Overview (Spoilers Below): Cunodey the Ring Seat, an oracle of the Religious Order, joins an expedition to hunt down an ogre.
Our Take: If hunting a winter-themed dragon was tough, this week’s episode will likely prove that confronting an ogre is an even bigger challenge to accomplish…or so we thought. Continuing the show’s “Shura-of-the-week” formula, the episode introduced us to Uhak the Silent, a gigantic yet gentle ogre, unlike the others. Despite his monstrous appearance, Uhak exhibits a tranquil persona that differentiates him from the ogres the villagers deemed ferocious, along with his inability to speak and hear due to his lack of communication with Word Arts. Under the care of the Religious Order’s oracle, Cunodey the Ring Seat, Uhak lives peacefully with the villagers, but his encounter with another ogre named Belkum changes all that. It’s already clear that season two has returned to the anthology-like formula following the thrilling confrontation with Atrazek the Particle Storm. While it has started to become a bit redundant at this point, the series’s storytelling and characters usually compensate for its familiar structure, especially since we have yet to encounter Soujiro and Yuno again. “Uhak the Silent” is another example of this case, as it explores the Demon King’s rule having an everlasting effect on the villagers. Despite the Demon King being dead, his influence still corrupts people’s sanity, driving them to the brink of hatred, fear, and anger. After witnessing Uhak eating Belkum’s flesh, the villagers turned against him, forcing the ogre to retaliate. Through its thought-provoking plot and animation, this episode represented that a monster isn’t just through appearance but also through people’s actions. For Uhak, his silent and generous personality makes up for his ogreish look, that is, until the villagers treat him like a monster after seeing his monstrous instincts. As for Cunodey, she murders a wolf puppy with a rock, even though she possesses a kinder persona. While that hasn’t been explored further, it indicates that there’s a bit of a monstrous side hiding inside every one of us, even the generous ones. As a result, “Uhak the Silent” became another episode that utilized its anthology formula to deliver an engaging story fitting for the character’s introduction.