“Crossroads of Fate”
What They Say:
Philia’s family has produced saints for generations. It’s no surprise that she’s known as the greatest saint of all time—and set to marry the second prince, Julius. What no one expects is for Julius to call off the engagement, claiming that Philia’s perfection makes her charmless and unlikable. To add insult to injury, Philia is packed off to a neighboring country in exchange for gold and resources, forcing her to leave her homeland! Despite bracing herself for mistreatment, Philia finds a warm welcome in her new town, where she puts her saintly abilities to good use erecting barriers against monsters and curing epidemics. But even as she flourishes in her new life, her homeland is under threat of destruction!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This spring series is based on the light novel series, which is available in English alongside the manga from Seven Seas Entertainment. I’m always glad when an anime has its source material available for fans who discover it through the anime and can keep the story going this way. The anime adaptation has a good group behind it with Shuu Watanabe directing it and Keiichiro Ochi on the scripts. Watanabe has done a lot of episode direction and has a few shows under their belt as a full director, such as Shinobi no Ittoki and Taisho Mebiusline Chiccachi-san. Occhi’s credits are pretty expansive with a lot of time on Aikatsu properties, but also things like Girlfriend, Girlfriend. TROYCA on the animation production means expectations of a solid adaptation are in place, as I’ve enjoyed a lot of their works over the years, such as Aldnoah.Zero.
It may just be me, but it feels weird that this has felt more like Mia’s series the longer it’s gone on, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Seeing her in the cold open helping those under attack by the demons as they defend the country, while in her mind realizing she has to protect Fernand in order to overthrow Julius, is just such a twist I never saw coming in that opening episode. It’s not in contrast to what Philia is dealing with because she is working with others to defend her new home country as well, but there’s just a difference in intensity and feeling. Especially since Mia is basically alone in her fight outside of Fernand, and he’s not up to snuff yet. Both have the larger threat of Asmodeus to deal with that’s getting closer and closer, especially since Philia is the target there, but each has different threats closer to them to deal with as well.
What becomes interesting with Mia is seeing how she’s helping Fernand and he is stepping up, even making more public appearances after the king has fallen ill. Mia is walking a tightrope in trying to not tip her hand while dealing with Julius, and he’s just beyond smarmy which makes him hard to take. But did I expect Julius to try and poison him outright in public like that? No, I did not. Even more surprising is his stopping Mia from helping and basically publicly admitting he wants him to die, going so far as to make it clear that he’s had the king murdered as well. The walls closing in aren’t just on Mia but on everyone in the kingdom because they now have a truly insane man leading them. And not hiding it in the slightest in a beautifully over-the-top way. All of this makes the twist put into play even more of a delight as we see the truth come out and how Mia and Fernand organized all of this to expose Julius for who he is. It’s a great moment of theatrics and politicking in a game of thrones-like way.
In Summary:
This series continues to surprise with what it does, and I’m just delighted by it, instance after instance. This is a big episode for Mia with what she accomplishes here and how it plays out. It’s filled with a lot of drama and uncertainty because the show has executed its plans well with how we view these characters, the actual threats at play, and just how far it can go with dealing with its characters. While Philia doesn’t get a lot of time, she has some good moments early on that allow for Mia’s plans to go big here – and with a hugely earned emotional sequence at the end with what kind of losses she’s had in her own life. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle Julius going forward, as one can imagine a minor redemption arc in the offing, but just the bit we get from his thinking back on his past is instructive enough.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
