Nishi no Yoki Majo Episode 4 - The Garden’s Darkness
Mild spoilers and a very long summary follows.
Roux (or “Runette”, as Marie dubs him) is not exactly welcomed by Firiel, who protests that she’s doing fine by herself; Marie and Roux are hardly convinced by her protestations given that they just saw her about to storm out of Taurus. Roux, meanwhile, gets dragged into a cosy confrontation with the Student Council trio, but freaks them out by telling them he will have nothing to do with them as long as they don’t hurt Firiel.
Firiel’s nerves are frayed by the constant tension and ostracism from the rest of the school, especially given Rosalite’s murder the previous day; however, that night, Roux comes to visit and play chess with her. Unsurprisingly, because chess is ALWAYS a metaphor, Roux explains to Firiel that she and everyone else is just a pawn in a game of chess for the nobles to determine what happens in Graal. And with that, Roux checkmates Firiel (which, personally, I think is a bit unfair; since Roux hadn’t played chess before Eusis taught him, why on Earth would Firiel have a chance of beating him considering that she’s even more of a country bumpkin than Roux is? Anyway, this has nothing to do with anything.) Also, all Roux wants is to get back to the observatory and instigate the Ephemeris some more, to Firiel’s mild annoyance.
After a particularly dull lesson with Sister Naomi, “Vincent” draws Firiel aside and takes her to a room like a dance studio - mirrors and bars and all that. There, she tells Firiel to look in the mirror and notice something; Firiel, being modest as ever, points out how pretty Vincent is, whereas Vincent wants her to notice her own charms. Vincent suggests that in courtly politics, charm is as much of a weapon as anything, and that women are the real power behind whether the kingdom is successful or not. Ralia brings Firiel a sword, with which Vincent wants Firiel to train until she’s good enough to beat Ravenna in a fencing fight to cause the corrupt Student Council to crumble so Taurus can be freed from its tyranny. Hurray for cod-Utena plotlines! (genuinely!)
Meanwhile, Roux gets a letter from someone mysterious who has apparently been spying on him in the library and knows his secret; Firiel tries to work out who the “L” that signed it is, and enlists Marie to help out by spying further in the library; however, she gets dragged off to see Vincent, leaving Roux alone to be cornered by Sister Rein, who knows far too much about the Ephemeris and the Hermes Trismegistus and is also hiding a secret from the rest of Taurus…
While reminiscing about Rosalite’s death and waiting for Vincent to turn up, Firiel accidentally almost brains herself on some boards; she is rescued by Igraine, who is to tutor her in swordfighting; Igraine is the same girl who was so shocked at Rosalite’s death in the previous episode, and will not forgive Ravenna for killing her; turns out she was in love with her, for which Ravenna mocks her. As a result Firiel pledges her support, and trains harder and harder (with a cheesy fangirl tea break in the middle!) as “Sister Rein” watches…
That night, Firiel finds a chess piece lying in her room; she finds Roux in the midst of a nightmare about his torture, and learns about his scars for the first time. As she weeps for his pain, Roux says he cannot rest until he kills the people who did this to him, but that it’s got nothing to do with Firiel; Firiel rightly tells him that it’s a load of rubbish, but Roux tells her to let go because she’s too careless before pulling her in; he tells her that now he feels inferior to her, before kissing her (in a spotlight!)
Ah, the cheese. So much glorious het-tastic cheese! Also swordfighting (animation! Animation for prolonged periods of time!), chess and EVIL NUNS! Nuns are brilliant in ANY form.
I’m not sure how much else there is to say at this point. As virtually every scene follows Firiel, it’s difficult to talk about the overarching plotline as she’s got no awareness of what’s really going on with the Ephemeris, the Midday Star or the power struggle over Graal. I’m pretty sure that the evil nun is going to turn out to be Leandra, because it sounds a lot like Rie Tanaka’s usual ohoho-I’m-so-evil voice and her name begins with an L, although where she’s keeping her enormous breasts I don’t know (maybe she detaches them and hides them in her wimple? Wimples must be awfully useful for hiding things in, don’t you think?).
I am, of course, massively pleased with fencing!Firiel. Thankfully she’s pretty good at it outright, rather than having to face endless episodes of her training, but I’m all for capable heroines fending for themselves. The big show down between her and Ravenna should be a lot of fun to watch, especially if the sword-fighting animation is as good as it was in this episode.
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