English Dub Review: Wistoria: Wand and Sword “And the Story Begins”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Guided by Finn, Will awakens the power sleeping within him.  Enveloped in a silvery light, he slashes through the monsters in the capital, targeting the Devander.  He faces the mage-slayer-wielding monster alone.  The other students are moved as they watch Will, someone they scorned, do battle.  With their cheers at his back, Will presses the fight, but the Devander’s attack breaks his sword in two.

Our Take:
So…as it appears from its title name, this week’s episode is where the anime’s story actually begins.  No joke.  The first sixteen episodes, in which Will is a fish-out-of-water underdog at an all-magic school, are just one big prologue to his real journey ahead.  That’s almost as long as the prologue from a Square Enix game, like “Kingdom Hearts II”.  Fortunately, this “prologue” offered plenty of good, and even great, moments to excuse its length and its tropes involving magic schools and magic-less protagonists.  This week’s episode is no exception, and boy!  What a way to close off the first chapter of Will’s seemingly impossible quest, even if some of its emotional moments weren’t as effective as others.
“And the Story Begins” provided an exhilarating, well-animated conclusion to Will’s fight against the formidable Devander and to the torment he endured from the other students.  More importantly, it offered plenty of teases that will play crucial roles for the remaining episodes.  One important piece of development is that Will can actually use magic, which is actually the strongest spell of all, known as the “fifth element”.  It’s powerful enough to fuse with Elfaria’s magic and his sword and defeat the Devander, but whether it’ll help him battle the masterminds behind the attack is the real question.  Based on my enjoyment of this episode, I think I’m going to have fun seeking out that answer on the new journey ahead.