Well, after all that, everything turned all to be just fine. I can understand why some may find the outcome to be rather anticlimactic, and to an extent, baited into thinking it was going to be a lot more serious. And I mean, it’s kind of hard not to feel that way, because even when I got to that scene while reading the book I thought to myself: Oh shit! But it ended up not escalating the way some of us thought it would. Truth to be told, I still don’t quite understand why the men came marching into the room in the first place. My only presumption is perhaps they were reporting what Michel was doing in town. After-all, Arnold did suggest is that his own spy network was already keeping tabs of Michel’s suspicious behaviour.
In the end, Arnold agreed to Kyle’s request to formally form a technological partnership between the two countries. He claims a part of the reason he agreed to the partnership was because he didn’t want his father to hear about the incident Michel had caused if he were to be publicly declared as a criminal.
When you think about the potential consequences of Michel’s actions, well yeah: It really could have go south in two different ways. One, while Michel selfishly thinks of it as a product demonstration, in reality, bombing the city and taking the citizens lives is an act of terrorism. Such charge would not simply end with him, but should the Emperor get the word of this, it could serve as justification to attack Coyolles in retaliation. On top of the fact he didn’t even consider or cared about the mortal consequences Prince Kyle would have to face. That’s why Rishe basically told Michel to shut up when he was going to ramble on to Kyle– who was has been blissfully unaware how he was this close to being dragged into situation he has painstakingly trying to avert. Talk about almost blowing up one’s efforts!
The second issue, which would be equally as problematic, were if Michel ended up drawing the attention of the wrong person. Rishe worries a lot about the way Arnold could utilize the gunpowder, but one has to wonder just how bad things could get had Michel shared his dangerous compound with the current standing Emperor. How would that have changed the game?
Anyhow, taking all that into account, it’s an understatement why Arnold felt the need to do agree to Prince Kyle’s negotiations as necessity to cover up Michel’s scheme. Though in hindsight, perhaps this was the silver-lining catch Rishe actually needed to force Arnold’s hands into joining hands with Kyle in the first place. Honestly it’s hard to say whether he would have still change his mind had Michel not pulled this stunt in the first place. Either way, thanks to that, Rishe was able to successfully demonstrate to both Michel and Arnold that something dangerous and lethal can be turned into something beautiful and an example of endless possibilities. It was cute to see how Arnold smiled during the fireworks, just knowing Rishe had a hand in this, as she always does ahahahaha.
Additionally, Rishe finally revealed to Arnold that it was in-fact Michel who had invented the pocket-watch he’s using right now. She pulled that card out when Arnold had told her don’t complain if Michel ends up dead in a ditche somewhere. It’ll be a loss to him if Michel ends up dead.
That said… I always thought it’s rather naive of Rishe to be comfortable with the idea of keeping Michel close by for technological research. After-all, while she did show him how his creations can be used for something beautiful instead of taking lives, what is there to stop Michel and Arnold from still having talks about how to utilize that as a weapon? Arnold has enough brains to recognize how an explosive can be used on the battlefield. So while Michel may not be the one to bring it up again, it could very well be the other way around. Anyhow, we’ll have to see whether that’s something that’ll come up in the distant future. It’s unclear whether we’ll still see a war take place, potentially sooner than five years because of the butterfly effect of Rishe’s actions, or she manages to succeed averting the crisis altogether. That said, I don’t think Rishe will be able to prevent Arnold from killing the Emperor. I think he’s pretty committed to seeing that through, unless the Emperor gets killed or dies by other means before he gets the chance to enact his plans. How things will unfold after that, now that is where we could potentially see some deviations, but I digress.
Last but not least, the ring scene at the end actually made me more emotional than I thought it would! While Arnold had gotten her the ring, he honestly had no intentions of putting it on her, much less going through with the ritual of her home country. It was honestly heartbreaking seeing how he genuinely didn’t feel like he had the right to do so. But thanks to Rishe’s insistence, he finally agreed to. Thanks to that, we actually got to see Arnold take down the first wall he had put around himself, which was direct skinship. While he has recently touched Rishe’s face with his bare-hands when she was disguised, he did that purposely because she was insisting she wasn’t who she said she was despite being caught already.
We can see how much it meant for Arnold to be given both permission and assurance that she doesn’t find his touch to be repulsive or care about how blood stained he is. The way he took his time putting on the ring, and the reluctance to let go of her hand with the way he just traces the ring and her rings, the little head pat— all little forms of gentle intimacy that we’re seeing from him, be it consciously or not, longs for. I thought it was very romantic! Made my heart pitter-patter! It was also very encouraging to hear that seeing the ring on her actually made him feel better than he thought he would. That’s a pretty big step forward considering how much he was against the idea of getting a blue gem to match the color of his eyes. In fact, I really liked the detail of which they made sure that Arnold’s eyes were always seen in the background of when Rishe was studying the ring. It showed how the two matched.
