Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2

Episode 9

As a general rule, I can't stand the will-they-won't-they cliché—especially when it remains unresolved for an unnecessarily long period of time. It just feels like my emotions are being jerked around for no real reason. On the surface, Pecorine's secret is one such situation. It almost feels like a distraction, like it's there to add personal drama to the narrative even though there is already plenty of that in the fight between Kaiser and Labyrista. However, the difference here is in how Priconne utilizes Pecorine's dilemma: as we see in this episode, it's less about Pecorine telling Karyl her secret than it is about showing us the tragedy that is Karyl's existence one last time.

When it comes down to it, this episode is both the best day of Karyl's life and the worst. The day starts with her growing closer to Kaiser than ever before. Karyl isn't asked to do anything evil or betray anyone's trust, she just shares a hand-made meal with the person she reveres. In the afternoon, she is able to enjoy a festival with her dearest companions, having carefree fun until the sun sets.

...And then she is used as a human shield so that Kaiser can kill one of her friends.

This is the point of no return for Karyl. Up until now, she has been able to play both sides to an extent. While at times she has betrayed her friends and at others acted against Kaiser's best interests, she has managed to maintain a status quo where everyone was alive and relatively happy. Deep down, Karyl knew this could never last, but I doubt she expected everything to fall apart this quickly. Now, Karyl can't simply go back to the way things were before. She has a conscience and it would kill her to pretend that she hadn't been complicit in a friend's murder. So she's going to have to make her choice on who she sides with—and, heartbreakingly, I suspect she'll choose the side that tells her what she did was okay rather than face her own guilt and come clean to those she has so often betrayed.

The other major part of the episode is the big battle between Kaiser and Labyrista. Not only is the battle itself beautifully animated, it also gave us a clearer picture about what's really going on. It turns out that this isn't the first loop, or even the second. Kaiser has won time and again thanks to her power to see the future—only for the world to be reset. However, this time is different. In the last loop, something went wrong and Kaiser lost her clairvoyance. While she knows the general flow of how everything will go based on past experience, she can no longer predict the future with absolute certainty. Because of this, she has spent this loop usurping the abilities of people like Neneka—using the shadows as a magical battery to power them.

This gives us unique insight into Kaiser as a character. Megalomaniacal though she may be, her driving force in this loop is not arrogance but fear. She knows of only one way to ensure things go well for her: crushing all her enemies. She has done this time and again after all. However, without perfect knowledge of the future, she can't be sure it will work this time. This, in turn, opens her up to other options. Building relationships is not something she had considered before, but in this loop, she tries it with Karyl to great success. Approached in the right way, it might have been possible to find a peaceful solution with her this time around. Unfortunately, Labyrista's surprise attack causes her to fall back into her old patterns, setting us up for a final battle our heroes are almost certain to lose.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Labyrista's fatal mistake? She thought Kaiser was alone like in previous loops, only to find her with both a clone of herself and Karyl as allies.

• While we see Labyrista get run through, I suspect she might not be as dead as she should be—after all, Kaiser did say she wanted to steal Labyrista's powers.

• I'm sure that Karyl will be on the side of the angels in the end but I expect her to go full evil for a bit first.

• The scene with Jun was an interesting one. Her death/capture sets up an important question: How will Christina react? Nightmare seems to be the only thing she cares about beyond her own battle lust. And while she may have no moral compass, getting revenge for Jun might just be the excuse she needs to turn her raw aggression upon Kaiser.

• I'm shocked at this dramatic turn of events, but in a good way. It's starting to look like we might get an actual resolution to the plot instead of continuing the status quo of being a collection of meandering side stories with no real payoff.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.