Karen's Anime Blog

When we last saw our heroes, Alicia took a plunge and battered her body on the rocky coast. Thanks to her undead status, she’s alive, but in no condition to fight. An apparition of Clevatess appears from her blood, and we learn that it’s the dark ichor in Alicia’s blood that keeps her undead; if she loses too much blood, she could actually die. Of course, he can just shove the dark ichor back into her as long as he still needs her, so it hardly matters. Interesting, but Clevatess’ form here is like a little puppy, and it’s so freakin’ cute it’s hard to actually concentrate on anything he’s saying.

“All of you, I command you: Purchase plushies of me. Available this fall at your local Build-A-Bear.”

Clevatess has a question for Alicia: Why did Nell turn down his offer of employment? Aww, it’s almost like Clevatess’ feelings were hurt. Alicia explains that, among other reasons, Nell doesn’t think she’ll be able to escape from the bandits, so Clevatess should get rid of the bandits. I think Alicia thinks she’s finally caught a real break here: now, her annoying “Master” can take out her super-annoying enemies. Oh, how little she knows.

We see some images of Nell here and her chest is very bouncy. To be fair to this show though, this is one of the only anime (or TV shows period) that actually deals with breasts being used for their intended purpose.

Clevatess doesn’t want to take out the bandits because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s left Luna Mountain, so he deems it Alicia’s job to take out the bandits. Now, I see why the show does this: If Clevatess just kills all their enemies, there will be no need for Alicia to do anything, and it will be a very boring show. But I don’t know if it totally holds up logically. We learned last episode that Clen can kill the bandits very easily– if he were to kill all of them, why would anyone jump to the conclusion “Oh, it must be Clevatess, the Beast Lord”? Wouldn’t they just assume the bandits pissed someone off and got taken out by another gang of bandits or something? Even if he were to leave the prostitutes and/or serving girls alive, it’s not like they could spread information, because they don’t know anything.

Alicia is less then pleased with being tasked with taking out 50 or so bandits by herself, but on the bright side, I guess it shows how much faith Clevatess has in her? Not much consolation I guess, especially when Clevatess puts the dark ichor back into her body and she starts to heal at a super-accelerated, painful rate. She outfights the first bandit who reaches her and takes his sword, and his eyepatch just as a bonus. She muses “I just have to kill all these bandits, right?” and submits her nomination reel for “Most Badass Female Character 2025.”

We see Clen and Luna, and Clen assures the baby that though Alicia may not look it, she is “the first human to put a scratch on my horn,” so he trusts her to take out the bandits. He may have originally resurrected Alicia because he thought she could feed Luna, but conveniently, Alicia is the one he would have picked first anyway.

Nell returns to the kitchen, and we get a long conversation between Nell and Carme, the head prostitute. This is an interesting relationship, because I think there is a genuine connection there: they’re in the trenches together, so to speak, and we saw last episode that Carme was one of the women who delivered at least one of Nell’s stillborn babies. However, Carme has a higher status than Nell and flaunts it, and I think she’s aware that if Nell wasn’t there, a lot of the abuse that Nell takes might fall onto her. Also, if they lose Nell as the designated wet nurse, Vroko might expect Carme to fill that role. So when Nell starts talking about the outside world, visions of freedom that Clen’s offer sparked, Carme loses it and hits Nell. She tries to guilt Nell into submission, citing their common bond as women in this dark situation, but it’s too late; Vroko is walking by and has heard everything.

Vroko asks about “something special that came in today” and Carme immediately knows he means Luna. Vroko says they’ll “fatten it up” first. Don’t tell me that Vroko eats babies now, although I wouldn’t put it past him. He asks for Nell to come with him, and we can tell from Carme’s face that she knows this is Nell’s death sentence. Just like last episode when Vroko stupidly gave his men permission to attack Alicia, now he’s stupidly wasting his one wet nurse for no good reason. I know he doesn’t want Nell’s talk about the outside world to spread throughout the slaves, giving them hope that might lead to rebellion, but that calls for punishing her harshly to shut her up; killing her is just a waste. The show is telegraphing that Vroko is supposed to be smart, but I have my doubts.

