Rating:
Despite Freya Familia seeming to have nearly all-encompassing control of Orario, last episode still left the status quo with a few loose ends. This episode explores several of those, while also dropping the first vague hints about possible resistance to the status quo. With so much ground to cover in various little scenes, that makes the episode’s content fly by.
Let’s take a look at how various important characters are impacted here:
Ahnya – As expected, she’s a loose end, and a big enough one that Freya decides to address it personally (even if she did have ulterior motives). Also as expected, Ahnya doesn’t understand what’s going on and is not dealing well with everyone seeming to forget Syr. The way she reacts to Allen – and the way Allen acts towards her – definitely suggests that there’s a complicated story behind how these two apparent siblings ended up this way. But what’s most curious here is how Freya seems to be going out of her way to be emotionally cruel towards Ahnya, like she’s specifically trying to distance herself from Ahnya. But is that for Ahnya’s benefit or Freya’s?
Mia – That Mia was unaffected by the charm isn’t too surprising. Once Freya was revealed to have been posing as Syr, that she would be working at an establishment run by a current or former Freya Familia member who is still quite strong only makes sense from a security standpoint; the upper echelon likely wouldn’t have tolerated anything less than a member on their level directly watching over Freya. Mia also seems to know exactly what’s going on, too, but she does not seem inclined to interfere even though she clearly isn’t happy about it. Allen does mention a threat to her tavern, but even based on anime-only content alone, I can’t see Mia being intimidated by him or anyone else in the familia’s upper echelon. Likely she has some special agreement with Freya, and if she is a retiree, it could have something to do with that.
Ryu – Ahnya may be simple-minded, but Ryu arguably had an even stronger emotional connection to Syr (even if Syr did also recruit Ahnya, much like she did Ryu), so naturally this turn is going to hit her hard, and she wasn’t going to be able to resist Freya baiting her in with Ahnya when Ryu and Asfi sought to infiltrate the city. The interesting thing here is that Freya does genuinely seem to like Ryu, to the point that she’s loathe to use her charm on Ryu and is even willing to share Bell with her in an epic three-way relationship. How much of this was merely a ploy vs. Freya’s true feelings is unclear; it may well be both, especially since she, in the end, resorts to imprisoning Ryu rather than charming or killing her.
Asfi – Of the people left unaffected, she’s the most detached emotionally, and the one most capable at stealth. She may be isolated by circumstances now, but she’s too smart for that to last. Her opportunity to shine is doubtless upcoming.
Hestia and Ouranos – Not at all surprising that Hestia would end up here; in fact, her not trying this would have been more surprising. Ouranos is playing it coy because he can’t make a move without Freya knowing about it with Fels charmed, but that was a curious direction he gave to Fels, wasn’t it? Why would he have made a point of making sure Hestia knew about firewood deliveries being done by Hermes Familia? Methinks that may have been a subtle hint to Hestia about some course of action. . .
Freya Familia – The meeting with Freya and her leadership team only raises the suspicion that Hedin – the familia’s equivalent to Loki Familia’s Finn in terms of being a strategist – is playing a bigger, longer game here while still following Freya loyally. Freya seems to be picking up on it some, but Hedin is too smart to reveal his hand, and none of the others in the upper echelon are even close to on his level of craftiness. What’s going on with Horn is even less clear; is she being influenced by Freya or trying to influence Freya?
Bell – His appearances are only relatively brief this episode, but he still seems to be holding out, and is even unwittingly throwing Freya off her game with his simple-minded but sill meaningful comments about retrieving things that one has discarded, a statement more impactful on Freya than he knows given what went down earlier with Ryu.
Freya – For not the first time, Freya gives the impression that she’s deliberately casting herself as the villainess; she’s just not openly admitting that’s what she’s doing, as Alicia is in I’ll Become A Villainess Who Goes Down in History. It almost seems like she’s trying to convince herself that she doesn’t care that she’s trampling over everyone to get what she wants, and even that has limits. (See Ryu.) The statement that she hates her own charm power is also a curious one; perhaps it’s because it makes everything too easy? That she still has that ornament in a bedroom drawer is the strongest evidence yet that she has failed to completely suppress Syr, and even Bell is noticing.
Lastly, one point about the artistic effort. It’s been very solid so far this season, but in this episode I have noticed some inconsistencies in the way Hedin’s ears are designed. They look different in side shots compared to head-on or from behind.
Things look bad for now, but the saving grace for Hestia and everyone else is that Freya, despite being insistent on what she wants, isn’t bloodthirsty about it. She’s more incredibly selfish than truly evil. That gives those who oppose what she’s doing what little chance they have.
USA Anime 