Let’s see what our card game buddies are up to.
— Sometimes, the humor works. You initially see this first-person perspective, so you think our heroes are in for a wild ride. But this is all that’s happen, so Favaro’s just screaming at the top of his lungs for no good reason.
— Somehow, our heroes find themselves in an enchanted forest. It’s clear that they got here by boat, but still, was this enchanted forest just nearby? Or has some significant amount of time has passed? Honestly, I like the various settings in this show. I almost wish this was a longer anime so we could explore the rest of this world. After all, with just twelve short episodes on hand, it becomes difficult to imagine how our characters can manage to go from one place to another in such a short amount of time.
— It’s hard to respect this king…
— …which is why it’s even harder to see Jeanne in such a state. She has done so much for the kingdom and its people, and now, she’s being executed without a fair trial. How can any of these soldiers honestly stomach this? Who would you rather follow? The shameful king or the people’s savior? But when it comes right down to it, I guess most of these soldiers are just cowardly. This seems to be the prevailing opinion, unfortunately. Then when tragedy befalls them in a similar fashion, they undoubtedly wonder why it has come to this.
— But to be fair, these soldiers have at least some excuse. This is the world of gods and demons, after all. In other words, they can mistakenly assume that the king’s decree is also the gods’ decree. Of course, the gods have also constantly blessed Jeanne, bestowing upon her the finest of heaven’s armaments. So from my point of view, it’s more likely that you’d be siding with the gods if you help Jeanne out. As for modern day cowards, I have no idea what their excuse is. In any case, maybe one of Jeanne’s former soldiers will hopefully set an example and help her out before she’s burned at the stake.
— And of course she’s getting burned at the stake. It’s Jeanne d’Arc!
— Ah, the last temptation of Jeanne.
— So Kaisar catches up to Favaro and Amira, and they pretend to struggle with each other for a bit. There’s no pretending on Amira’s end, though. Anyway, our knight even manages to break Favaro’s short sword. The latter should probably find himself something that isn’t so cheaply made.
— Somehow, our three heroes get sucked into… a different plane to reality? The idea seems cool, but for some reason, the animation quality takes a dump on itself.
— Everyone sees a barb stuck in the ground, so they decide to try and remove it. Why? I mean, this is obviously a “The Sword in the Stone” moment for our heroes, but the story seems rushed. With a sword, I can understand the basic motivation behind trying to pull it out of the stone. After all, a sword is useful. Meanwhile, our heroes get sucked into a different plane, sees a giant barb on the ground, so they all decide to try and remove it? Again, the story seems rushed because we’re not really given a good reason why our heroes would suddenly care about some barb.
— As fate has ordained it, Favaro is the only person who can remove the barb. And in doing so, he gains the gratitude of some forest dragon who claims to be the eternal observer of the world. Apparently, the barb came from Bahamut itself. Wait, old forest dragon? Oh god, we’re not going to get exposition, are we? No… noooooooooo!
— Elsewhere, gods and demons are rallying their troops for one final encounter. Hey, this beats listening to some old dragon talk about Bahamut in a dry fashion.
— Let’s get down to brass tacks. Amira will awaken Bahamut if she gets close to the damn thing, and they’ll merge forever or something. And when that happens, Bahamut will lay waste to the entire world. The only way to avoid this, according to the forest dragon, is for Amira to chill out with this forest dragon for eternity. You’ll recall, of course, that Amira is developmentally a child. So not only do you tell a child that she’s trapped in some empty plane for eternity, she also won’t get to see her mother. You can thus imagine what her reaction would be.
— But like most anime protagonists, Favaro delivers an inspiring speech about how fate can totally be changed, and that they are the ones to do it. Well, it sounds a little better coming from Favaro and not a high school kid riding a mecha.
— Plus, how can we even trust this forest dragon? What if he’s lying to us? C’mon, if some old dude tells you that you have to stay with him or else the world would end, would you honestly believe that?
— And hey, what do you know! That barb now becomes Favaro’s weapon. I’m sure this one won’t break in what was supposed to be a pretend swordfight.
— Meanwhile… oh c’mon, even the civilians know that this treatment of Jeanne is wrong and outrageous! But of course, the soldiers continue to do nothing. Blah blah blah, this is the king’s decree. The world is full of cowards. Lavalley will try to talk some sense in the king, but at this point, there’s nothing you can do but depose this weak and ineffectual ruler.
— As for Rita, she didn’t get much of a spotlight this week, but she nevertheless manages to run into some trouble all by herself. With her friends far, far away from her, we can thus expect Rita to somehow save herself as well.
