The Asterisk War

Episode 16

On the upside, episode 16 finishes Ayato and Julis' battle in satisfying fashion and finally puts Saya and Kirin back into action. On the downside, the harem antics are back (even if only briefly) and the Most Annoying Voice in All of Anime (aka Flora) is, too. But does the end of the episode indicate that she may not be around long? If it does then I won't be sorry to see her go. At the very least I hope whoever kidnapped her as the end credits roll knocks her unconscious or tapes her mouth shut so we don't have to be subjected to that voice anymore.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. The first half of the episode focuses on the resolution of Ayato and Julis's battle, which basically involves Julis stalling for time while Ayato concentrates on getting through what turns out to be just the first of multiple stages to his seal. Julis's delaying tactics are successful to a point, and in typical villainous fashion the twins are so intent on being sadistic, rather than just winning, that they let their opportunity to win pass by. (Seriously, don't villains watch movies and TV shows, too, and have learned from them that such behavior is the downfall of innumerable villains?) Ayato returns with his power limit now upped to an hour, and that combined with his fighting techniques spells bad news for the twins. He handily finishes off both of them, though the punch which tumbles one across the arena and knocks her out wasn't quite as satisfying as it could have been because the twins were so one-note and over-the-top in their hatefulness – in other words, disposable. (But hey, at least we got some good facial expressions out of that!) We could maybe quibble a bit over Ayato alone getting to land the final blows, but I don't think anyone can protest that Julis didn't fully pull her weight in this fight.

Claudia finally shows up in the interlude between matches, but that roughly 2½ minute interlude between matches (and boy, I'd like to mostly forget it) is really only significant for the director guy revealing that he's apparently aware of Haruka, Ayato's sister, which would definitely explain the meaningful look he gave Ayato back at the opening ceremony. The rest of the episode is about Kirin and Saya, and frankly, they're the most interesting duo right now. This is the first time in a while that they have been featured, and they make such a great team. Some more details about Saya's father come out and there is another meeting with the Arlequint girls behind the robot-surrogates, but I thought the key part of their pre-battle scene was Saya's denial that she was wishing for victory on a good luck charm (i.e., one of those tickets that Ayato and Saya used to compete for which could make one of them do something for the other). “Today's victory is something that you and I are going to achieve on our own,” she tells Kirin, and while that may seem like typical shonen action boasting, it comes across as more sincere here; perhaps her deadpan delivery, as opposed to the hyped-up way a line like that is normally delivered, gets the credit for that? They then go on to shine in the first part of their semifinal bout against Arlequint, where they quickly show that they shouldn't be underestimated even against the seemingly-unbeatable surrogates. (How do you defeat an opponent who can predict your moves via calculations? Use a fighting style focused on giving off false “tells.” Although honestly, how strategically wise was it for Kirin to reveal that choice secret before the fight was over?)

Long story short: the fights don't ascend above common anime action clichés, which also include the unreasonably-long pauses in the midst of matches while characters talk. They do, however, offer a fair amount of movement and some interesting use of camera angles, and boy, does Saya look sharp in her new battle gear! The camera also seems to be emphasizing fan service-oriented angles and perspectives a little more, even though it does pass on a “Julis's uniform gets ripped up to the point of exposing her” golden opportunity.

So what was with kidnapping Flora at the very end? Based on the end of last episode, likely that turd from Le Wolfe sent out one of his invisible flunkies to do it, but I'm not clear on what he hoped to accomplish by it. Guess we'll have to wait and see on that.

Rating: B

The Asterisk War is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.