FINALLY! REAN! REAN IS HERE! MY MOST FAVORITE TRAILS CHARACTER REAN! I’M VERY SORRY FOR THE SUPPOSED MAIN CHARACTERS OF THIS ANIME SERIES, BUT REAN’S APPEARANCE IS THE BEST THING EVER TO WATCH! (^///^)
Now that I’ve let out my fangirl scream, I’ll go to the episode now. Continuing their search for information about the Empire’s hero, Lavi and her team got stuck in the middle of the road after a landslide blocked the train’s way, forcing the people who are aboard the train to work together to remove the rocks blocking their way. Even though Lavi’s team can just walk and ditch the train, they decided to stick in helping removing the rocks because they don’t want to waste the money they have used to pay the tickets.
At this time, Lavi got thrown into an underground waterway when she saved a noble from a monster attack. This unexpectedly led her to meet the very person she’s looking for: Rean, with Altina tagging along with Rean. The two of them were on a mission to exterminate the monster on the government’s order. Lavi didn’t know yet that Rean is her target, but just learning that Rean and Altina are with the Erebonia Empire’s military was enough to give Lavi a bad impression about them and she opted to ignore and find her way alone rather than working together with her enemies.
However, Rean being Rean, decided to help Lavi and followed her whether she likes it or not. Rean’s persistence at first annoyed Lavi and she tried her best to continue ignoring him even after she received his help time and time again. This didn’t last long as Rean’s sincerity in helping her finally get Lavi to be less cautious of him and Altina and accepted their help. In her mind, not only the Empire is her enemy, she views them as ruthless and cruel people who have killed a lot of North Ambria citizens, specifically the Empire’s hero whom she believed to be a devil and would try to destroy her home country.
Meeting and talking with Rean directly caused a struggle within Lavi because Rean is a genuinely good person who only wishes to protect people and would help them if they are in need, the very opposite of what she believed all this time about her enemy and Rean somehow reminded her of her grandfather that she once loved. Rean’s determination to move forward instead of letting the past define him was like a slap to the face for her. All her life as a jaeger, Lavi fights mainly for the sake of proving herself to be a different person from her supposedly traitorous grandfather. Without her realizing, this motivation is actually a shackle for her as she’s always bothered by what happened with her grandfather. She loved her grandfather and his betrayal hurt her, but rather than acknowledging and face her feelings, she looked away from it, trying to deny the memory of her grandfather.
The ending of this episode was a bittersweet one as Lavi learned that the person who helped her was the Ashen Chevalier, the Empire’s hero whom she has been aiming for. This revelation undoubtedly crushed Lavi. She’s torn between her conflicting thoughts: her belief that Rean is a devil who had hurt a lot of North Ambria citizens and an enemy that must be killed, or the kind-hearted young man who would help people in need without a second thought and also her benefactor whom she came to trust. Nevertheless, she’s still determined to protect North Ambria, so she knew she’ll have to fight Rean eventually and won’t back down from the fight. Rean also quick to learn of her real identity as a jaeger. It’s a sad situation for both Rean and Lavi. Under normal circumstances, if not for their countries at odds against each other, they could’ve become friends.
As much as I love Rean and this episode, I have to say that the animation quality has dropped considerably. It’s not the worst I’ve seen in anime, but I’m still quite disappointed. And this is my personal preference, it would’ve been better if Lavi and Rean learn each other’s identity much later, because having them get acquainted first and grew closer would make the moment they learned each other’s identities as enemies would leave more impact on the two of them.
