The first half of this week chronicle’s Chariot du Nord’s rise and fall from stardom, undone by a fickle public, the constant need to create bigger, flashier magic, and her school rival Croix still having a score to settle.
Such is Croix’s spite for the Claimh Solis choosing Chariot over her, she decides to exploit Chariot’s desire to make ever larger crowds happy by giving her the Dream Fuel Spirit…without mentioning the costs until after she’s already used it.
Of course, Croix has rhetorical cover: Chariot did essentially ask her old classmate for more power, and didn’t ask any questions, so none were answered.
One night, desperate to be relevant, Chariot uses the Shiny Rod and inadvertently scars the moon, and that’s pretty much it for Chariot.
Back in the present, Akko is still missing, and it feels like the longest we haven’t seen her in the entire run of the show. Something’s up, and Akko’s friends—Diana chief among them—want to do something about it. They all go looking for her, and when Diana doesn’t get the answers or action from Ursula, nay, Chariot, she finds Akko on her own.
It had been an 8 episode up to the point Diana sprang into action, and that’s when we enter more of a 10 territory (my rating splits the difference). Not only has Diana come to consider Akko a dear friend, but she manages to cheer that friend up and get her out of her funk.
It’s the first time Diana admits to Akko that she too was a Chariot superfan; that her momentary loss of magic was due to seeing that show, but she then worked hard to regain her magic, and even though her family thought she was being silly and childish, she never completely gave up on the dream to be like Chariot…which is why she initially resented Akko so much.
This is Diana at her most dimensional and likable: when she of all people has to lift the spirits of who had been until last week, almost criminally high-spirited proportional to her actual magical progress. Brass tacks: Diana tells Akko no one’s magic is stronger than hers, and she believes in her believing heart.
With that, Akko is reinvigorated, and her friends file into the store to express their relief she’s okay. I have a feeling all of them may have to be at their best for the upcoming trials, as Croix is nearing completion of her Noir Fuel Spirit-driven World Reconstruction Magic.
As powerful as we know Chariot to be, it’s not unrealistic to assume Croix’s confidence is at least somewhat based in her empirical research of Chariot herself, and knows for a fact she’s no threat. Of course, that may only be Chariot as she is now, still known to most as Ursula, drowning in regret and self-loathing.
If Chariot could be lifted out of that mire, like Diana & Co. did for Akko, perhaps then Croix will have something to worry about (here’s hoping!). This turned out to be a lovely episode. It’s so good to see Diana shine, and it was also fascinating to see Akko legitimately down for once.
All that’s really left is to find out if and how Croix is foiled, and whether that takes the remaining two episodes, or will be wrapped up next week. Leaving the final outing for epilogue.
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