English Dub Review: Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World “Beginning: The Witch Hunt”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sisbell introduces herself to Iska, who’d tackled her when she broke into her room. He recognizes her as the witch he freed from prison. She’s surprised he remembers that.

Back in the Sovereignty, Rin and Alice read about Iska’s imprisonment. Rin explains that the worst case scenario is that Sisbell suspects Alice is connected to the Empire.

Sisbell offers Iska a bejeweled bracelet as thanks for freeing her a year ago. Iska declines, saying he didn’t do it expecting a reward. Sisbell offers instead to help him restore his honor and status, and asks him to accompany her to the Sovereignty. He asks her what role she plays there. She says she lives in the palace, and can’t trust anybody. She leaves, saying she’ll return for his answer.

Rin offers a plan to the Queen. She explains Alice and Sisbell should be reunited so that Sisbell might confide in her sister.

The Imperial Senate discusses Sisbell’s presence in the independent nation. They decide to deploy “The Object”.

While a Witch Hunt has been kicked off by their superiors, the members of Unit N07 are enjoying their vacation. Except for Iska, who’s too distracted.

Meanwhile, Elletear meets with Lord Mask. She says she believes her sisters will betray the Sovereignty, but fears she’ll be unable to stop them due to her feelings. Lord Mask assures her he’ll handle it.

Alice travels by bus to meet with Sisbell, but her trip is interrupted unexpectedly.

Iska has his unit change hotels, worried that Sisbell might visit him again. Nene adjusts Mismis’s bandage, reminding the captain that they still have to figure out a way to hid her crest. Jhin tells everyone to relax, but mentions they can head to the market to buy a Sovereignty-crafted way to hide her crest.

Sisbell appears once again. She explains that she tracked Iska down using her astral power, and that she’s actually a member of the Nebulis family. Iska is shocked to learn she’s Alice’s sister.

She explains that there’s a plot to kill the Queen, and plunge both nations into war. She begs him to come serve as her protection, pleading with him to change the future.

Masked Lord confronts Sisbell and Iska, saying he’ll be taking her in for treason. Sisbell flees, but is stopped by The Object.

Our take:

After dealing with a real life Ice Calamity in Texas, it’s nice to have power back to check in with this series. This is the penultimate episode for this season, and I had a lot of questions in mind before watching it.

The first and most pressing question of course is: what’s the deal with Salinger?

As the most compelling villain, I was hoping he’d get more screentime, but unfortunately he didn’t reappear this episode.

Instead, there was minimal political conniving from the Zoa family, and The Object, a sort of…golem? Or Witch Hunting machine of some sort that “can’t be traced back” to the Empire but is so clearly their doing.

I’m a little confused as to Sisbell’s whole deal. She’s supposedly trying to prevent a war…which is already what’s happening? I guess I understand wanting to prevent the conflict from escalating, but it seems like an odd choice to focus on preventing a war that’s already occurring.

Additionally, it’s unclear where her sympathies lie. She was captured by the Empire, and clearly believes they’ve tortured witches in the past, but trusts Iska over her family at the palace. Maybe this is just poor communication, but combined with her sister’s odd interactions with Queen Nebulis, maybe there’s something more going on there?

It’s still fairly muddled as to what’s going on with the Election (do, uh, monarchies elect their rulers in this world?) as it seems like Elletear is the only one with political aspirations, while Alice is clearly the strongest sister. Since there’s not a ton of focus on Sovereign politics, aside from one-off remarks, there seems to be some chance that the Zoa family could also somehow seize power, but…why? Don’t they already have their area to rule over and the luxuries of being nobility?

From a visual perspective, this episode was solidly average. Since most of the focus was on conversations, it makes sense that fluid movement wouldn’t be a high priority in the animation, but things like Sisbell’s hair being completely stiff while she walks through the gorgeously rendered city feel like a slight step down from the quality of previous episodes.

Overall, I’m enjoying this series far more than I first expected. But I can’t ignore the fact that its overall message of moving towards peace guided by love is muddied by unclear political goals and vague references to past discrimination from both sides that remains fairly unconfirmed.

The motives of everyone besides Iska and Alice remain wildly unclear at this point. While there’s certainly a chance things could get wrapped up during the upcoming season finale, I get the feeling that most answers will have to wait until season 2…or even later.