©︎Amagishi Hisaya/MF Books/DB PROJECT
This is an incredibly important episode for Dahlia in Bloom. Not only does it completely flesh out Dahlia and Wolf’s relationship, but it also gives us our first real look at the “magical” part of being a spellcaster. It sees Dahlia making a difficult, experimental attempt to create a magical device to hide Wolf’s enchanted eyes—hopefully allowing him to live a more normal life and develop trusting relationships. Not only does it reveal some surprisingly dark moments from both characters’ pasts, but it spends almost the entire episode building their connection through dialogue while navigating the complexities of the Noble code and their ongoing conflicts.
It all sounds pretty good, right? When you put it all together and just recount what happened in this episode, it sounds pretty interesting! That’s the magic of imagination; when you’re given a synopsis of a story, your brain can fill in the blanks and do the heavy lifting to create a hypothetical version of that story that’s memorable and endearing. Unfortunately, real life rarely lives up to human imagination, and the reality of watching this episode is that you’ll be constantly bombarded with interesting ideas that are poorly delivered.
Some of that is just the pacing of this story. Dahlia and Wolf probably spent a total of 18 hours together—and while they had solid chemistry, the transition from “thanks for brunch” to “let me invent magic glasses to free you from your most enduring personal turmoil” was jarring. Plus, there wasn’t much detail about Wolf’s revelation about his magically sexy eyes and all the interpersonal drama they dragged him into. It’s nice that Dahlia took the initiative to help him out, but maybe this should have been more of a Third Date kind of thing? Just to feel more natural? That said, I liked that, thanks to their own romance, they defined their relationship as friendship. It seems like that's what world-weary adults do when they don't want anything to complicate their lives while still making room for these grand gestures.
My problem with this episode stems from the production… I know. I know. I understand that some people don’t care about animation at all and will read everything for the story, but I maintain that the audio and visual elements of the medium are just as important as the text—otherwise we’d just be reading the books it’s based on. For a prime example, look at the opening scene of this episode, where Atsushi Tamaru does everything he can to infuse his performance with nervous, awkward urgency but the character art says it with a perpetually flat expression and conveys no emotion. When there’s a strong disconnect between the energy of the voice acting and the character animation, it’s a problem that makes it harder for the story to connect—even if that story is just a joke about nobles practicing polygamy. The result is like a daytime drama filmed with amateur actors and then dubbed by professionals forced to insert nuances through ADR that physical performance couldn't accomplish.
That disconnect permeates every aspect of the episode, which is largely just Dahlia and Wolf talking, drinking, and talking while they drink. The slow, mundane material requires careful attention to timing, editing, and character expression to work. What's more, our leads spend a lot of time talking about things that, on the surface, don't seem to matter much. There are no big reveals or dramatic escalations—just little snippets that tell us something about each character, giving us insight into the other. These moments are nice enough, but between the stiff character animation, flat direction, and near-total lack of memorable music, it lacks the atmosphere that can make quiet, character-focused segments like Spice & Wolf stick with you. Wolf anime does it. Viewers have to do the heavy lifting, extrapolating tones and intonations from the dubs to imagine a version where these characters move and emote in a way that at least evokes humanity.
The only major exception is the sequence where Dahlia creates fairy glass for Wolf's glasses, where the sight of her talking to metaphorical fairies to shape her magical materials into the proper shape and function provides some visual novelty. There are still issues like Dahlia's obvious effort not being fully apparent through effort—and there are a lot of quick cuts to avoid having to animate anything for too long. Overall, though, it works as an introduction to the more magical aspects of Dahlia's craft, to complement the more industrial side we've seen in previous episodes. That it all culminates in an instantly impactful gift for her new friend is the cherry on top.
Unfortunately, the rest of the episode lacks that excitement and becomes an exercise in wringing meaning and emotion out of muddy ground. At best, it almost feels like watching a rehearsal rather than a final performance. At worst, it loses the charm and humor of our main couple.
Rating:
Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
