Random Curiosity

OP Sequence

OP: 「YOU’RE THE ONE」 by ICHIKO
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming

Summary:

With Saito having finally returned to Tristain Academy, Louise lets him kiss her, but she stops him when he starts to undress her by using the excuse that it’s still light outside. Their moment together is interrupted when Siesta bursts into the room to greet them, and Louise then notices that the rune on Saito’s hand is disappearing. Though worried about this, Louise has to go attend an assembly of all students where Osmond explains that, thanks to the intervention by Gallia, the war with Albion is over. Saito sits this one out and talks instead with Derflinger about the missing mark on the back of his hand - the sword thinks that it means Saito is free. Saito then sees Louise’s two sisters, but their conversations is cut short when a commotion develops from the assembly of students. Louise had told Kirche about the missing rune, and now the entire student body is talking about it. Eleanor, however, doesn’t care about Louise’s troubles and just wants Louise to come home, and she goes as far as to suggest that Louise summon a familiar that’s more appropriate for someone of the Vallière family. Luckily for Louise, Agnès then arrives with orders from Henrietta to bring Louise and Saito to the royal palace.

During the carriage ride, Louise tells Saito that he should just say so if he doesn’t want to be with her. She knows that he’s free now that the rune is gone and that he probably doesn’t want to be ordered around by someone like her. Saito gets pissed off over how she’s talking like this and suggests that nobles like her are cold-hearted, but Louise counters by saying that he doesn’t understand her and that she’s only thinking about him. When Agnès stops the carriage for a break, Louise stomps off into the nearby woods by herself and considers what Eleanor said about summoning another familiar. Her thoughts are interrupted by the appearance of a small armored creature armed with a sword, and a mysterious voice suddenly introduces herself as Sheffield. Louise realizes something is wrong and pulls out her wand, but Sheffield’s creature then threatens her with its sword. Sheffield is here to bring Louise to her master, but Louise refuses and lets loose a massive blast in the hopes that Saito will see it and come save her. In the meantime however, Sheffield explains that Louise isn’t the only bearer of the Void, and Sheffield reveals that she is also a familiar of the Void, the Mioznitnirn. Tired of talk, Sheffield then sends the demons under her control at Louise, and it is at this point that Saito saves her.

Despite not having his Gandalfr powers anymore, Saito does his best to protect Louise and manages to do so with some direction from Derflinger. The one time he’s caught off guard, Agnès appears and helps him out. Saito and Agnès are able to keep the demons at bay, and Sheffield then gets telepathic orders from her master Joseph to turn back temporarily. Shortly thereafter, Louise finishes casting a spell that unleashes a massive blast on the rest of Sheffield’s forces. In the aftermath of the battle, Louise yells at Saito for not being at her side, but she nevertheless thanks him for coming to save her. They then proceed with Agnès to the royal castle and find the place empty due to how Henrietta sold all the furniture to help with the country’s empty treasury after the war. Henrietta is still more concerned about Louise’s well-being though and wants to apologize for what she put Louise through. For Saito, she has a decree naming him as a Chevalier, and though this would make him a noble, Saito decides to turn it down because he’s powerless right now without the mark on his hand. Derflinger suggests that the reason is that Saito’s heart stopped during the previous battle, thus canceling the contract with Louise. He had been brought back to life by an elf-girl named Tiffania who had a magic ring, and Henrietta decides to send Agnès to find her.

That night, Louise has a nightmare of Saito leaving her and wakes up to find him gone from their room. She finds him again at the top of a tower and is so distraught over the thought of him leaving her that she starts crying. Louise is frustrated because she has so much to say, yet he’s always gone, whether it was on the boat back from Albion or in her bed moments ago. Because she had thought that he’d left by himself again, she now hugs him and tells him not to go anywhere. She doesn’t care if he’s not her familiar or if he doesn’t have his Gandalfr powers, and though Saito promises not to leave, he questions his worth if he’s not able to protect her. He proposes redoing their contract with another summon servant ritual, but Louise isn’t sure what will happen or what they’d do if another familiar appears. After Saito reassures her that it’d be okay since he originally came to this world to protect her, he changes the subject to how they love each other and to what they had started that morning. He starts to push Louise downstairs so that they can return to her bed, but Louise resists what he wants to do and eventually blows him up with her magic. She’s still pissed off in the morning and makes him run after their carriage.

ED Sequence

ED: 「ゴメンネ♥ 」 (Gomen ne) by 釘宮理恵 (Kugimiya Rie)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming
The OP is upbeat ICHIKO as usual, and the ED is Kugimiya Rie singing (aka. not that great, though this one better than the last). I have a hard time getting into either of them though because I’m still stuck on CODE GEASS R2’s new opening song.

Preview

Well I don’t know if it was because I had rock bottom expectations for this or what, but the first episode turned out better than I thought it’d be. It’s not amazingly good of course and is still butchering what happens in the novels (or so I’ve been told), but it adopts a pretty fast pace that managed to keep me interested the entire way through. The production quality was decent too (at least as good as the first two series), so the decision to follow this series or not mostly comes down to the direction of the story. Despite the fact that I was bothered by some of the gaps in the plot - mainly how Gallia just came in and stopped the war - I like the stuff about the legendary familiars and void mages and would like to see more about that.

I should mention though that it’s a little frustrating to see so much time in the episode spent on showing that Saito and Louise have made progress in their relationship, only to have it reset again when Louise gets pissed off and blows Saito up. Which is to say, business as usual. I admit that Louise wouldn’t be Louise with that aspect of personality, but at some point I’d just like to see something different to show that the characters have grown since we first met them. Maybe it’ll happen by the end of this series, though I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. In any case, this first episode was good enough that I’ll probably keep watching this, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out better than the second series.