Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary Episode 12 Review
Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary has been a fun journey this season, provided the terrible animation didn’t send you running in the opposite direction early on. But now all the pieces are in place and we just have to watch how it all unfolds. I’m kind of torn as to whether I think they will kill off any of the main cast. This anime hasn’t really avoided killing people off but despite everything the main cast is still pretty much in-tact as we turn into our final episode.
Though, perhaps I should make that physically in-tact. And even that isn’t really right given Yin is now one yet another pair of prosthetic arms after multiple instances of losing her arms throughout the series.
Zhao is pretty much a hollow shell at this point having been unable to protect Yin. He’s going through the motions of serving the empire but he can’t really have his heart in that with Ning on the rebel’s side and being unable to save Yin. But he also can’t abandon Cheng (the Empress) so he’s just completely shutting down at this point.
Yin was already broken by the water torture – and her incredibly horrible life.
Ning is still naively clinging to the potential hope that maybe, just maybe, she can save Yin and Zhao and put her family back together and get a happily ever after. Ning is either the best optimist ever or completely deluded and I guess it depends how tragically next week goes as to which way her character will end up being judged.
And Cheng, well her aunt finally attempted to overthrow her and while that went poorly it did open up a memory Cheng had suppressed and it may very well be the straw that finally drives Cheng right over the edge she’s been walking along for weeks.
So, cheery episode with a potential disaster looming ahead for next week. Still, despite everything, this one has remained a relatively entertaining watch.
Thanks for reading
Karandi James
Consider supporting the blog by:
- Episode 1 – A Rough Fantasy With Some Potential
- Episode 2 – Not Entirely Convinced We Needed To See Any of This
- Episode 3 – The Plot Thickens
- Episode 4 – Rising Tension
- Episode 5 – Attack of the Poor Animation
- Episodes 6 + 7 – The Sword, The Confession, and the Betrayal
- Episodes 8 – 10 – Great Heights and Great Falls; It All comes With Ambition
- Episode 11 – Give In To Your Hate; Embrace the Darkness
- Episode 12 – Everybody Hurts Sometimes Even If You Want to ForgetÂ
- Episode 13 – The Small Victory and Loss Within a Greater Battle