Clen and Luna show up soon after Vroko and Nell depart, and Carme tells them there’s no more wet nurse to give Luna milk; Clen requires clarification on this point.

Vroko takes Nell down into an old aranacite mine, and lets go some interesting information: manipulating aranacite can achieve many goals, and doing so is called “magic.” So does that mean that more traditional portrayals of magic, which mana levels and all that, doesn’t exist in this world? It certainly seems that way. Interesting choice for a fantasy show. Why he’s telling Nell all this when he plans to kill her I don’t know, but I guess he just really likes hearing himself talk. He shuts off the lamp, and when he turns the light back on, Nell is standing in front of Betty, Vroko’s domesticated troll. Vroko reveals that his aranacite research concerned learning to control dark beasts, and that’s why he can control Betty. Betty has little pink bows in her hair, and the idea of Vroko painstakingly doing her hair is so funny to me, it kind of takes away from the gravity of the scene. In any case, Nell’s longing for the outside counts as betraying the Ravens, and now Nell must die.

In the intervening few minutes, Clen and Luna have appeared, but Clen does not step in to save Nell, and she is eaten by the troll. Nell’s last thought is that she won’t be able to fill Luna’s belly again. Seeing someone he knows eaten makes Luna cry and damn, that kid is going to need a whole lot of therapy that doesn’t actually exist in his world.

Clen explains to Luna that eat-or-be-eaten is just the way of the world, so there’s no need to be so upset that Nell was eaten. I guess he wasn’t going to tell him that dead people go to a wonderful place in the sky with fluffy clouds and angels singing. Vroko gives Betty permission to eat the duo, but Betty intuitively knows that Clen is the Beast Lord (or at least someone very powerful), so she does not comply. Instead she spits up the remains of Nell, who is somehow still alive, if barely. Clen sends Luna away with Nell so that Luna can comfort Nell “in her last moments”; I think it says something for how much Clen has already changed as a result of his relationships with Alicia and Luna that he actually gives a damn how a human feels in her last moments.

Vroko monologues that his generation discovered the foundations of “magic,” and Clen has no idea what magic is. The bandit leader uses his magic to get Betty back under control, and Betty hits Clen. Clen curses Alicia for not telling him about this magic business, but somehow, I don’t believe Betty is a real threat to Clen; even if she destroys his child form, can’t he just make another one?

Back to Alicia, who has in the intervening few minutes killed eight bandits. What kind of training do heroes go through in this world, or is Alicia just naturally that good? We see a flashback of Alicia’s dad teaching her how to use a sword, and I’m looking forward to getting the background on her dad; I don’t think he was just some regular peasant. Back in the present, one of the bandits manages to shatter Alicia’s sword, and she runs off. Even though she’s obviously better trained than all the bandits, she can’t take out all of them at once, and she’s getting tired. She realizes that, being immortal, if they catch her and start tormenting her, even death will be no escape. Being immortal really is not such hot stuff, when you think about it.

Alicia comes up with a brilliant plan: lure all the bandits onto the scaffolding above the river with the Arvensiss monsters, then destroys the support so nearly all the bandits fall into the water. As the bandits are eaten by the monsters, Alicia descends in a barrel; I don’t know if the Arvensiss choose not to eat her because she’s already dead, or if they’re just distracted by the abundance of prey, but in any case, it works. Now Alicia is going for the real prize, the Regalia hidden at the bottom of the river: Khordhwar’s sword. Since suffocating won’t kill her, she plans to just deal with the pain until she finds it. Ouch.

That was a helluva an episode. They’re trying to make it seem like Nell is dead, but I think she’s going to get resurrected in some form. There’s a picture of Nell in the ending credits in a more traditionally attractive form, and that wouldn’t be there for no reason. I think Clen might do something crazy like meld Nell and Carme together to get a functional wet nurse. Or maybe he’ll just resurrect Nell with dark ichor like he did Alicia, but can an undead wet nurse give milk? Clevatess, making us ask the big questions….