— With the barb, Favaro manages to open a portal back to the original world. But when we next see our trio, they’ve already arrived at the location where Amira’s mother is currently held. Did he open a portal straight there, or did they walk from the enchanted forest to this location? Again, the story feels rushed.
— Before he could join his friends, however, Favaro receives some ominous information from the forest dragon: if he wants to keep Bahamut sealed away, he has to kill Amira. But again, why would you trust some crusty being from a separate plane of existence?
— Plus, Favaro just went on and on about how they can totally change fate, so it’s just silly to me that Amira suddenly has to die. Oh well, it’s likely that our heroes will figure something out anyway.
Moe Sucks 
So, Favaro puts the fate of the entire world and its inhabitants at risk just because he wants Amira to meet her mom? Not cool, man. The dragon gramps told you Bahamut’s barb could create a portal from one dimension to another. Amira is a distraught 5 yo, Kaisar is a dunce in love with a distraught 5 yo. If you think there’s no way you could convince Kaisar to leave Amira, you let them be and beat it at the most opportune moment! You might live the rest of your life in guilt for leaving them behind, and yeah you’d still have that stupid tail, but that’s nothing compared to the rest of the world being alive. Even if the tail is some fatal curse or something, better to take your chances w/ it than risk Bahamut’s awakening and by extension, your death. If you’re gonna die anyway, best to prevent the world from being destroyed. And who knows? If Amira is in a different plane of existence, the tail might disappear!
Yeah, I know we wouldn’t have a show otherwise, but still. If Kaisar had the barb in his hands and blurted a speech along the same lines, I would have groaned b/c he’s a doofus but understood a bit better. The guy is madly attracted to that girl, he’s an idiot, which is why he’d risk everything for her to meet her mama. Stupid, but makes more sense. Why does Favaro make that choice? He clearly cares about those two, but he’s not an idiot. I didn’t even feel the internal conflict! Oh well, looks like they’ll save that for next episode. But as you say, it would be a bit silly to kill her after that speech.
As an aside, I’m finding Bahamut to be pretty insipid. I’m not really a big fan of these ‘stock fantasy characters go on a wild stock fantasy adventure in a stock fantasy land to accomplish a stock fantasy goal’. I generally prefer stories that say something about humans, preferably with characters that feel human. But that doesn’t deter me from liking or at the very least enjoying these fantasy adventures, as long as there’s something I find interesting about them, be it character dynamics, fun setting, atmosphere, unconventional storytelling, kick-ass action, etc. But there’s nothing here for me. The setting has potential but we haven;t really explored it, the atmosphere doesn’t feel grandiose enough (linked to the last point), we know everything about the characters at this point and their interactions are pretty boring, and there hasn’t been enough good action for a while. Just a lot of meh from my end
The animation had its ups and downs this week. Close-ups are well done as always, but the designs really skewed off the mark when pulled back. There’s even a conspicuous off-model moment where Favaro is drawn like a youthful shonen hero. Probably some bad outsourcing or somebody didn’t check the model sheet enough.
Backgrounds are gorgeous and I liked the subtle visual effects and direction this episode, like the wall shadow and the refraction with the flask while Rita was investigating.
I really liked the CGI dragon, it goes to show how CGI in general is slowly progressing towards imitating 2D, though the way they rigged the dragon ruined the effect it could have had. Would have killed to see a moving painting.
I wish people would put more emotion into crying while voice acting like Amira’s VA did this episode. Some may call her performance exaggerated, but it rings true to me based on my own experiences.
People may start complaining about the fantasy cliches but I think Bahamut’s execution makes them more natural and palatable to the storytelling, even if there were a few bumps this episode.
The animation in this episode swinging between bad and good , i like the backgrounds though , I just feel like in a fantasy game . but tbh I prefer this animation more than that of Parasyte which keep downgrading each week
GOD ! i really miss the action , it’s been already 2 weeks since i watch them fight . I mean come on ! this anime is only 12 episode , why they are wasting time in them ? above all this episode has no credit ending instead, it has a retelling from the last episode ! awkkkk
My only consolation that it seems there is a war thing about to take place between gods and demons . Please producers , make the next episode more enjoyable ! it’s only 3 episode left , don’t make me regret watching this !
There’s no way Favaro will kill Amira, it would’ve been a little more interesting if old dragon had told this to Kaisar or even Amira, they would’ve sold that scenario better, Kaisar as a knight maybe would choose prioritize the world instead of Amira life, and Amira after meeting with her mom and making tomodachis, she would be grateful with her life until now, so sacrificing herself to save her dear ones wouldn’t be so bad… then again, she’s a child so maybe she will make a tantrum.