Overview (Spoilers Below):
After the Magic Chevalier is over, the season turns to fall. While Ray and his class are getting excited about their plan for the cultural festival, they get word that Rebecca has been engaged to an upper-tier noble called Evan Bernstein. Ray goes to congratulate her but gets the feeling that she is not her usual self. On top of that, Dina Sera asks Ray to watch over Rebecca, so he begins his investigation into Evan. However, the situation behind this is way bigger than Ray could have imagined…
Our Take:
The remaining episodes of The Iceblade Sorcerer have the academy students preparing for the school’s cultural festival. The previous episode saw Ray and Amelia suggesting setting up a maid cafe, which the noble girls originally rejected, but they changed their minds after seeing Carol’s risqué outfit. But, of course, Ray’s maid cafe isn’t the only focus of this week’s episode.
Amid the festival preparations and Amelia’s strange maid fetish, we discover that Rebecca has been engaged to a high-tier noble named Evan Bernstein. This unexpected news shocked Ray and the other students, including Cornea, who turned the student council against Rebecca because Evan was previously Cornea’s fiancé. What’s even surprising is that Rebecca isn’t her usual self during the conclusion of the previous episode. If some of you guessed that she’s infected by a magic spell, pat yourselves on your back because that’s basically the cause of it.
It turns out that Rebecca has magic in her eyes that causes them to bleed out. In context, that sounds like something you’d see in an R-rated horror movie. But that’s not all. Upon further investigation by Ray, we also discover that Rebecca’s fiancé isn’t who he said he was, both physically and mentally. Evan Bernstein is actually the Sorcery Eye Collector, a disguised member of Eugenics seeking to add Rebecca’s eyes to his collection, meaning that the real Evan and the Bernstein family have been dead for years.
The last time we heard of Eugenics was in episode five, when Ray defeated the traitorous Miss Gray, revealed to be a Eugenics spy. That episode was also when the series found its footing for the characters amid its generic formula. Having this mysterious organization back after a five-episode absence should provide an opportunity to prove its threatening presence, especially since its high-ranking members are targeting Rebecca as a vessel. They also expect Rebecca to awaken as the Saint and open the Door to Akasha. What is lying beyond this mysterious door the Eugenics group is after? Based on Eugenics’ desire, it’s best that we don’t want to know.
This episode is what you’d expect from an anime plot involving a maid cafe: female characters wearing maid outfits in sexualized ways. While it serves as part of the show’s usual formula, the tenth episode does provide enough humor to carry through its basics, especially Ray getting his ass handed to him by Lydia for making fun of her thought of wearing the outfit. But, of course, he also gets constantly punched by Amelia for flirting with other girls. For a kind and supportive gentleman, Ray knows how to rub specific people the wrong way, even if it’s unintentional.
More importantly, it continues the series’s ability to showcase more depth in the characters. Like Ray and Amelia in the previous episodes, the episode focuses on Rebecca, as she’s having dreams of Ray during the war amid her sudden engagement. Based on this information, Rebecca may have had some connection to Ray during his traumatic childhood. We also see more of Rebecca’s younger sister, Maria, before she meets Ray, as several people ridicule her for her appearance and lack of royalty, including her parents. So if you want another reason to hate nobles, here you go.
Despite the show not providing anything new to the magic academy premise, I still appreciate its attempt to make me care for its straightforward characters, especially in the season’s second half. The question now is whether that’ll continue in the final two episodes of the season. More importantly, can Ray rescue Rebecca from her demise before he succumbs to the maids’ sexualized beauty?