First Impressions / Tears to Tiara

Summary:

Arawn and company arrive on Albion and set out immediately for Avalon Castle. After traveling through a forest, they arrive at a huge gate, and Arawn warns Arthur that passing through this means potentially having to engage in a long conflict with the Empire instead of continuing to run away. Arthur is ready to fight, so Arawn opens the gate. Inside is an apple orchard where two elves Limwris and Ermin are working, and they recognize Arawn. While everyone takes a break to enjoy some apples, Arawn introduces Arthur and Riannon as direct descendants of Pwyll, but Arthur feels that the people from long ago are irrelevant to him. Limwris then helps everyone get settled down and recounts that there’s an old tale of how the elves migrated to a world where mankind could not reach. She also reveals that the name Avalon means apple and that angels created the castle, and this latter part causes an angry reaction in Arthur because an angel killed his father.

Arthur and Arawn then visit the armory and get trapped by the elf Epona because she didn’t realize who Arawn is. Once everything gets sorted out, they go on a hunt for crabs and have a feast afterward. Arawn walks off by himself in the middle of the festivities and visits a cliff where there’s an old stone monument. Riannon follows him there, and the two talk about a god named Myrddin who gave fire to mankind and was punished for it. Arawn feels that Myrddin isn’t suffering anymore and that he’s always with them as part of this world, all of which makes Riannon realize that Arawn knew Myrddin a long time ago. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, Gaius is headed their way with an armada.

Preview

This was a fairly slow episode with not much action but a lot of background plot development. I’m still trying to get a feel for the scope of the series in terms of all this talk about different races and gods (e.g. it feels odd for Arawn to be able to admit to being acquainted with a god), but I think it’s probably safe to say that it’ll be at least that of Utawarerumono. The whole Myrddin thing reminded me of the Prometheus myth and made me wonder if they’re referencing the Greek Titans. In fact, there appears to be a lot of mixing of mythologies since all of the Arthur and Avalon stuff is based on Celtic/English mythology.

On a different note, I was also impressed by how good the animation quality remained this episode, particularly since we’re getting into the middle parts of the series. This bodes very well for the rest of the show, and I look forward to the next time Arawn and Gaius clash, which should be soon if the end of this episode is any indicator.

16 Comments

  6. If the anime follows the game (PS3) like it’s doing now, not all the background will become important (that was one of the limits of the game). The part with the crabs was an actual fight in the game, too. But they’re skipping some unnecessary fluff next week for sure.

    ximpa
    Reply

  8. Arawn wakes up from a long nap…get’s a wife.
    Arawn gets into a fight with a girl…get’s a wife.
    Arawn opens the door to a castle…get’s 2 wives.

    He’d probably get a wife by sneezing, the lucky bastard lol.

    Ninja Penguin
    Reply

  9. lol unlimited waifu works.

    But you know many demons are once said to be angels…. who to say he wasn’t branded a demon king for siding with this ‘traitor’ God?

    Duran
    Reply

  13. nah soon arawn will get a wife by burning something IIRC should Llyr be his next wife if not accidentally found crate XD sweet scene though as the look on his face is epic

    Algester
    Reply

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