Rating: A-
Last episode ended with Lawrence, Holo, Elsa, and Evan all fleeing Tereo, which is unquestionably the smart and safe move for all of them. However, as becomes apparent during their flight on Holo’s back, the smart and safe move isn’t necessarily one that everyone can live with. And that provides the grounds for the return to Tereo for the arc’s dramatic finale next episode.
Not surprisingly, the catalyst for this comes from Elsa’s interactions with Holo. She knew, from having seen Holo’s ears up close before, that Holo was beyond human, a creature of the pagan myths that Father Franz devoted himself to studying, thus reassuring her that Franz wasn’t just tilting at windmills. However, seeing Holo in her full wolf form only further raised the question in Elsa’s mind about whether Holo is truly a god or not. This is a reckoning of faith for Elsa on two fronts: faith in her religion, but also faith in the man she regards as her father. She is facing the same vexing question that Franz did: does the existence of pagan gods necessarily contradict the existence of God? Unlike Franz, she has evidence of the former right in front of her, even if Holo dodges around admitting to be a god; Holo only concedes that she was regarded as one, and doesn’t let Elsa even question that. Ultimately she’s left only with faith, but she also seems to realize that faith itself is what Franz was most trying to protect. And to her, that means protecting the village that Franz protected with his deal-brokering, whether they believe in her god or not.
To Elsa’s credit, she puts Holo on her own back heel with that, doubtlessly without realizing what she was doing. That Elsa can act to try to protect her village, when Holo could not, stings deeply. Again, Holo isn’t being reasonable here, but by this point Lawrence has clearly learned how to talk her down when she gets in this kind of mood, and Holo has certainly shown that she will listen to reason if the speaker remains calm and confident. She couldn’t have come to Youitsu’s aid when they faced the Moon-Hunting Bear because she didn’t know about it, but there are things that can be done here. All that’s needed is a miracle, and when it comes to matters of wheat, Holo can certainly provide that.
In other words, our quartet here is going to battle a plan built on subterfuge with subterfuge of their own. But this time it isn’t just Lawrence’s plan; Elsa seems to have a big idea of her own. The shell of the plan is there, though: when the villagers are backed into a corner, have Holo produce a miracle probably in some way under the auspices of the Church, in the process making the pagan gods subordinate to the Church. The historical Church long made a practice of co-opting pagan celebrations and rituals by Christianizing them (Easter and Yuletide are both examples of this), so this move even has some historical basis. The big question remaining, of course, is what Lawrence will come up with to monetize the returned wheat. That is the one part of the arc I do remember well, and I can say with confidence that it’s something which makes sense after the fact but which anime-only viewers won’t see coming at all.
While this episode does look good and sound great overall, it also has some minor technical faults. The most readily-noticeable one is that the animation of Holo’s steps in wolf form sometimes are not in perfect sync with the thuds of her footsteps. Balancing that out are some strong perspective shots from both Holo’s view (when she’s looking at Elsa) and from Lawrence (when he’s looking up at Holo after she briefly returns to human form). This is also the most fan servicey the series has gotten since the first two episodes, though it’s done tastefully enough, and enough else is going on in those scenes, that those not into such things may be able to easily overlook it.
On the whole, I still feel like Lawrence is taking all of this too casually, but this is also still the arc’s strongest episode to date. It’s a good set-up for the arc and season finale.
USA Anime 