Record of Grancrest War Episode 9: Has This Show Turned A Corner, Or Are They Just Hoping This Will Keep Viewers Into The Spring Season?

Review:

I’m not actually going to say this show improved because they might just go back to the usual disconnected narrative we’ve gotten up until this point next week. But episode 9, was a good episode as a stand alone. Everything that happened in the episode was logically building on things that have happened, no random new characters or twists thrown in, and it all makes sense and actually consolidates things that needed consolidating. All and all, it was a pretty good viewing experience, and I haven’t said that about this show since episode 1.

The first half very much deals with Siluca and Theo as they try to figure out where they are going now that Vilar has ruled out going to war and leading the Union. But mostly Theo is trying to cheer up Siluca by taking her on a tour of the vampire’s domain that they took over so many episodes ago and then they get caught in the rain. It leads to an actual love confession. Not a wimp out (though they almost did when he said she was important to him), but an actual confession of love. It was one of those sweet moments that just nailed exactly what it needed to do for these two characters. So no more are they or aren’t they or being strung along. Just accepting the relationship at this point.

And the sweetness of this scene, contrasts beautifully with the Milzar and Marrine sequence at the end. Marrine crosses a line this week using her mage to summon a miasma to take out a fortress so that she can overwhelm its forces (which is apparently some sort of violation, but it is effective). Milzar is incredibly happy with this approach and yet when asked to ally with her, he still needs to play the power game and we end up with a fairly painful to watch sex scene between the two.

But that is exactly what they were going for. Marrine is in real emotional pain here, mostly because her decision making isn’t as rational as she’d like to think it is and she knows she’s crossing all the wrong lines but she’s kind of committed to this path.

Overall, a much stronger showing from this anime than we’ve been getting and if it could continue like this (cohesive and developing its own plot) then it might even get back to being a half-decent show, and yet somehow I’m not that optimistic yet. One episode isn’t enough to break the trend.

Previous Reviews:

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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