English Dub Review: The Unaware Atelier Meister “Lise’s Confession”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Mimico reports on Akuri and interrogates Solflare.  Then, Kurt and Lise go on a date before the rescue mission.

Our Take:
The second half of the season already has me seeing double when Akuri is born with Kurt’s resemblance.  Now, we have a new yet familiar face that’ll have us seeing triple.  After confronting a mysterious demon woman, Kurt and his allies find themselves face-to-face with a young man who resembles Kurt as a 20-year-old.  It’s later revealed that this self-proclaimed atelier meister named Rikuto is actually an illusion created by Lise’s new sword, with Kurt being none the wiser as usual.  At the very least, this illusion should cause less worry about hiding their atelier meister from the public, but they also need to keep Kurt from discovering the truth behind Rikuto’s appearance.
However, that’s not the only issue they should be concerned about, as they also learned that Akuri’s fingernails have traces of spacial magic, which was seen as an extinct form of magic.  Although her DNA suggests that Akuri is still human, her teleportation magic still puts her true identity into question.  The episode also explored Solflare’s true intentions behind her attack, as she’s hoping to use Akuri’s ability to rescue Hildegard from Margrave Taicone.  Initially, I thought that Hildegard would be the next villainous demon for Kurt and his allies to confront.  But, upon watching the previous two episodes, there’s actually more to Hildegard than I was led to believe due to her history with Kurt during their childhood.  It’s possible that the show could pull off some kind of twist involving Hildegard near the end, but given Kurt’s generous nature, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t.
With their eyes set on rescuing Hildegard, “Lise’s Confession” managed to get the show’s narrative back on track as they used Taicone’s festival to infiltrate his castle.  While it also focuses on Lise’s strive to confess her love to Kurt, it also emphasizes Lise’s selflessness in comforting the depressed Kurt, who still feels the uselessness on his shoulders.  Its festival montage could’ve been handled better without the still frames.  Nonetheless, the episode’s reflection on Lise’s “date” with Kurt is enough to make it slightly more tolerable than the previous ones I sat through, though not by much.