New entrants to the battle find it a difficult one.
What They Say:
Episode 9: “Lone Battle”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With this episode, which provides the central holding action for what is an extended three-episode battle, it becomes fairly clear what shape the entire contest is likely to take. In the first segment, it was necessary for Luvia and Rin to lose badly, which we are treated to a replay of in the pre-opening minutes. There were two reasons for this pre-ordained outcome: first, it needed to be established that Bazett is a very powerful opponent against whom normal powers and regular tactics will likely be ineffective. Even the jewel attack equivalent of a massive bomb caused no visible damage to her. Second, Luvia and Rin needed to be pushed off stage so that Illya and Kuro could get their chance to fight Bazett. As this was the middle segment, the holding action of the battle, we should also have been prepared for neither side to score an outright victory.
And thus it has turned out. When Kuro uses her Archer abilities to fight Bazett, they prove ineffective. There is a reason for this as we’re finally treated to some very important exposition, conveyed in two ways, as if one method was not enough. First, during the fight we see Bazett have visual flashbacks, showing another person using the same fighting moves as Kuro’s. It’s clear that this is the Archer Class Card Heroic Spirit from when the Card was first captured. That this is indeed the case is confirmed when Ruby now informs us that Bazett was the one first sent to retrieve the Class Cards, acquiring both Archer and Lancer before Lord Zeltrech decided to remove her from the task and hand it over to Rin and Luvia. What has now changed, as Bazett informs us, is that there has been a power struggle above all of their pay grades within the Mages Association and thus she has been sent to retrieve all the Cards. This fills out the required infodump for those of us who are not familiar with all of the games and other parts of this franchise outside of the various anime series.
As is also fairly predictable, Luvia, Rin, and Auguste have survived and the older girls have a plan to counter Bazett, but Luvia is seriously injured and they have to exit the underground escape tunnel they fled into in order to make use of this countermeasure. Thus we are treated to the B Plot Thread of seeing the three make their way through the tunnel, hindered at times by Luvia’s wounds and the ceiling showing signs of collapse. Why would the ceiling collapse?
Because Kuro and Illya decide to fight, not meekly hand over the Cards. This is entirely within expectations since…if they just handed over the Cards, this storyline would be over. Bazett would leave. Of course, this could never have happened, since one must keep in mind that the moment Bazett found out about Kuro’s condition (having a Card inside of her), it would be the end of Kuro, so it’s not like handing over the Cards was ever a real option for the von Einzbern kiddies. Of course, the two separately cannot defeat Bazett (even if they worked together the whole time it would have been unlikely) and they lose almost all of the cards. Things look very bad…until Miyu rides to the rescue, pretty much right on schedule when Illya is at her lowest point, the edge of being seriously harmed, with Kuro already being knocked out of action.
With the single card that Illya managed to hold onto, Rider, Miyu transforms into the Heroic Spirit and battles with Bazett. While Bazett can handle Heroic Spirits with her own power, she has only fought Archer and Lancer before, so she’s not able to predict Miyu/Rider’s moves the way she could Kuro/Archer’s. In the face of unfamiliar attacks, Bazett is temporarily put on her back foot. But, of course, this is the middle part of the battle. We should not expect a resolution here. When Miyu attempts to use a Noble Phantasm against Bazett, this is bound to fail. We’ve been warned earlier by Ruby, and the warning is repeated by Sapphire, that Noble Phantasms and trump card attacks should not be used against Bazett. That’s because she apparently has a special counter to them of her own. Naturally. This would be why she was assigned to retrieve them in the first place.
This is a fairly well put-together episode with decent pacing, cutting in and out of the A Plotline (the battle above ground) to show the B Plotline (the underground trio) at the right times in order to provide a short breathing space…to the animators who don’t have to animate every single frame of the fight. It also works to increase the tension as you wonder what is happening above ground. It was nice that Illya was allowed to be seen using her brain to fight Bazett with limited success, but unfortunately her lack of experience and ignorance of Bazett’s full powers doom her to failure at this point in the battle. The same thing is about to happen to Miyu, who is briefly seen winning, before it appears that she may be playing directly into Bazett’s hands as the end credits roll. We cannot blame the girls for their failure since…the fight won’t end this episode regardless.
So we come to predictions for the third and final part of the battle. It’s clear that Miyu’s use of a Noble Phantasm will not work against Bazett, since it’s already been revealed that such attacks will not defeat her. The only question is how much damage and injury Miyu is about to sustain. From the plot perspective as well, we could have guessed that the attack will not work, since we still have to see what plan it was that Rin and Luvia has put together. I have my doubts their countermeasure is going to be 100% effective, though it might contribute to the eventual victory.
All of this is why even fairly solid execution is not going to earn the highest marks for this run of episodes: because it is not difficult to guess where this is going. Certainly, Bazett could be victorious, take all of the Class Cards (and rip the Archer Card out of Kuro…most likely ending her existence) and then return to her masters. This could be used to set up a third season where Illya, Miyu, Rin, and Luvia travel in pursuit of Bazett to get the cards back. But I don’t get the feeling that that is how things are going to end.
It feels more like Illya and friends are going to be pushed to the edge of defeat, but then, as happens when Illya is pushed to the extreme, she will again develop a new power, as happened during the fight against the Heroic Spirit Saber in the first season. From the jaws of defeat, victory will come in the form of a new power which will be so overwhelming that it even out-classses Bazett’s game-breaking abilities. We will see which path the show takes next episode.
In Summary:
In what soon becomes clear is just the middle segment of a three-episode fight, Illya and Kuro vainly struggle against Bazett. Miyu comes to Illya’s rescue at a particularly dangerous point and then temporarily turns the tide of battle, but another change in direction is clearly indicated by the end of the episode. This is entirely expected since the fight was not likely to end here. The execution (pacing, staging, flow) is fairly solid, but the progression of events is predictable.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
