Rating: B+
Things were a bit strained between Lawrence and Holo at the end of last episode, and clearly that still weighs on Lawrence as this episode starts; why else would he flash back to the last time he thought Holo was leaving him behind? That presumably plays a factor in why Lawrence decides to seek out a chronicler in this episode. He lives in an era where you can’t just jaunt down to the local library to look things up, so finding an expert is necessary for obscure knowledge. And what an expert he finds!
One things that should be clarified up front is that, historically speaking, the Church was not actually anti-alchemy, or at least not to the degree indicated in this setting. The Church did crack down on fraudulent uses of alchemy, and there were points and places in the Middle Ages where alchemy in general had a bad reputation because of the charlatans, but “legitimate” alchemy worked hand-in-hand with the Church, to the point of being complementary. (For instance, there was a belief that figuring out how to purify gold was key to figuring out how to purify the soul.) It had valuable practical applications, so a major town allowing a whole district of alchemists to exists would not be unreasonable.
Though Dian Reubens lives in the heart of the district of alchemists, the layout of her abode strongly suggests that she doesn’t practice it herself. Why she, as a historian, would choose to live in that area despite that is easy enough to surmise: some of the knowledge she traffics in might be considered forbidden. Or could there be another reason? Gi Batos makes a point of mentioning that birds are encouraged to live in the district because of the “canary in a mine” principle, but any of the wider-area shots of Dian’s abode show bird feathers everywhere inside as well. Rather large ones, too, and curiously most heavily concentrated around Dian’s preferred seat. We already know that Holo isn’t the only giant wolf around, so the existence of other types of animal gods is hardly a stretch, and the evidence in this episode at least suggests that Dian is one of them; some kind of bird herself, most likely. It would certainly jive with her interest in pagan tales and deep knowledge of them despite not looking particularly old.
What she says here is also interesting. The Moon-Hunting Bear and its connection to Yoitsu has, I believe, been at least briefly referenced before in this adaptation (it definitely was in the original). If it did destroy Yoitsu then Holo could well be the only survivor of her clan of wolves, avoiding the fate of the others because she happened to be away. Sadly, Lawrence doesn’t press for details on that, instead focusing on finding Yoitsu. That the clue to its location proves to involve Holo, and her journey southward, makes sense; in fact, it would be stranger if there weren’t some old tales scattered about concerning her. That sets a long-term destination goal for Lawrence and Holo, one that will extend beyond the scope of this season, but also don’t forget the name Nyohirra; that will come up again much, much later if the adaptation continues past this season.
That’s not all that’s going on this episode, though. Amati is showing Holo around town while Lawrence is doing this research. (And there are probably going to be consequences later for him not telling her about it!) Given the warnings Lawrence gets about Amati, that’s doubtless a path to future trouble, and Holo’s little lie to him about her relationship to Lawrence probably is going to exacerbate that. The notion that pyrite has somehow acquired enough value for chunks of it to be auctioned off, and how shocked Lawrence is by that, suggests the path to this arc’s economic crisis, though we’ll have to wait for the next couple of episodes to see how that develops.
In terms of comparison to the previous adaptation, this episode corresponds almost exactly to episode 2 of season 2. The only difference is that the scene about receiving the letter (and thus learning that Holo isn’t literate – or is at least pretending not to be), which was in this episode in the original version, was moved to the previous episode in this version. Both versions excel at design detail work about the alchemical district and especially Dian’s abode, though the animation is a little better – and definitely less dependent on flashbacks – in this version.
The episode end on a minor cliffhanger; what could Mark have conveyed to Lawrence that would set him off running with concern like that? We’ll find out next episode.
USA Anime 