Wistoria: Wand and Sword Season 2

Episode 12

I don't know how I expected Elfie and Zeo's fight to conclude this week, but I wasn't expecting the big man Oldking himself to demand that the two settle their draw with a classic game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. This is a moment where the style and the production of the show limit the impact of this otherwise very funny scene. Wistoria has never been an especially comedic or “cartoony” series, and this moment here, where Elfie and Zeo throw 300 consecutive hands of R0chambeau to decide Will's fate, needed a bit zanier of a touch. Siller animation, more elastic models, an overall heightened presentation; something akin to what Science SARU achieves with DAN DA DAN.

That said, it is a charming and humorous way to defuse the most violent and bombastic battle of the entire series (the legitimately bloody assault on the keep from the beginning of the season notwithstanding), and such an intentionally deflating conclusion is probably necessary to explain how Will could even work with a guy like Zeo after he beat the stuffing out of his beloved. The politics and secrets that run this tower are clearly going to define the series' story moving forward into the next season, so I think injecting all of the self-serious plotting and scheming with a shot of silliness was the right call.

Unfortunately, as I suspected would be the case given how hard the action went last week, the rest of the finale makes for a fairly low-key way to close out the season. Considering that this second season already feels stunted on account of how that first batch of episodes played like a belated conclusion to Season One, it's a shame that this finale comes just as the Magia Vander storyline is just starting to get interesting. After the Rock-Paper-Scissors game, much of the episode spends time on side characters and random story threads that didn't have any place in prior episodes, such as the “Single Witch's Mixer” and Colette's doomed crush on our hero. Then there's Iris, Finn, and Cerridwen's secret meeting that exists primarily to remind us that we are supposed to be interested in all of this lore and foreshadowing, but I can't be alone in thinking that all of that guff is mere padding to get us from one fight to another at this point, right? At least we cap the finale off with another much-appreciated moment of sweetness between Will and Elfaria.

Overall, this season of Wistoria can perfectly be described as a “mixed bag.” We got some excellent action and even a few genuinely compelling character-focused episodes, but the overall shape of this show's story has never felt scrappier and more superfluous. From week to week, Wistoria can be an entertaining bit of escapist fantasy, but I feel like I have even less of an attachment to the setting and the plot than I did at the end of last season, which is just odd. Maybe the already confirmed 3rd season will steer the ship back in the right direction and bolster our investment in the big picture of this story. Until then, I'll be sure to revisit that fight between Elfie and Zeo whenever I need my fix of cool anime spectacle.

Episode Rating:

Wistoria: Wand and Sword is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.