Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu Episode 9

Finally, the long awaited confrontation with Prince Kyle unfolded, and Elizabeth handled this idiot like a champ. Sei’s commentary and expressions from the sidelines were also quite fun to see. It was even more hilarious how Yuri just vanished from her side, but he did prove useful as he recognized it was the optimal opportunity to fetch the King and get this matter dealt with for once and for all. (Can’t say he didn’t do it for the shits and giggles though).

Say what you want about Kyle embracing the role as the ‘Fool’ to protect Aira, but there is no reason at all that he couldn’t have privately apologized to Sei sooner. Not to mention, gee, I don’t know, maybe have this talk with the King instead of dragging it out? I definitely feel like Aira’s matter could have been resolved a lot better than the way he went about it. Not to mention, he really didn’t do himself any favors of choosing to feign ignorance of Sei’s existence once he became aware of it, especially since it was his pride that stopped him from doing so. The fact he completely ignored her because he assumed she was a servant based on looks is what makes him a genuine fool. Frankly I would be surprised if he is still first in line to inherit the throne after his house arrest. Thankfully Prince Rayne is now in charge of taking care of Aira, which means she will have more room to breathe since that guy seems a lot more sensible than his brother.

Needless to say, it was fun to see Prince Kyle get roasted by his father in front of everyone, especially since he had clearly set the stage for a misunderstanding and pin the blame on Elizabeth. Even Sei recognized what he was trying to do and suggested to them to take their conversation elsewhere. In fact that is another thing that really annoys me about his character. Although he intended to carry out the act as “The Fool” to ‘protect Aira’, he could have easily changed his approach of enabling Aira to form relationships with the girls outside of his circle. And the best person to do so was with Elizabeth, who has shown patience and kindness time and time again. Aira again, didn’t do herself any favours of not speaking up when she could have. While I like her, after seeing her perspective, it did frustrate me that she didn’t make any efforts to try and communicate her concerns. It was quite aggravating to see her cower down while Elizabeth is unjustly being accused of nonsense by her fiancé. Which is why the whole scene where Kyle explained the situation to the King and Elizabeth still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Simply put, Elizabeth deserves better.

Now that Sei has been formally acknowledged as the true Saint, with the word going around how the Saint’s Conjury was used, and the monsters around the Capital have now been more or less dealt with, requests have been flooding in from around the Kingdom for the Saint to come to aid their domains. So despite the fact she doesn’t know how to cast the Saint’s Conjury on the fly yet, the King announced that Sei will be dispatched to Klausner. Upon hearing that both Albert and Johan were against the idea, and were trying to find a way to stay behind until the Saint’s Conjury is sorted out. We also saw how both of them address Sei’s concerns of being treated as a Goddess by assuring they will continue to see her for who she is (and not the Saint), and help her find a way to stay with the job she loves (working at the Research Institute).

And yet, despite the two of them looking out for her, Sei had other ideas. Klausner is revered as the ‘Alchemist’s Holy Land’, and it is where the majority of the Kingdom’s medical herbs are grown there. So when Sei saw a window of opportunity to go there, she caught them off-guard when she so readily jumped on it. That said, I am a bit sad they watered down the scene. I thought it was more entertaining when Johan was suspicious about  how enthusiastic she was about the idea of going there, and had called her out on it, “Spit it.”

However as much as I try not to be nitpicky the changes they make with the adaption, it has become rather frustrating how they are constantly cutting out invaluable scenes that actually show us different sides to the main characters, especially Albert. I am disappointed with the decision to exclude him from the scene when the King and his adviser discussed the matters of Sei being dispatched. This was another instance where I thought they would surely keep Albert (and Yuri who was also supposed to be present) in the scene, but nope, they were completely cut out!

The reason why this particular is especially infuriating is because, God, instead of telling us about it, SHOW US how Albert responded when the King announced Sei will be dispatched to Klausner! Let us see him express his concern about the potential consequences Sei may be subjected to as he did in the novel (and manga too). He knows she can’t cast the Saint’s Conjury upon will yet, so if she were to fail to use it during an expedition, not only would she be in danger, but she will be the one who bears the brunt of the blame for being unable to live up to the public’s expectation!

Look I love how they are spoiling us with the fluffy scenes between him and Sei, but! It is not worth it if the tradeoff is cutting out scenes that would show is more sides to Albert’s character! Let us see his range of emotions, because frankly, we don’t get to see it too often to begin with (such as that brief instance when Albert had hurried to the scene and stopped Kyle from grabbing her). And the fact they choose cut it out only makes it even more of rare! Because of that, I would say apart from the is issue of skimming over the action with pan-shots, this is probably my biggest gripe with the adaption. I love this guy, so I just want him to be shown off properly!

And with that we have entered the third volume! Oh boy, I just hope they do this well. Klausner is a fantastic arc and I would hate to see it get botched because of time constraints. And if they really do decide to adapt Volume 4, for the love god- please make up for the lazy showing of the Western Forest battle! NO MORE CHEAP PAN-SHOTS! That’s the least they can do…

Well if there’s one that hasn’t disappointed us, it’s Yuri. They have been doing an excellent job of highlighting his eccentric wonder and enthusiasm to Sei’s powers. He had me cracking out loud right from the get go with his starry-eyes, and suggestion to make sacrifices for science. Never change Yuri, never change.