Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Episode 8

I'm not entirely sure why, but this episode of Chivalry of a Failed Knight felt abrupt. Not just in where it begins, in a flashback to Ayase's father and the battle that felled him before we find ourselves with Ikki, Stella, and Ayase all trekking out to his former dojo, although after the battle that took up most of last week's episode, it does feel rather sudden. In general none of the scene shifts have a particularly organic flow to them, hopping around even within a fight or discussion to give an overall feeling that the show was rushing to get this plotline finished up so it could move on and cover as much of the source material as it needs/plans to. That's a risk in any adaptation, anime or otherwise – it's just too bad this episode fell into its trap.

Pacing aside, there's a fair amount going for the story this week. Ikki seems to have buried the hatchet as far as Ayase's cheating in her match against him goes, although there's a definite feeling that he did so mostly so that he'd have an excuse to fight the Sword Eater, a particularly skilled and cruel knight student from another school. This actually makes him more likable as a character, as it gives him something more to his personality than “Mr. Nice Guy who helps girls.” By using Ayase's tragedy to finagle a fight with his desired opponent, Ikki gets to look good while also satisfying his more selfish urge, giving him a more human quality that he really does need. We can see that he's really having a great time during the fight, using his mind and body in tandem to counter his opponent's overpowered attacks while still clearly holding back himself in order to pull out all the stops at the last minute. The ruined dojo setting gives this fight an edge over the formal competitions as well, since we know that no one is going to hold the boys to the rules. This is a real test of Ikki's prowess.

Making it even more interesting is the fact that in the flashback, we see that Kuraudo (the Sword Eater) may not have won his match with Ayase's father based on skill alone: the older man, who was already ill, coughed up blood just before collapsing, with a strong implication that had he not been sick, Kuraudo would not have won. Whether or not Ayase is aware of this is questionable, but for viewers it certainly casts aspersions on his seemingly unbeatable status. Not that Stella ever doubted that Ikki would win – seeing how much confidence she has in his ability is a good sign of their stabilizing relationship, to say nothing of a nice change from the more usual tortured screaming this kind of scene usually entails.

And yet despite these strong elements, there's just something off. Perhaps it's in the implications of things we do not see, such as the group setting out in the first place for the old dojo or that Ikki had to beat up the courtyard thugs to get to the main fight. Not that we need a step-by-step version of events, but it just felt under-explained. The slightly corny ending to the episode also felt off, with Stella getting flustered about just holding hands with Ikki when Shizuku and Alice could see and Shizuku's calling Stella a bitch feeling unnecessarily harsh. It takes the whole relationship back a step, and while the course of true love ne'er did run smooth and all that, it feels like an unneeded “comedic” interjection in an otherwise nice moment.

This appears to be the finale of the Sword Eater storyline, and it does feel a bit anti-climactic. Fortunately that frees us up to move ahead in a story that felt a little stagnant this week, so maybe next week's “Princess Vacation” will bring us more of the elements that help this story stand out from its brethren.

Rating: C+

Chivalry of a Failed Knight is currently streaming on Hulu.