Reign of the Seven Spellblades – 07 – For Pete’s Sake

It’s been four months since Professor Grenville disappeared in the Labyrinth. Headmistress Esmeralda gathers the faculty to ask if any of them are responsible. They aren’t, but they consider who might be. When asked what happens if it’s a student, Esme simply says they’ll suffer like any other culprit.

It’s clear Oliver is biding his time after finding the perfect opportunity to off one of the individuals on his list who betrayed and murdered his mother, so the show presents us with something entirely different and unexpected: One morning, after a dream where he transforms into a woman, Pete wakes up with breasts.

He—or rather they—keep it a secret both from their dorm-mate Oliver and from the rest of their friends, who pass it off as prickly Pete being particularly standoffish that day. The group has their first broom-riding class, and Nanao is worried that it won’t go well since she’s used to riding a horse.

Upon given access to the broomhouse, she learns that brooms are living magical creatures who choose their partners and allow them to fly with them. While Nanao proves quite popular with the friendly brooms due to her massive amount of mana, she ends up choosing a “bucking” broom, embracing the challenge as she did her trusty steed.

After speaking a few words declaring her intent to pair with it, the broom flies up into the air, and then straight into her hand. After a brief red glow, she and the broom are matched, and she flies into the sky for the first time. It is one of the most joyful moments of the show, and I loved watching Nanao as much as her proud friends. Also, that wild broom’s last rider? Oliver’s mom.

I should also mention that during broom class Chela encountered her cousin from a branch family, Stacey Cornwallis, but Stace brushes her off. Later at lunch, Chela’s father Theodore pops in and gives her a big hug. It’s nice to see Chela off balance for once! She and the others learn that Theo is their new substitute alchemy teacher in missing Grenville’s stead.

After alchemy, we sit in on the group’s first magical engineering class with Professor Forghieri, one of the people on Oliver’s list. He runs an unyielding class, which includes throwing them into the task of diffusing four magical trap boxes in 60 minutes or suffering whatever they contain. Oliver and Chela manage to diffuse three of the four, but the fourth opens to reveal vicious flying snake/eel creatures.

Pete, who has been suffering bouts of pain throughout the day, is right next to the box, but Oliver shields them, getting bit in the process. Also, Guy does a thing! Having grown up on a farm and being well-versed in these creatures, he douses himself in water and casts lightning on himself to knock them out.

After this ordeal, Oliver, who is aware that they’ve changed, requests a private chat with Pete in the conservatory. Pete confirms that they now possess a female anatomy, and Oliver tells them it’s because they’re a Reversi, someone who can switch back and forth between sexes.

From the get-go, Oliver takes care to describe this as an extremely rare gift, not a curse. He demonstrates how by telling Pete to cast a lightning spell, and to their shock (pun intended) they’re much better at that element as a woman than they were as a man.

The two are interrupted by Chris Whitlow, who tells Pete that Oliver told them everything he wanted to say, showing Oliver’s quality as a friend and a person. Chris offers Pete an invite for a gathering that night.

Pete is escorted to the first-level of the labyrinth by Oliver, as well as President Godfrey, who takes the opportunity to apologize for the incidents they’ve gotten caught up in. He’s been working hard to make Kimberly a safer place, but worries he hasn’t made enough headway. Oliver internally praises Godfrey as one of the good ones.

This is borne out when Godfrey grants them access to the gathering, which is full of students with sex-based magical traits such as Pete. In other words, this is this magical world’s version of the LGBTQ community. Three upperclassmen soon approach Pete and Oliver, whose stiff formality evokes laughter. They tell both Pete and Oliver that there’s no need to worry, they’re all friends here.

That’s when attention is directed to the stage, where Chris begins to sing in a gorgeous enchanted voice while Oliver’s brother Gwyn accompanies on the violin. Oliver notes that there’s no charm ability in Chris’ song, but it’s something simpler and more pure. And that’s what this part of the episode felt: simply pure, and beautiful.

Yes, Pete went through a sudden and immense change, but they’re not alone. Both Oliver and the many others like Pete are there to provide affirmation, support, friendship, and love. I especially appreciate Oliver being empathetic and kind even after he dropped his mask to kill Grenville. He’s a complex dude!

Pete and Oliver meet up with the others after the performance, and make up a white lie about magical training. I’m sure, when the time is right, Pete will tell the others (no doubt to prevent Guy from grabbing them as if they were still a dude). Even the reveal at the end of some sneering dude not happy about these friends being all buddy-buddy can ruin the lovely vibes of this episode. And like Oliver last week, Pete is suddenly much more interesting!

Kaguya-sama: Love is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends – 04 (Fin) – Ordinary Things

Chika’s Christmas party at her house is appropriately bizarre in the decor, costumes, and rituals, though she and her sister Moeha do their best to explain how it came to be so. Yuu and Miko attend Tsubame’s party, while Nagisa and Tsubasa prepare for a cozy, intimate night together. But Miyuki’s patience for Fujiwara strangeness is vanishing fast. He wants to clear the air with Kaguya ASAP, but is bereft of openings.

