Holy rushed source material! I don’t even know the original source material but even I know that they cut out a huge chunk of it. How can you go from “Don’t use your mana for a week. :)” to the tournament in just a few minutes. The tournament, which takes place a week later! We didn’t even get to see any of the training Melida was supposed to do with Kufa. How to use mana, how long it’ll last, better sword technique, etc. We didn’t see a single thing and that is just…really disappointing.
^^^ Me right now
Just…why? Why would you do that? While the fight was cool, there wasn’t as much impact because I was confused that Melida was suddenly a better fighter. Because the last time we saw her use a sword, a wooden sword actually, her form was pretty bad and she got her ass beat easily. So I can imagine her training with Kufa was insanely difficult, and we didn’t see it. I would have expected this tournament to happen in maybe two more episodes? For it to happen now is insane.
Okay…so, Melida is not a Paladin, she ended up being a Samurai class because of her shared mana link with Kufa. Which makes complete sense, and I think they made it sound like they’re keeping her class a secret? It would be pretty weird for others to find out she’s anything other than a Paladin since that seems to be normal for her family…I think. We needed another episode for a little more worldbuilding, unfortunately. I’m not quite sure how things work with mana and the noble families so I’m just making guesses right now. So I’m guessing that Melida will have to keep her class a secret because then it’ll raise suspicion and possibly danger to both her and Kufa? Sure, let’s go with that. I mean, there’s a lot of talk about getting rid of depending on the results of the tournament, which is a scary thought. We don’t really know what kind of people Melida’s family are but they don’t give off a nice aura at all. They both seem to be very detached, so no wonder Melida always feels so much pressure everyday.
I did like the tournament and the fight between Melida and the bitchy Nerva. It was driving me crazy that she kept calling herself her “friend”. I hate when anime tries making these types of characters redeemable because she has been a terrible bully every time we saw her. It was funny and satisfying when Kufa finally talked her down and called her a monkey, and even more satisfying when Melida finally stood up for herself. But yes, there’s no way I’m going to like this girl after she’s treated like Melida like dirt. Just because she gave Melida her book back and looked embarrassed? Hell no.
The tournament was fine, the fight was fine, but because we saw no training it was hard to believe. Melida is very strong, she knows how to use mana, she has much better technique, but I can’t buy it when she says stuff like “My instructor’s techniques are scarier” when we haven’t seen it. It just doesn’t work and it’s really disappointing. One upside I can say is that I love this newfound confidence in Melida. She’s always been strong-willed, even if she has no confidence in herself. It’s tough to stand up every day when everyone stomps on you, which is why I like Melida. Well, that and she’s cute.
We also got to see the girl from before again. Rose, who seems to be a big deal, is the tutor for Ellie. She’s cute and her interactions with Kufa are funny, so I’m looking forward to seeing her again. Ellie seems to be a force to be reckoned with as she showed how powerful she was in the end, and it looks like we’ll explore the relationship between her and Melida.
I’m scared for this show. It started off a little rough but I still ended up enjoying the first episode. Even now I still like it, probably because I like the two mains and the world. But the way the anime team is handling the adaptation is making me worried. If they already screwed up the pacing this badly in the beginning, I’m scared to see how much worse it’ll get. Please…please don’t get worse.
Would recommend reading the manga version of Assassins’ Pride; as it keeps the worldbuilding info and character details skipped in the anime. I’ve heard the manga is presently covering LN Vol 2 content.
Japanese-fluent LN readers think the anime is aiming to cover the 1st 3 LN volumes, since it serves as a prologue arc for later developments in the next arc (Vols 4-9). And when you only have designated 12 episodes to tell the story…
There’s a few reasons why Kufa has to keep Melida’s class secret:
Paladin class is unique to the Angel bloodline. Samurai class is less powerful compared to the top tierness of Paladin, and will totally overwrite the Samurai at birth. Melida awakening to a comparatively lesser-ranked class will raise suspicions and could lead to exposing Kufa’s lie.
Kufa’s disobeyed direct orders from his guild boss to merely observe and/or kill the target; instead showing favouritism for Melida’s plight. His guild doesn’t like this sort of unprofessionalism, and Mordrew won’t like being lied to. This could lead to their executions by either side.
Kufa’s broken guild confidentiality.
Spoiler
The mana transfer medicine is a top-secret, highly experimental project made by one of Kufa’s guild members, a mad scientist-type. Him using said research to help out a 3rd party target out of personal sympathy for the target is unprofessional, plus possible exposure of the guild’s secrets to the outside (they take their independent confidentiality very seriously.) Again, Kufa could get executed for this.
TLDR Kufa’s dug himself into a pretty big hole over his softheartedness for Melida’s situation, and he’s got to keep it a secret or they’ll both lose their heads.
And yes, the anime did cut out the parts showing Kufa ruthlessly training Melida for a week, and telling her about things like mana control, practical “dirty” fighting, etc. But she’s happy about it, since it’s the 1st time someone’s actually believed in her and is willing to help her out in every way.
I figured. Now if only the anime just showed this to us. :/