Overview (Spoilers Below): Seika makes his way through the tournament while he searches to find out what’s really going on.
Our Take: The magical tournament has kickstarted in a way that’s unsurprisingly suspicious, even more so than Seika’s previous adversary. Along with another swordswoman named Mabel Crane, the young exorcist encounters the mystery surrounding his surprise invitation to compete instead of Amu. Unfortunately, there’s also a creepy new contestant with a dangerous spell that can paralyze his opponents. So it looks like Seika will have to use every trick in the exorcist book to solve this case. The episode continues the series’s tournament arc, with Seika, Mabel, and Kyle climbing the ranks without breaking a sweat. Additionally, we learn more about the latter two, both inside and outside the competition, with the most interesting one being Mabel. It turns out that Amu isn’t the only swords-woman destined to be a “hero” based on Seika’s interrogation of the demon spy. The title could also belong to Mabel, whose birth and hair color match the prophecy, like Amu. Plus, Mabel’s not just skilled with a sword but can also use gravity magic and her daggers, which helped her win the match against the rock sage. Then, there’s Kyle, who continues to get closer to the finals. His true intentions are still unknown, but we learn that his evil eye isn’t the only weapon he has at his disposal. During his fight with Reinous, Kyle can also use gravity magic to make him indestructible against magic attacks. In addition, Kyle also has shadow magic, indicating how much of a threat he is, especially to the other opponents. Thankfully, the match was halted before Kyle could take another life. Aside from its watchable action scenes, “Interwoven Plots” offers more questions than answers regarding the opponents Seika is up against. Is Mabel really the chosen “hero”, or is she part of a ploy to distract people from the real hero? What’s Kyle’s real goal? Finally, what’s the real reason Mabel wants Seika to forfeit? Even though the show doesn’t offer anything unique to its magic competition formula, the episode continues to make me curious about its mystery, which’ll likely get resolved during the tournament’s final days.