Also, when Arnold took her hand to lay a kiss on her ring finger, the fact it looked like Arnold freaking bit it made me laugh so hard, I was in tears. I’m pretty sure he only kissed it in the novel, and maybe that’s what they were still going for, but the way it looked– it’s too good and too funny, I can’t. Perfection.
It was also super cute to see Rishe being so flustered and excited about it, to the point she was holding her breath. I did find it funny how she closed her eyes over the whole thing– girl, you’re missing out!
Final Thoughts
The 7th Loop was a novel series I’ve longed had my eye on, but never actually got around to reading it until after I watched the first episode. This was my shot in the dark pick of the season, and it really paid off. The first episode had me hooked, and the rest was history— because I have no self-control and immediately bought the novel and as soon as I had all the volumes, I binged through it within what was it, two days? I simply couldn’t put it down.
Although I did watch the first few episodes blind, I’m glad that I did eventually binge reading the novels up to volume 4 because they did offer a lot more context and depths to a number of scenes that suffered a lot of cuts in the anime. That isn’t to say the adaption is terrible in any respect, but I do feel like there were some losses of things that weren’t able to be included. Typically the fluffier content, because there’s aplenty of adorable banter and interactions between Arnold and Rishe.
Rishe is an endearing character. There are fairly reasonable explanations for her remarkable abilities, given that she has lived several different lives six times already, and is currently on her 7th do-over. We still don’t know why or how Rishe has been subjected to this seemingly endless loop, but the first part of her objective to get past the point where she always becomes a casualty one way or another because of Arnold’s war. The next would be to live a carefree life until she’s old and grey. That’s why, since she has ended up getting engaged to Arnold in this life, she has committed herself to preventing this war from happening to the best of her abilities. For that reason we see her utilizing her previous lives’ knowledge and network, knowing who she needs to focus on to add favourable cards to her hand.
Yet despite having died so many times, Rishe remains rather optimistic and kind-hearted, even to the very man who had killed her with his own hands in her previous fight. One might think to be afraid of him after that (and honestly I’m kind of surprised she isn’t), but given she was a knight, Rishe knew already knew the risk involved and was willing to put her life on the line. So she doesn’t hold it against him for that. Instead, she’s rather mesmerized by his swordsmanship. A funny thing if I do say so myself, but that’s Rishe for you. She’s very much engrossed in learning about all the things that catches her interests.
And now that she has had a chance to meet Arnold under very different circumstances, she has an additional goal that goes hand in hand with her attempt to prevent the war: Teaching him how to appreciate the beauty of the world.
Prince Arnold is a character full of trauma, shackled down by guilt and endless mysteries. He deliberately makes himself to be a coldblooded and ruthless villain, when in truth, the man has a scarred but kind heart that he doesn’t wish to let the public know of. What prompted him to wage a war against the world is still being worked out on, but so far a part of it seems to be involved with how he feels the need to just burn it all down to start anew, and disappear after that. So Rishe’s mission is to help work through his deeply rooted scars, and teach him that he’s more than capable of seeing the beauty of the world, and giving and teaching him about the love he doesn’t believe he has the right to.
I’m really looking forward to how this series is going to develop, I do hope we’ll get a second season in the future! and there’s so many more great moments coming in the upcoming volumes, but I do recognize it would be a good idea to give it a bit more time though they can probably safely get away with just adapting volume 3 and 4 without running out of materials in the short term.
If you enjoyed the series and would like to read the novels, you can start at Volume 3! But I do highly recommend just starting from the beginning to get the full experience!
Final Score: 8/10
If you’re looking for something to scratch that itch for romance with endearing banter, this should definitely do it!
There are 6 LN volumes in Japan now, so there is enough material to make 2 more anime seasons if they keep its current pacing. They won’t run out like say, Saint’s Magic Power.
Unfortunately the author has still yet to work on Vol 7, so there are still many mysteries that remain uncovered. And even the hints and plot points dropped still aren’t quite enough to explain “…and then Arnold decided to invade everyone”.
We might be in for a long haul kind of series then. I’ve always wondered how many volumes this one would be, but it’s looking like a 10+ volumes type at the rate things are going.
I’m glad the English copies aren’t too far behind. Vol 5 at least comes out Apr 30, and Vol 6 comes out on Sep 17. So not too long of a wait, that might mean we’ll be caught up with the latest volume in Japan sooner than later, if not always being just one volume behind.
Seeing Arnold accept that the ring he gifted to Rishe is beautiful is already a change compared to before when he said he hated the colour of his eyes. Rishe didn’t realize it, but Arnold was saying the ring was another thing he found beautiful. I found it very wholesome and welcomed Arnold’s character development as he got over his hatred for his eyes.
UGH MY HEART! I loved that moment so much!!!!!!!