Is this real life?
What They Say:
Episode #7: “The Valley of No Return”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Akari’s paranoia involving her lust for her brother is becoming the running joke that no one thought was funny. It shows up again during what could be considered a very nice gesture of affection in the opening scene, and I wish Akari would chill out.
The trio is on their way to the next destination, courtesy of the mysterious informant Guy. The last known whereabouts of another one of the heroes, a magician, lie nearby. However, Gillette as his team are back on the hunt, and they manage to track down the trio yet again. It’s unclear if they’re ignoring orders from higher up, but their boss keeps sending them new information anyway.
There’s yet another battle with Gillette’s forces, one that the trio really couldn’t hope to win because they were outnumbered. Gillette finds out during the altercation what our Chaika’s goal is, but his subordinates don’t believe her. Luckily for Chaika, the trio has a dragoon sort of on their side. Frederica reluctantly scoops up her traveling companions and they make their way to the fog enshrouded valley.
It’s interesting to watch the animation take a spectacular dive in the scene when they arrive at the cliff. It resolves itself a scene later, but now I’m worrying about this series budget and the time constraints of production. Or perhaps just quality control, because that was some low level, outsourced, off model artwork.
Akari’s paranoia about her brother comes back in full force when the group ends up in the fog. Toru becomes lost in an illusion where he and Chaika are alone together and they end up doing all sorts of cute things together. All the activities are amazingly innocent, like a picnic, but Akari is nearly ready to expose herself to the fog just to murder her brother out of jealousy. Heck, she almost murders Chaika because of the implication.
Luckily, the girls don’t have to work too hard to get Toru back, as his illusion turns into a pathetic nightmare which delivers him right into the pummeling arms of the ladies. This might be one of the worst animated episodes so far, but it’s also one of the most amusing.
The group formulates a plan to dash through the fog and find the magical device making it. I was expecting a confrontation with the hero, or that we’d find him long dead like with the last, but what they did find surprised me. War certainly took it’s toll of those who spent their lives fighting it. The hero they find might actually be the most realistic look at what can happen to those who come back from the war to nothing. The success of Chaika this time feels bittersweet.
Toru needs to get a clue about woman pretty quickly though, or he’s not going to survive this journey.
In Summary:
This might have been the easiest recovery of a body part for Chaika and her hired help, but Toru’s never had to contend with the fury of three women scorned at the same time. I was surprised to see Gillette’s group back on the hunt again, so soon after their trouble with the chain of command. With each new hero located it’s astounding to see how far each have fallen in only five years. Is it the work of dark magic, or simple greed and lingering trauma? If Toru is unwilling to seek the truth behind this quest, maybe Gillette’s team can get to the bottom of it.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.2, via Safari 7.0.2, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
Thanks for the review. I did enjoy reading.