First Impressions / Tears to Tiara

Summary:

As Arthur and the Gael people prepare to head for the land of Albion, Arawn gets attacked by a girl armed with a bow and a dagger. He is easily able to restrain her, and it turns out that she’s Morgan, a warrior that Arthur had sent to prepare a ship for their journey. That ship got taken by the Empire though, and both Arthur and Morgan accept responsibility for the failure. Arawn realizes that nothing will be accomplished by punishing them, but because Arthur worries about setting a bad example for the others, Arawn proposes that, since Morgan lost a duel to him, he’ll take custody of her, effectively making her his second wife. Sometime later, Arawn and company assault the port where the Empire is keeping the ships. Arawn takes Arthur, Riannon, and Morgan with him to open the gate out of the harbor while Ogam leads the rest of the men on the attack to secure a boat. Everything goes according to plan, but once the gate is opened, Arawn’s group encounters Gaius, the leader of the Empire’s Albion Expeditionary Force.

After sending the others to the ship, Arawn faces Gaius alone, and Gaius wants to know if Arawn is the legendary Demon King. Arawn, however, feels that they see him how they want to see him. Gaius then throws a special dagger at Arawn, and Arawn is forced to use his powers to block and deflect it. Since that didn’t work, Gaius questions what Arawn’s goal is, Arawn claims that he’s not after royal powers but rather the royal way. Gaius doesn’t understand the difference, but Arawn escapes onboard the ship and only explains that Gaius will be dead when he understands the true meaning of that. The ship then sails out of port and into the open sea. Unfortunately, Arawn had gotten injured by the dagger that Gaius threw, and while Riannon and Morgan aren’t able to heal it, Ogam is. Ogam recognizes that the injury was caused by something made of electrum, and he reminds Arawn that it was an electrum wound that claimed his life in the past.

Arawn then asks Ogam about the Empire that Gaius mentioned, so Ogam explains that after the last great war, humans built the Albion kingdom, and it prospered for 300 years until the blood lineage of Arawn’s friend Pwyll ended. The ensuing power struggle split the kingdom, and to Arawn’s surprise, their current enemy is an empire created by man. As Arawn is thinking about this later, he is approached by Arthur who wants to fight again. Arawn defeats Arthur this time by knocking the sword out of his hands, and afterward, Arthur admits that he was doing this not as the First Warrior but as Riannon’s older brother. He wants Arawn to make Riannon happy, and Arawn agrees. The next morning, the ship approaches a land mass that they identify as Albion.

Preview

This episode was like a tale of three halves, and I say three halves because it felt like there was more than just one episode’s worth of material packed in here. The fight between Morgan and Arawn was nicely done, but Arawn’s subsequent adoption of Morgan as a second wife seemed really rushed. I mean, one moment she’s trying to kill him and the next moment she can’t bear to be away from him? And then there was the assault on the port which I found to be a pretty exciting action sequence even though Arawn’s group was fighting grunts who were clearly outmatched.

After the confrontation with Gaius, so much had happened already (especially compared to the first two episodes) that I thought that the half-hour was almost over. But no, there was more, and that’s where things got less exciting and more confusing. There seemed to be a lot of references to the past and to Arawn’s backstory that I didn’t really get, and I’m left wondering things like what Arawn’s enemy in the past was if it wasn’t humans, and what was with that monster. Obviously it’s still early in the series, so they don’t have to explain everything yet, but I am reminded of how confused I was with the flashbacks in Utawarerumono, and I suspect this won’t be the last time. In any case, this was overall still a pretty good episode, and next week looks to have the addition of some more girls to Arawn’s harem.

31 Comments

  4. Oh god, I love the screen shot of Arawn looking really freaked out while Morgan is chopping down on his hand like a St. Bernard on a chew toy. XD

    But I do agree about Morgan’s 180 degree change in attitude. She was really keen on fighting Arawn but after she lost she totally turned into a puppy. Why did she want to challenge him in the first place?

    mangaka-chan
    Reply

  5. Arthur sure seems to like make sure his armored enemies are dead. X_x Will each episode feature a focused shot of a bloody impalement? Soldier into wall; ‘evil’ priest fellow; outdoor soldier. Yeesh.

    Meery
    Reply

  6. Well, they tried to fit all the fourth battle of the PS3 game and the exposition in one episode (though the Arawn/Gaius confrontation is almost identical). Morgan as second wife was something completely different in the game, and they removed that reason, also they changed the boss fight on the ship with the Arawn/Arthur confrontation.

    ximpa
    Reply

  9. Gael people are supposed to have their heads lopped off for failure. Morgan was supposed to secure ships for their tribe’s migration and it was Arthur who sent her alone. In a way they were supposed to offer their heads to Arawn for their failure. Arawn called them idiots because that solves nothing.

    The reason Morgan attacked Arawn was simple, she wanted to die fighting with honor. When Arawn said as a victor he decides her fate, and that he decided she will remain at his side, he effectively spared her from death in the tribe’s covenant. Of course in doing so he made her his wife as well.

    That was all better explained in the games.

    As for your confusion, lets just say everything will piece together as we go along in the story.

    Silverwolf X
    Reply

  13. wow, harem with seven girls? player!
    sorry, but that’s over the top.
    i don’t mind harem with max. 3 girls…does he choose one or stay with all seven one same term? -> would be pretty lame and hurt the anime, imo!!!
    otherwise, just animate a hentai scene, where he bangs all of them NOT a H-game for god’s sake!
    we go with illusion games, if we want h-games !!!

    tomtom
    Reply

  20. Riannon flashing a smile before blasting the enemy trying to backstab Morgan is Priceless.

    That and Arawn walking slowly towards the enemy as Morgan rapid fire shoots them down lol.

    Head shots, neck shots, shots to vital organs and exposed areas in armor and rapid fire (Morgan)… Gael archers are serious business. 😛

    Silverwolf X
    Reply

  27. I was really disappointed by this episode. I liked utawarerumono. This show I’ve already been having doubts about watching since episode 2. I guess I’ll just follow your blogs of this episode and if it gets good reviews I might give it another chance.

    Is it just me, or does anyone else think this show had a lot of potential if they followed the dark theme it set up in episode one? Right now it just seems like a typical harem fantasy world plot, with a plot that just doesn’t seem well put together.

    jho
    Reply

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