In The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power, there are two sisters — one talented and one not so talented. Unfortunately, Fiora, the talented sister, despises Caroline, the younger, not so talented sister. She doesn’t even try to hide it either. It’s full mask off right from the start, because there’s no subtlety in anime. Fiora resents Caroline, because their mother died in childbirth. Sounds like yet another classic case of anime characters desperately needing therapy. But this is set in some quasi-medieval European setting, so you can’t expect to find licensed shrinks running around, offering their services. So what’s the next best thing? Daddy dearest, surely.

But before we get to him, Caroline returns home to see the king of all people waiting for her. Basically, there was a little diplomatic mishap, so the kingdom is going to throw her to wolves, so to speak. Basically, they will marry her off to a foreign prince in order to maintain cordial relations between the two nations. After all, the king can’t sacrifice his own sister! She’s blood! He can’t sacrifice Fiora either! She’s destined to become the next saint (pfft, we already know it’s gonna be Caroline). So naturally, the only choice is the talentless hack. Caroline is expendable!

At this point, I was half-expecting daddy dearest to be a massive hater much like his oldest daughter. But no, he actually wants to protect Caroline. At first, my cynical ass couldn’t accept it. Surely, this must be an act. But as the scene continues, it seems as though he’s actually being sincere. He doesn’t want to marry her off. But does this actually make him a good father? Well, you can’t beat my cynicism. You can only redirect it, so let’s take stock. What did I say earlier? How he could fulfill a role of therapist for his daughters? So what gives? How can he raise two girls and not realize that one of them literally hates the other one? Sounds pretty fucking neglectful to me.

Furthermore, when Caroline sees how much her father wants to protect her, she’s genuinely shocked. She is literally surprised that he actually loves and cherish her. She thought nobody wanted her around. Huh? Again, I have to ask if he’s actually a good father. After all, love isn’t a one-time thing. Love isn’t a bold declaration that you will stand against your king and try to annul your daughter’s arranged marriage. No, love is something you do everyday. Your child should never be surprised that you love them. Why? Because you show it constantly day in and day out. Love is a continuous action. So the fact that Caroline reacts like this makes me think daddy dearest is honestly pretty shit.

Anyway, the rest of the episode is just the same remixed tropes we’ve seen before. You might think Fiora would be happy to see Caroline leave, but nah, she’s big mad because she’s losing her punching bag. As for the foreign prince, get this… he has a reputation for being cruel and ruthless! Yeah, yeah, didn’t we get this exact same thing recently with My Happy Marriage? Or how ’bout that show where the girl liked to eat strange monsters, so she found a military guy who also hunted said monsters? My point is, we’ve seen it. As such, we already know that Caroline’s future love interest is going to be yet another gentle teddy bear despite his infamous reputation. Yawn.

Then Caroline’s going to awaken to her saintess powers — probably due to her frank conversation at her mother’s grave triggering something –so Fiora’s going to find out about it and become mad jealous. She’ll surely try to sabotage Caroline. The only question is whether or not the story will be mean-spirited about the sister. Will Fiora get her redemption arc? Or will she suffer the consequences of her actions and end up completely disgraced? Personally, I prefer to have a little more positivity in my life these days, so I would much rather see the two sisters end up supporting one another. Having said that, the redemption would have to be earned. It can’t be some 11th hour “oh my god, what have I been doing” heel turn.

In any case, this show is sadly nothing more than “Everything else” fodder.

I thought about also checking out World is Dancing, but five minutes into the episode, and I can just tell I’m not vibing with the setting and time period — like I feel nothing but pure apathy.