Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools

Episode 4

I don't mean to beat on a dead horse when I mention this show's production values, so instead I'll beat on a live one. While Dahlia's eight-legged horse was apparently visible in previous episodes, it wasn't until this one that I noticed it, and I am baffled. Horses are already notoriously difficult to animate – so much so that even this season's animation powerhouse, The Elusive Samurai, chose to use CG equine rather than hand-draw these temperamental beasts. Yet Dahlia, with its production so overburdened, decided to make the animators' lives twice as hard for no particular reason. Like, maybe this horse having enough legs to qualify as a spider is a key plot point later on, but as of right now I feel like we could have fudged the numbers and made it a regular, poorly articulated horse.

Putting aside that pitiable pony, this episode sees some big and small advancements for Dahlia. The first is her meeting with Wolf, where the two chat about magical tools and monster hunting. While it's a generally nice time, it's also a bit sterile. It's pretty obvious that Wolf is being setup for Dahlia's new love interest now that she's single and technically available to mingle, and the pair have some chemistry. It's nice that Dahlia gets to hear about the fruits of her labor from someone who doesn't know she made that waterproof fabric that everyone's using, but it's again hindered by the production values. The direction of the scene is trying its hardest to imply there's a spark between the two, a budding attraction even as Wolf thinks he's talking to a man thanks to Dahlia's disguise. Unfortunately the character animation can't quite get that feeling across, so their time together feels a little too sterile to really hook us for a potential romance. There's potential here, but the script will need to work extra hard on this front moving forward.

Still, a somewhat awkward and vaguely homoromantic interaction is preferable to what awaits our heroine back in town: dealing with her god damn wet noodle of an ex again. What I like about this reunion and second estrangement is that it's the first time Dahlia gets really angry with this guy to his face. All the stuff with their house and engagement was annoying for her, but now he's gone and messed with her work by putting he creation under his own name. It's not even that she's angry about the potential money issues – she's upset at being separated from the work and responsibility that came from her craft. Dahlia takes pride not just in making useful creations, but in taking on all the risks and rewards that come with it – they're an expression of her own skills and the legacy her father left to her. So Tobias deciding he could just put his name on the registry because hey, they were gonna be married soon anyway, is a violation far more visceral than his previous acts of control.

It's really nice to see Dahlia, who can be accommodating to a fault, draw a hard line in the sand and reject Tobias' attempts at compromise. At the same time, the difference in her reaction to a patent registration vs the dissolution of their engagement offers just a bit of humanity to the guy. Sure, he sucks in the way your most aggravating ex-boyfriend from college did, but he really seems to have cared about Dahlia, and feels hurt by how easily she's able to emotionally decouple from him. He's still an annoying dweeb who brings a buttload of unwanted drama to every interaction, but this makes him feel more like a real character rather than an easy hate-sink for the viewer.

What follows after that is...well, I'm not sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, it's nice to see that so many people in Dahlia's life are happy to help her. Some of that comes from friendship, others are in it to invest in her work for their own profit, and some is from her father's lasting reputation and connections. That's all well and good and very heartwarming, but it also makes Dahlia feel incredibly passive in her own story, especially once Gabriela takes our heroine under her wing. Yes, it's nice that she wants to help Dahlia present herself as a professional, but it still feels weird to see Dahlia once more changing her clothes and glasses at the behest of somebody else, but now it's a good thing because they're doing it for “Good” reasons now. Also telling Dahlia to stop wearing glasses is just objectively wrong! They're a key part of her character design and removing them would be a total downgrade.

All of that comes together for an episode that feels as muddled as its indistinct backgrounds. There are still things to like about Dahlia's journey here, but it's starting to feel more like she's just along for the ride, rather than dictating her own path.

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Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.