Strike while the iron is ice cold.
What They Say:
Episode #22: “Northern Land”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Into the snowy north everyone treks. That includes that weirdo demon Lunarre that follows Alisha around and the Lord of Calamity’s henchgirl Symonne. Symonne appears to be following the group to their doom, or more accurately leading them to it.
There’s still time for a few last-minute light-hearted moments between Sorey and Mikleo, Rose and Dezel, and Alisha and her right-hand girls. However, once they reach the edge of the mountains the time for fun and games comes to an abrupt halt. The frozen north is a land of death, haunted by wraiths and swarming with legions of dragons. The Lord of Calamity has summoned all the world’s corruption to one place, and Symonne turns on the group and everything erupts into violence.
The show makes a big deal of showing us Alisha’s armatization, and Rose’s not-so-much. This was to be expected because she never got one in the game. It’s almost magical girl style when they reveal her full outfit when armatized with Edna. The girls are still having a hard time armatizing, but they manage to get out several powerful attacks of their own while Sorey performs superhuman feats of dragon slaying.
They also make a big deal out of Lunarre trying to atone by taking out as many hellion wraiths as possible before succumbing. I’m not sure why the show keeps dragging him along. In the games, he was a minor sub-boss. I’m also not sure why any of us viewers care? He was never a sympathetic character, and we don’t even know what his deal is after all this time. He was just a member of the Sparrowfeathers, just another assassin, and not a very good one at that. Maybe the animators kept him sticking around to show that not all hellions lose their sense of self. That doesn’t explain why he gets such lavish animation heaped upon him.
Symonne is technically a larger character here, but she’s also an enigma. Why does a seraph follow this evil lord so devoutly? Is she just a masochist? Maybe. She seems to want something from the Lord of Calamity, but whatever it is and why she wants it are of no consequence. She casts herself into the pit of malevolence and is turned into a dragon. I’m not sure they’re ever going to explain what her deal is.
Finding motivation for the bad guys always seems to be a difficult thing for any medium. Either the bad guys are one-note villains who are evil for the sake of evil, or they go so far to humanize them that they turn into anti-heroes. So you end up with what’s happening here, we’re left in the dark as to who or what the Lord of Calamity was and why he wants to end the world after all this time. When we come face to face with him once again at the end of this episode he is an overwhelming force of nature.
In Summary:
Zestiria the X launches into its final battle with gusto. The audience is treated to some flashy spell work and fancy footwork as team Sorey pushes deep into the frozen north to confront waves of wraiths and a swarm of dragons. I question the animation’s team decision to expand the role of a minor boss while shorting Symonne in the process. However, they do get to give Alisha her own armatization, and she does indeed look cool wielding seraph power. Next week’s preview looks like it’s going to sharply return to a plot point from the game, which will force Rose to step it up once again.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Funimation and Daisuki
