English Dub Review: Knight’s & Magic “War & Princess”

A princess ascends to her throne, with Kid as her knight.

Overview (Spoilers)

The Order of the Silver Phoenix launches a stealthy rescue mission in the heart of Kusperchia using their Silhouette Gears. The princess is held in one of the four towers, but security is so tight, they can’t figure out which. So, Ernesti and the others break into all four at the same time. They manage to rescue not only the Kusperchan princess, but the nobility from Fremmevilla as well. The princess requires some convincing, though. She is too down on herself, feeling like a coward and unworthy of the loyalty of her people. Kid, her rescuer, gives her a bit of a baby step first. He swears himself to her as her knight, and gets her out of there. The enemy gives chase in their airships, and Ernie uses the Ikaruga to send them packing. Having rescued the noblewomen, the Silver Phoenix presents the rebel Kuperchans with an offer. Under the guise of a merchant guild, they will give upgrades to Kusperchan Silhouette Knights in exchange for salvage rights on the destroyed enemy knights. The sound defeat of Zaloudek forces using the new Kusperchan mechs prompts the enemy to send the Bronze Fang out to steal our mecha and recapture the princess but… That doesn’t work at all. The enemy is routed, and the princess, encouraged by her knight, gains the confidence needed to become the queen her people need.

We’ll get into character development a bit later. First, I want to nerd out about the mecha. The anime doesn’t say their name, but the Kusperchan mecha is called Resvant Vido. Though the core Resvant isn’t all that altered, they have a few new features that make them ideal for protecting a castle. They have a huge, barrel-like skirt around them that acts like Chobham armor. Because this skirt makes them mostly immobile for combat purposes, so they have a vast amount of energy reserves. They use this by having a total of six arms, each with a magic rod. Put a few of those out there on the walls and you have a rain of death that will make your enemies think twice. We also see a fewof the the flexible cloak’s capabilities in Edgar’s hands. The side panels of the shield can be fired off as emergency short range weapons, which makes for great distractions. Edgar fights against Lady Kerhilt, the woman who stole Helvi’s mech earlier in the series. Her new mech not only features the same back weapons as everyone else, but has a third back weapon of a huge blade in the center. It is used much like a scorpion tail. Given that her mech is really fast, this tail comes in handy for catching an opponent flatfooted.

This episode finally brings back good use of the Silhouette Gears and the weapons tech that Ernie developed for them. In the books, there are a wide variety of the Gears. In the anime, they don’t focus as much on that. Here, they are supposed to be using the new Shadow Lad series, which is geared for stealth. But, it looks identical to Ernie’s Motor Rad unit. We are also teased about the construction of a new kind of weapon for use against high-altitude targets, but don’t get to see it yet.

Our Take

Though this episode had relatively little in the way of straight action, it was loaded with plot, a little bit of character development, and activity. I say that because there was only one real fight. The Ikaruga swatting Tyrants while crawling all over the airship doesn’t count as a fight. Still, a lot happens, and the entire war takes a sudden shift in direction. What really interested me in this episode was the evolution of the Princess Eleonora. Last episode, she was a whiny little crybaby who was too scared to do anything. When we see her here, she’s depressed and filled with doubt. She blames herself for all the death in the war, as people are out there fighting for her. Oh, and she was about to get married off to her father’s killer, so there’s that.

Everyone bands together to think about what to do to cheer her up. Ernesti’s suggestion was funny, but not wrong. He goes to say that if she were a Silhouette Knight, he’d listen to her engine noise to figure out the problem. She really needed two things. One, someone to listen to her instead of just pressuring her into being queen. Two, she needed to get rid of the pressure on her so she could just work through her problems. Once that happens, her evolution is complete. Though it happens a bit quickly, this is good character growth, and not just for her. Kid has always been the “other one”. While Addy is all over Ernie and demands his attention, Kid has always been a bit of a third wheel. Now, he’s got the attention of a queen, and has the confidence and strength to bolster hers. It isn’t a sudden transformation, but more of a gentle revealing through the circumstances. This also looks like it may blossom into a bit more. Oh, and about Addy? Her suggestion that someone should just jump into her bed with her and snuggle is actually a reference to the books, where, night of the infiltration by the Bronze Fangs, Addy forces her way into Ernie’s bed to snuggle. Man, that girl’s got snuggle on the brain!

When we get to the technicals of the episode, however, it looks as if the show has reached a plateau. The animation and voice acting are good, and the CG of the mecha battles is smooth. However, the show hasn’t made any effort to get stronger or to wow you at any points. The story doesn’t often lend to emotional moments (it is a very shonen show, you know) so the voice actors don’t have much room to really burst out their best work. Also, the action sequences are often moving so fast or chaotically, it can sometimes be hard to make out what is going on in any fine detail.