Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools

Episode 9

Another week, another episode of stuff happening in no particular order. Unlike last week, there is at least some level of conflict to be had, but it's short-lived and a little baffling. More importantly, it marks another week where 75% of the episode is people sitting at tables and having reasonable conversations where everyone's emotions are in check for nearly the entire meeting. Congratulations, if you've ever wanted the fantasy equivalent of sitting through an industry trade show, you've got it.

It's not like I need this show to be a thrill-a-minute battle of wits or fists. I am all for a low-key slice-of-life setup about Dahlia being a mad scientist inventing everything from soap bottles to railguns in her cobblestone lab. The segment of this episode that's just her and Wolf going over how she injured herself making a magic bracelet is easily the most engaging, even if it's far too short by comparison. It's just that if Dahlia in Bloom wants to spend half or more of its runtime dealing with the logistics of running a fantasy engineering business, it's got to make those segments feel more than perfunctory, and a big part of that comes down to presentation.

Take Wolf's meeting with his brother. On paper, we learn a lot of important stuff about Wolf and his family arrangement, but you'd never know that from looking at the characters. Their faces are stoic and barely animated. Outside of standing up and bowing, their body language is barely relevant. These two men are broaching the topic of a familial tragedy that both have spent years trying to process, but to look at them you'd think they were discussing their preferred brand of of fabric softener. No matter how insistent the voice actors try to be, it can't compensate for the dearth of energy, and it means this interaction is only interesting in the abstract. It's nice that Wolf's family is perhaps less emotionally distant than he assumed, but otherwise, I don't know what the show means for me to do with this.

Similarly, Dahlia's negotiation with a manufacturer for her soap bottles is just sort of...there. There's an argument and a brief misunderstanding when Dahlia insists the manufacturer get credit for his proposed improvements. Still, it's such an easily resolved conflict that I couldn't tell you what the point is. Like, hey, good on Dahlia for not being stingy with credit – she certainly knows what it's like to have your hard work and ideas stolen – but the guy's reasons for arguing against it seem contrived. For some reason, he interprets the offer as pity or charity, when it seems perfectly reasonable to credit him when he immediately suggests multiple design changes and improvements. Either way, it's amicably resolved and then we move on.

All of these will perhaps play a larger role in the story but it doesn't seem that way right now. Has any of this meaningfully developed our main cast? Not really. Is it at least interesting, entertaining, or charming? I suppose if you like watching CCTV of boardrooms, it could be. Dahlia and Wolf's increasingly aimless parade of meetings just isn't entertaining and is taking up way too much time compared to the actual magical crafting this story is supposed to be about.

Rating:

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