While she was the first love interest introduced into the story, we haven't seen much of her as a teenager. We've seen that he visits her regularly and that they make use of their time together getting lost in creating magic—but we haven't seen what kind of person she has grown up to be.

What we discover is that Dia is a person torn between her duty and her love for Lugh—and there's no doubt that she loves him. However, she has made her choice even before Lugh shows up to whisk her away. At first, she tries to tell him her feelings directly—that her duty, honor, and sense of self all command her to stay and try to protect her people. But when it's clear that he won't accept that, she downplays the danger she is facing—claiming the battlefield is far off and that her family full of powerful mages is able to protect themselves. Lugh either believes her or forces himself to believe her and the two spend their day on a date together.

There is a forced nature to their date which makes it ring a bit hollow while watching—an aspect that is very much intended. After all, Dia is trying to force one final happy day out of her life—one day where she can be a normal woman doing fun things with the man she loves. Now, don't get me wrong, Dia is absolutely enjoying herself but she's over-acting (and Reina Ueda's excellently subtle voice work is the sole reason this comes across as well as it does). From the prize she wins to the food they eat, she's too happy and too excited for everything that happens. It's not until the two of them come together for their first kiss in the pool that she truly loses herself in the moment.

Despite the cute scenes and romance between the two, this is an episode that's more than a little sad. Lugh thinks he's on a date where he gets to make his feelings clear to the girl he loves—and finds that she loves him as well. But to Dia this is the final item on her bucket list before the end. And with Lugh walking off into the sunset her entire demeanor changes and she readies her men for the coming hopeless battle.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I'm always a fan of off-screen adventures—like Tarte and Lugh on a deserted island while Maha is just clillaxing on the beach waiting for them to return.

• Lugh trusts Dia's words more than Maha's spy network.

• As Dia is playing things very close to the chest and lying about basically everything regarding the war, it's hard to be sure but... did her father already die on the battlefield?

• Either Dia learned the hair changing magic from seeing it once or had already known it but pretended not to. Either way, it's a good flex to show that she means business.

• The Goddess seems to be in a difficult position: She has to make the Hero strong enough to kill the Demon King (hence sending the world's best teacher to train the Hero) but at the same time needs to figure out a way to kill the Hero afterwards.

• The post-credits teaser once again sets up the central character-based dilemma of the series: is Lugh a tool who follows orders or a man with the will to choose his own path—even if that choice would betray all he has gained?

The World's Finest Assassin is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.