[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Episode 6 -- "To a Beautiful Flower"

This is Manami Kawasaki, who will probably be pretty important to this story, judging by that introduction. She's meeting with one Mr. Kouichi Yamagata, a fairly timid looking dude who's one huge bundle of nerves on this date, as though he himself can't believe his luck. It seems quite a few people are meeting someone nice, as a matter of fact. Wajima's got someone he's so head over heels for he's planning to give her a newly made magic ring as a present, despite Koyomi's protests. Shunpei is gleefully pursuing the aforementioned sudden interest in foreign languages at the recommendation of a woman who was even kind enough to sell him a ton of crash course educational books on the subject... even though Koyomi immediately sees something off about that. Heck, even the donut shop employee has fallen in love, which has Haruto musing that he wouldn't mind meeting someone new himself.

Somehow, it's only Manami who manages to easily attract various males, but other pretty actresses like Koyomi or Rinko didn't do the same, though it's probably also Manami directly interacting with people to ask them out that charms them, not merely her looks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Speaking of Haruto, he gets looped into the plot in a particularly fun fashion. The familiars are built into the series in large part as a way to take shortcuts with that part of a script, but Koumura rises above the temptation here. Instead, a civilian fleeing from Gnome bumps into Haruto, crushing his latest bag of donuts before he gets a chance to take a bite. It's a nicely comedic scene for the guy on a few levels. The situation itself is pretty amusing, with Haruto basically retreating to the comfort of junk food to distract himself from how lonely and/or bored he's feeling, and his actual reaction is priceless. There's such excessively raw anguish in his voice and on his face, like no tragedy in the world could ever be greater than that of a donut going to waste. It's hilarious in the moment, but it also helps build Haruto into a more rounded character. There have been scenes that break his cool guy image for comedic value since the premiere, but I feel this one demonstrates how he can downright excel in that kind of scenario in a way that hasn't been as obvious up to this point.

At least the donuts are still inside the pack, so it can still be eaten technically, just that it's flatter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

After entrusting Unicorn with the task of tracking down Gnome, Haruto turns his attention back to Manami and Yamagata, as they all head to Yamagata's lavish estate to discuss what's going on. This is another occasion where, even though the show definitely doesn't expect the viewer to be surprised, the narrative technically keeps it ambiguous who the Gate is, since Haruto himself is initially uncertain. It's mostly a scene to get the plot moving, highlighting Yamagata's wealth, establishing Manami's discomfort with the police as Haruto brings in Rinko to help, and splitting the group into pairs as Manami insists on heading back out, with Haruto coming along as Rinko stays behind with Yamagata. That being said, Koumura's dialogue keeps it from actively feeling mechanical, making room for a bit of banter between Haruto and Rinko, and also going all in on embarrassing Haruto for comedy when it turns out he's not even *slightly* above falling for Manami's charms.

As seemingly a pretty woman asks out Shigeru, which seems too good to be true, I thought Yamagata was nothing, like a nerdy loser or such, but turns out he's rich here. Manami being uncomfortable with cops is the start of her being suspicious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He probably thinks he's still playing it cool in his head, but Haruto treats walking along with Manami less like he's there as a bodyguard and more like he just landed a date, even bragging about his awesome wizard powers when asked. To be fair to Haruto, Manami is clearly actively encouraging all this... right up until Haruto mentions he can't use magic to make money, at which point Manami deliberately drops a scarf on the ground so she can slip away while Haruto picks it back up. This is around the point where the meaning of the episode title becomes clear.

The scarf thing is brought up again by Komura in Gavv ep. 17-18, this time, the woman is actually the MOTW in disguise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It doesn't really come across in translation, but the title of this one is the sort where the viewer is meant to finish a phrase in light of the full context of the narrative. In this case, a Japanese equivalent to the idiom "every rose has its thorn". In contrast to her outward beauty, it turns out Manami is a con artist who has been leading several men along in order to turn a profit. This of course includes Yamagata, who has been tricked into buying a mountain of presumably sketchy health products. On top of being a dramatic twist, this revelation also leads to the big punchline of the whole episode, as it turns out, naturally, that *everyone* who met a nice woman lately actually just met Manami, as her schemes start to crumble around her.

Dunno if this is intentional for the show, but it can seem that Manami is a MOTW Phantom by this, in how it'd be a sound method to drive someone to despair, by thinking that a pretty woman asks them out, only to turn out that it was all fake, which can drain someone's hope. Otherwise, seems con artist tactics are more effective if it's done not in person, but in for example, phone numbers where they can just discard them after their use against one person is done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The natural greens get traded in for a cold industrial vibe, accented beautifully by the "natural" light shining in from the implied hole above in the form of a spotlight on the star of this performance. Interestingly, the way the show chooses to portray the Land-ness of Land Style in the fight here is not through any magic it uses, but instead in the fact that it's tough enough to let Wizard take on all these Ghouls with nothing but his bare hands. Which he could do in any form if he wanted, but the way it's shot, especially with the liberal use of slow-motion, sells what the scene is going for. It's extremely forceful, and also more steady than normal, without coming off sluggish.

I'd think magic use would make the fight cooler, albeit it makes sense to have Land being a mighty glacier, stat-wise. Wonder if other forms may get this treatment too, about the difference of their stats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

What I think this plot really accomplishes for the overall series, and why I'm glad it comes this early, is that Manami lets the show make Haruto's style of heroism that much more defined. I like that he still wants to save her, of course, but that's the obvious part. What I think is more specific to what draws me to Wizard is that saving Manami is the only thing Haruto wants in this moment. I love how small the stakes seem, and what that says about how big they actually are. Wizard isn't fighting to save the world, or the city, or the school, or some crowd of people being terrorized -- he's putting everything on the line to save just a single person. In this case, a person who might not be considered "worth" saving, which is the key thing that highlights the beauty of that. There's a nobility to Haruto as Wizard that stands out to me even in a franchise full of noble heroes. The raw visual, as usual, sells this as much as the dialogue. One hand gripping a blade to strike at evil, the other hand placed reassuringly on the shoulder of those who evil would dare harm -- it's like my primordial notion of a hero, embodied by this one character.

I still don't understand here about the claim of Haruto being a standout compared to other noble heroes here, as yes, they'd save unlikable people too, to some people's dismay like them not giving the deserving fate to horrible villains. This isn't something I'd support, but likely people'd not hold it against Haruto or other similar kind of noble heroes if they leave Manami to die, because there's nothing wrong to have a baddie being killed, just like detonating MOTW, so that they won't harm anyone again.