Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「正直者の国」 (Shoujiki Mono no Kuni)
“The Land of Truth Tellers”
This was one of the episodes that reminded me of Kino’s Journey. Namely the way it starkly contrasts the episode when Kino visited the country of liars. A country without liars sounds good on paper. But as we come to find out, not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Unable to lie, the citizens either avoid speaking altogether or seek to game the system by coming up with new ways of lying to one another. So the king’s desire to banish lies fails to solve the underlying problem and makes the situation within his country worse. Not to mention he’s an asshole for readily discarding his court witch like she was a broken tool, once he discovered she’d lost her magic for his sake.
Fortunately this is where Elaina becomes involved. Although she’s pleased to discover the objective truth that she is indeed a beautiful witch, after discovering the plight of Eihamia – this land’s Court Witch who got thrown out for losing her voice and magic, she takes matters into her own hands to destroy the royal sword which is the source of the lie prevention magic. All’s well and good that she helps out her fellow witch.
But you know what troubles me? That she’s capable of going the extra mile to potentially offend a king and risk facing his armed entourage. Yet she won’t try to help siblings entrapped by a parasitical flower field, or save a sexually abused slave girl from her cruel master. Previously it had been easy to give her the benefit of the doubt, that she simply wouldn’t stick her nose in situations which put her life at risk. Or offending the sensibilities of others (the slave master) in complex situations.
Perhaps it’s a sign of her character development. That over the course of her travels, she’s gone from cold observer to intervening when values of good or morality are at stake. I certainly hope this is the case, though it remains to be seen in future episodes whether this is true. Nevertheless, she did the right thing this week and that alone is worthy of praise.
Finally, I didn’t expect Saya to re-appear so soon. Following her previous errors in judgement, Saya worked really hard to become fully fledged and accomplished – earning the moniker of Charcoal Witch. Her open adoration of Elaina was equal parts wholesome and heartwarming and unapologetically gay. And the best thing about it? We know there are absolutely no lies in her open display of love, because of the truth telling magic. Perhaps C2C are adapting in chronological order straight from the novels, but I thought it was quite early to have her return. Although a lot of time has passed within the setting, it certainly doesn’t feel that way and I wish the series better connoted this passage of time. Or simply featured Saya again further down the line.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. I’ve heard that we could be in for a real treat next episode, specifically that it will likely be one of the best episodes we’ll be getting from this adaptation. So look forwards to that! As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!
Could do without the gay witch showing up
https://randomc.net/image/Majo%20no%20Tabitabi/Majo%20no%20Tabitabi%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
I’m surprised there isn’t more Fran, since she is voiced by Kana Hanazawa.
I think it’s pretty obvious that half the reason Elaina even helped was because Saya was involved. If she wasn’t then Elaina might have just left the country.
Damn right. And while Saya’s love is obviously unrequitted, Elaina has enough friendship for her to want to help resolve the issue… Thats why anyone complaining about Saya “ruining episode” is completely wrong… without her, Elaine would probably just left after while, not even running into Eihamia second time…
I’m going to assume that Elaina helped because Saya was there and because of the honesty “curse” it was from the bottom of her heart’s desire to help. NOW, this is quite the dilemma, because this would mean that maybe Elaina would have wanted to help the others, and that is what her heart would have been saying, BUT she opted NOT to for various reasons which she clearly did not elaborate yet. So I’d like to think she is still conflicted with all the events involved with travelling. Maybe perhaps, some more world building would help us understand how far a witch can meddle with affairs of ANOTHER country. i mean, if it would be even a little bit like ours, a foreigner meddling with local affairs means there’d be hell to pay. But again, I might be overthinking things.
I presume everyone, King included was happy to see this stifling spell of truthtelling go away.
Damn this episode made me laugh a lot.
From the obvious difficulties to running society absent of white lies, to creative ways of getting around this invented by citizens, to charmingly cute if sadly unrequitted Saya’s love. “Lets live together for a month, eat together, bathe together, sleep together…” Kuroko from Indexverse , anyone?
In this episode they let us know there is an organization of witches that works to resolve magic-related problems so yeah. Also Elaina did want to help, it was briefly shown in episode 3 in that magic flower field part. And she helped in episodes 2, 4, 5 and this one.
“But you know what troubles me? That she’s capable of going the extra mile to potentially offend a king and risk facing his armed entourage. Yet she won’t try to help siblings entrapped by a parasitical flower field, or save a sexually abused slave girl from her cruel master. ”
The tone of this episode was so light and comedic that her actions fit. Though that really did make this episode feel strange in comparison. Of course, that makes her character inconsistent as a result.
But it seems like this series is all over the place in terms of tone, not sure if that’s intentional or not. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the viewer just doesn’t know what to expect from one episode to another. Like, I was sort of expecting something bad to happen for most of the episode until I figured it would go lighthearted throughout.
I don’t think it makes here character inconsistent.
Elaina helped her friend, and someone who she help mentor. Likely if not for her she would have just left like always, which she looked inclined to do until she met Saya.
As to the the flower field, it has been now shown that there is an organization that deals with magical problems like that so her doing nothing makes a good amount of sense.
As to the slave girl, she probably could of helped but it didn’t benefit her in any way, and would likely have been a detriment since it might have restricted her goal of traveling, which is consistent with the character built up/