An Archdemon’s Dilemma, episodes 7-9

Collective Rating: B+

The first six episodes of the series established the two main characters, justified the series’ title, and (more or less) formalized the relationship between Zagan and Nephy: they are, for all practical purposes, a married couple, even if neither is willing to admit it out loud and they’re still shying away from getting intimate. Ordinarily, the latter would irritate me, but these two (and especially Nephy!) are just so charming and gosh-darn cute as they fumble their way through a proper relationship that it’s almost impossible to watch the show and not root for them. That continues – albeit more in the background – as the story pushes ahead with a twin arc: one part about the dragon girl For and the other about Chastille dealing with the intimidating Angelic Knight Raphael.

Nephy has plenty enough cute factor to carry that aspect of the series on her own, but For still ups that quota a notch. She comes onto the scene in the guise of a much bigger armored sorcerer, attempting to defeat Zagan with physical attacks to gain his power, but she doesn’t realize that Zagan’s offensive specialty is physical enhancements, so even her ability to manifest dragon limbs despite being in humanoid form doesn’t help. She represents practically the ideal found daughter for Nephy and Zagan, as Nephy is drawn to her cute side and Zagan can relate to her desperation to become more powerful just to survive. What’s more, dragons are extremely long-lived – even more so than sorcerers and elves – so she wouldn’t lose her new parents to old age anytime soon. Looked at in a crass sense, it gives Zagan and Nephy an opportunity to play house, though her dragon knowledge also proves useful at times, too.

This eventually intersects with the other main plot thread, which centers on Chastille. She’s losing her position as an Angelic Knight since she refuses to go after Zagan, and she has reason to fear being purged by Raphael, the biggest and baddest of all the Sacred Sword wielders. Her situation is at least as interesting because she’s caught between competing Church forces: the holy quest to defeat sorcerers and the fact that Sacred Swords choose their wielders, and hers hasn’t rejected her despite her noncompliance. Most interestingly, that point doesn’t seem to be lost on Raphael, who should be Chastille’s greatest existential threat but seems more to be scouting her out instead. His behavior suggests that his reputation and the dire claims he makes may actually be a smokescreen, and the implication seems heavy that he may, in fact, be the representative of a more moderate Church faction who secretly approaches Chastille. But someone else apparently wants Chastille out of the way, which leads to her winding up at Zagan’s castle.

These episodes show that the Zagan/Nephy dynamic doesn’t need to carry the show alone. Zagan’s interactions with For land somewhere between a conventional father/daughter and a conventional mentor/pupil relationship, with Zagan’s own brand of sharp-edged pragmatism keeping things colorful. Chastille starts to shade in the direction of a harem love interest, but she’s also firm that she not only sees Zagan/Nephy as a couple but also wants that to happen. Her upcoming struggle is going to be about finding the way she fits in without getting in the way of the lead couple’s romance, though more immediately she has to put up with For, who struggles to reconcile her hate for Sacred Sword wielders in general with the fact that Chastille isn’t the specific one she seeks vengeance on.

In fact, the complexity of the character dynamics, and the writing not following the path of least resistance, is what is most setting this series apart from its peers right now in a positive way. On the downside, Nephy’s special brand of magic has practically been forgotten about; hopefully this will come up again before the end of the season. On a separate point, I have finally pinned down who Chastille and her trio of loyal knight followers remind me of: Captain Milk and her retinue from Legend of the Legendary Heroes, even down somewhat similar basic appearances and the female knight at the center being something of a klutz outside of combat but remarkably capable in a fight.

This series has some good things going for it right now, enough so that it continues to be one of my priority views each week.