Oh, hey, it looks like things are trying to stick to the script again.
Keeping with the pattern of the show, we have an episode almost entirely in the fantasy world. We see the big festival and everybody gearing up, get a scene from Lise’s past and then move to fighting the Witch of Yore as the ball ends.
Yeah, the Witch (who apparently has some relation to the setting’s deep mythology) actually does show up and do as much of her usual thing as can be done under the circumstances. The full party together does a number on her, but when the Witch of Yore flees, Lise unwisely chases after to bring her enemy down and end the nightmare… alone, getting ahead of her support. The Witch is still playing for a vessel, and by the time everyone else arrives (which is the end of the episode) she has Lise on the ropes, wreathed in otherwordly flames, down her protective talisman and presumably being overtaken by force.
I do wish there were more to this one, but that’s all we have to report. I guess there was some eerie effect in Kobayashi’s living room when the Witch started her attack, but not much was made of it at the time so whether that was a real transdimensional effect or just a dramatization of the oncoming darkness on the screen is anyone’s guess.
Almost every time I do one of these seasonal reviews I hit a point where I say “Well we seem to have the rest of the show on lock, it just needs to cruise control there.” I’d been avoiding saying that for this show because I’ve so rarely been right when predicting that even mediocre shows lack another curveball to throw or are capable of getting a certain distance. But this episode in particular really does feel like cruise control. We knew from the start that the Witch of Yore was going to attack at a particular place and time and that she was going to try to overtake Lise, and what do you know? The Witch of Yore shows up minutes off mark at worst, attacks, and tries to overtake Lise.
That’s not to say this was a bad episode. There were some nice notes with Fabian and the romantic moments between Lise and Seig were good, as was a hint in a conversation between Fiene and Bal that they’re becoming aware of what might have happened on other routes. Often when I talk about cruise control for a climax, it’s more “they just need to lock in the cruise control” so I can’t fault this show too much if it actually does.
So what do I expect out of Lise? Honestly, for it to stick almost slavishly to pattern, giving us an odd-numbered episode that spends more time in Japan even if still not all that much (likely resolving Mr. Model’s nonsense along with the witch attack) and a final episode that’s mostly fantasy world (likely just giving us clean up to the happy ending)
What would I want? I’d want the Japan stuff to matter. And who knows, maybe it will. But at this point, Mr. Model and the interpersonal drama of Endo and Kobayashi would really surprise me if they came to a satisfying and dramatic conclusion – I’m fully expecting the payoffs to be as brief as the individual setup scenes. This show had a great opportunity to tell a story that really interwove the plots of the two worlds, but it kept to the I guess safer route of “Let’s Play MagiKoi! Golden End Route Attempt.” Which is fine. It’s a lower ambition than I think the creators were capable of achieving but also, yeah, reasonably low risk.
Is that how it’s going to pan out? Or will my bet on a show taking the easy route once again be off-base for better or worse? I guess we’ll find out in the upcoming weeks.