Snow White with the Red Hair

Episode 12

Before I get into the episode, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge two of Snow White with the Red Hair's background characters – the two guards Shirayuki interacts with roughly once an episode. Whether they're sort of bumbling their words, blushing fiendishly, or looking vaguely foolish, they steal every scene they're in. Guards A and B, you're kind of my favorite characters. (Who aren't Shirayuki, Zen, and Obi, of course.)

Now, on to business. This week's episode, the last of the first half of the show, has a difficult job. It has to keep us interested in the show after we've already had the Big Romantic Moment as well as make us want to keep watching when January rolls around. Some viewers may find themselves satisfied with Zen and Shirayuki's avowals of love last week - “happily ever after” is, for some people, better imagined than seen. So it is the task of episode twelve to make sure that all of us aren't content with knowing that they appear dedicated to living happily ever after; we need to want to see it.

So...maybe a festival when everyone gets to visit part of the castle wasn't the way to go. While this episode is still plenty wonderful and has some excellent moments, the whole set up feels like Snow White with the Red Hair's version of a school festival episode, with a lot of walking around and taking in the different sights before a big finale involving fire. In this case it's the release of floating lanterns, and for my own sanity, I'm hoping I'm not the only one who started humming the song from Tangled at that point. There's even the equivalent of a school play, and frankly the whole set up feels like a bit of a come down from the heights of the two episodes which preceded it.

On the other hand, it does provide Zen with the perfect opportunity to escape and spend the day with Shirayuki. (And his peeved bodyguards. Did he really think he could evade them for very long?) And there are some very nice moments, such as when Shirayuki has to fill in for the lead actress in the aforementioned play and Zen suffers a mad fit of jealousy. (Jealousy is so much more adorable in fiction, isn't it?) Both amusingly and worryingly, it's a reaction that Obi seems inclined to provoke in his prince, as he presents Shirayuki with a hair clip he won in a martial arts tournament with instructions to be sure to show it to Zen. It seems like a deliberately provocative move on his part, perhaps designed to remind Zen that if he ever drops the ball, Shirayuki won't lack for suitors. Whatever the reason, it was a bold and very Obi move, although I doubt that he would do anything more direct.

Also of note is when Zen and Shirayuki are alone towards the end of the episode, just before the lanterns fly. Last week we saw Zen lay his sword at Shirayuki's feet in a vow of fealty, swearing his life and his protection to her. This week Shirayuki kneels down and kisses the back of Zen's hand, making a similar vow of loyalty, pledging her devotion to him. It's a nice reciprocal gesture, and it solidifies that their feelings are mutual while also placing them on more equal footing within the relationship – she will do for him what he has vowed to do for her, gender and social status notwithstanding. If Izana thinks he's going to get between them, he may have another thing coming.

“And they lived happily ever after” can mean a variety of things. Usually we take it to mean that the characters just go off, get married, and live in bliss for the rest of their lives. But it can also mean that they kept living, going through ups and downs but being generally happy because they are together. It may not be interesting to see people just sitting around being happy, but watching the latter, people working continually to maintain their happiness, is another story.

And luckily for us, it's one that will be told in January 2016.

Rating: B

Snow White with the Red Hair is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.