When the time for drawing lots for gift exchange takes place, Miyuki curses himself for buying his gift, a boring handkerchief, at the last minute, and hopes dearly that the gift he gets from Moeha (who rigged the gave so this was the case) is weird. It turns out to be handcuffs, and he’s overjoyed, even as Kei and Chika scold Moeha. Eventually, the Fujiwara sisters and Kei nod off, and it’s clear Miyuki wasn’t the only one waiting for an opportunity.

In Chika’s yard, Kaguya presents Miyuki with a gift she brought just for him; she tells him to open it when he gets home, and we never actually get to see what it is, only that we know Kaguya is good at giving gifts. Miyuki admits he has a gift for her too, but before Kaguya can take it, he pulls it back, saying it’s a no good last-minute present.

When Kaguya insists, he tricks her and bolts, but having already proven her athleticism, she’s soon hot on his trail. She can’t afford to let the President get away, for she believes that within that box is the weak side of Shirogane Miyuki she’s been longing to see.

They come to a stop in an unlit, nondescript park, panting from their exertion. Kaguya accuses Miyuki of not wanting to show her his weak side because he hates “harsh women with horrible personalities” like her. She revealed her true self—warts and all—because she didn’t want to keep secrets from the person she loves. Sharing their weak sides will help them understand each other better and bring them closer.

But Kaguya is mistaken: it isn’t that Miyuki hates her. It’s that he believes, and his upbringing informs this, that you can’t show weakness to the one you love, or that person may become disillusioned or find you unacceptable.

He also calls into question Kaguya’s characterization of herself. While he initially thought she looked down on people, as he watched her he realized she was intentionally isolating herself to avoid hurting others, which he found sweet. He never thought her “weak side” was weak at all.

But as he goes on about how hard he has to work to look cool, unlike her, Kaguya loses patience and once again tries to grab her Christmas present from him. She manages to tear the paper away, and the gift within is a finely-made wooden cup-and-ball.

While Kaguya is initially bemused, Miyuki’s flustered answer for why he got her a cup-and-ball moves her to laughter, which is so beautiful to hear it doesn’t come off as mocking, only mirthful. She also asks him if she looks “disillusioned” like he’d feared.

With the gift revealed, and with it a piece of Miyuki’s weak side, he and Kaguya sit on a park bench together. He laments how plain and unromantic the setting is for Christmas Eve, but Kaguya tells him this is what she wants. Lights and balloons are lovely, but to her, ordinary things are plenty romantic.

She scootches closer, asks Miyuki what a couple would do at a time like this, and Miyuki draws her into a second kiss—one with no tongue at all—and yet still makes both their hearts race like crazy all the same.

A monologue from Kaguya follows, in which she vows not to hide who she is, and asking Miyuki to show her all that he is, and she’ll accept it. To not have anything to hide is romantic. To be an ordinary girl doing ordinary things with her ordinary boyfriend, that’s the pinnacle for Shinomiya Kaguya.

After their kiss, the two blush and hold hands, and discuss things a little further. Kaguya would rather Miyuki not overdo it in his efforts to be his best self, but also recognizes that if the two of them hadn’t aimed so high, they wouldn’t have found one another like they have now.

With the understanding that they may have to keep aiming high and working hard, she offers the following: that they’ll take the occasional break together; be there for each other when one of them is about to collapse; hold their cold hands together until they become warm. Then Miyuki asks if Kaguya is fine having a guy like him, and she says, flat out, yes.

Their beautiful ordinary romantic moment is interrupted by a call from Chika calling them back to the party, but on their way back Kaguya notices that the cloth in the cup-and-ball box is of very high quality, and realizes it’s the perfect size and shape to tie her hair up. She does so, and Miyuki tells her she looks cute.

Before parting that night, Kaguya asks Miyuki to spare a day on his winter break for her so they can have a date. When they meet up, she’s shocked he’s out of uniform, as she’d worn hers so they could match.

No matter; they head out hand-in-hand, see a movie holding hands, share a drink with a lover’s straw, and even get all close and cozy behind some vending machines when they spot friends, no doubt wanting to keep this day for them and only them.

Though her exchange with a fortune teller (and Miyuki’s dad), we learn that things escalated quickly for Tsubame and Yuu, with them even ending up in bed together, but it didn’t seem to work out too hot. While it would have been nice to see things unfold, the bottom line is this is a Kaguya and Miyuki story, so I’m glad it didn’t stray from that.

When the coast is clear, Miyuki takes Kaguya’s hand and they run to safety, out to a gorgeous sunset that’s all too ideal for the confession Kaguya’s been waiting to deliver. She takes his hands, says she’s in love with him, and asks him to be her boyfriend.

Miyuki responds with a simple “Fine,” but only after an interminable, torturous pause during which the narrator waxes poetic about the trials and tribulations of love, and how it is only blissful until it is attained, and then all downhill from there.

But he amends that tack by admitting that a true, deep, lasting love may be attainable, assuming both parties use their minds and keep thinking about each other, and keep striving to understand one another. If any two people in the world can achieve true love, it’s Kaguya and Miyuki.

It’s a beautiful sentiment, and ending things with Kaguya laying another big ol’ smootch on her new boyfriend made for a perfect ending, cementing Kaguya-sama: Love is War as my all-time favorite anime romance.

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