English Dub Review: The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World “The Boy Who Became the World’s Strongest Sorcerer Resonates with the Past”
Overview (Spoilers Below):
Everybody is on alert after they figure out that Evan is an imposter who only wants Rebecca’s power. Furthermore, after Maria Bradley talks to him, Ray decides to fight Evan. A few days later, the cultural festival at the Arnold Academy for Sorcery begins, and the maid cafe Amelia dreamed of is a huge success. Ray leaves his class to find Rebecca, and they have fun checking out the festival. However, looming in the background, there was an ominous presence following her…
Our Take:
With Eugenics’s true plan revealed, Rebecca’s life is at stake now more than ever. So it’s unsurprising that Ray has to thwart the organization’s plot to open the Door to Akasha, including its high-ranking demons. However, the Iceblade Sorcerer must also deal with the school’s cultural festival and the maid cafe.
This episode and last week’s episode show how Evan (or, in this case, the fake Evan) got engaged to Rebecca, and it doesn’t involve any “Meet the Parents” tropes. Rebecca’s father, Bruno, made a deal with Evan to marry Rebecca in exchange for making Bruno’s family the kingdom’s highest nobility family, replacing the Rose family. But, of course, this is due to Evan threatening the youngest daughter Maria, which is the only time the parents start caring for her after ridiculing Maria for her lack of nobility. No wonder nobles are complicated to get attached to based on their actions.
We also see more of Rebecca’s visions of Ray’s traumatic past as she attempts to talk to Ray about the war before waking up. Unfortunately, their encounter also caused Ray’s eyes to bleed. More importantly, we learned from Bruno that Rebecca’s eyes are bleeding because her family is affected by a curse that occurs every few generations. Rebecca is the latest child to be born as a Kreuz, meaning they will die before turning 20 if they can’t control the magic in their eyes.
Amid this high-stakes dilemma, the episode depicts the school’s cultural festival and the maid cafe. It’s also another scenario where we see Ray’s “Lily” disguise following the seventh episode, in which Ray helps out by becoming a maid. So that makes two occurrences that make use of Ray’s female disguise despite how weird it is out of context. It also results in another hilarious reaction from Ariane, who visits the cafe with her sister Tiana. Ray also unintentionally used her Lily disguise while fighting the monsters sent by Eugenics.
It’s apparent that The Iceblade Sorcerer wants to finish its first season on a solid note following its rough start, especially after watching this episode. “Resonates with the Past” is another example of the show’s focus on character relationships amid its basic magical academy formula, with Ray attempting to resolve Rebecca’s troubling dilemma. While Amelia’s arc in the Magic Chevalier episodes is character-driven due to the pressures of her role as a noble, Rebecca’s arc is more stakes-driven because of a life-threatening curse that’s been haunting her family for years. Additionally, she’s on the verge of an awakening that’ll reveal the door to Akasha, resulting in Ray attempting to stop the ceremony before it’s too late. With Eugenics added to the mix, I won’t be surprised if next week’s finale turns out to be as cool as Ray’s Iceblade magic.
