Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side

Episode 12

I was all set to give this episode a higher grade, because the opening scenes were really very exciting. Picking up where last week left off with the banshee shriek of the spirit, Loki Familia begins their battle against the monster, quickly figuring out that this isn't an actual Spirit but rather a corruption of one. Unfortunately for them, it still has all the abilities of a godly creature sent to help humanity, and one of those skills is concurrent casting – so not only is the monster enormous and actively feeding off the magical energy of the caterpillars surrounding it, it's also throwing incredibly powerful spells at our heroes. To call this a bad situation would be a major understatement.

Fortunately, this is where we see that Loki Familia's reputation is absolutely deserved. We've all known that Finn, Gareth, and Riveria are amazing, and we've seen Riveria in action quite a bit, but the other two really show their stuff in this episode. Gareth is particularly impressive – nothing can take this guy down, not magic or even getting run through. Finn, on the other hand, is not only a skilled fighter, but an excellent leader – he certainly proves his worth in battle with his duel-wielded spears, but he also manages to say just the right things to motivate his party, with the final blow being when he asks them if they're afraid to be like Bell Cranel. You'll remember that the twins, Aiz, and Bete all witnessed Bell's fight against the minotaur, and Lefiya's troubled feelings about the young human have hardly been kept hidden. All of this makes Bell the perfect final weapon to pull out, reminding everyone of the poster child for strength that can be found when you absolutely need it.

With all of this, including some thrilling aerial fight choreography for Aiz, the decision to just end the battle seven minutes before the show's conclusion is disappointing. We go from seeing Tsubaki's insane duel-wielding skills and a hole being blown in the monster's face to Aiz walking triumphantly out of the smoke before cutting to the ending theme playing over scenes of victory celebrations. It's nice and all, and there's a cute scene of Finn and Tione if that's your ship, but it feels very anticlimactic, like an excuse to show Lefiya blushing against Aiz's chest and shoehorn in another Loki attack.

It also largely leaves out explanations. We do know for certain that Enyo is behind all this, and Uranus discusses the fact that the corrupted spirit's real body may be lurking deeper in the dungeon. When combined with Enyo, Destroyer of Cities, this could pose a very real threat to Orario, and Ares's moves in the main series back this up. There's no real answer about Aiz, however, apart from a brief hint that seeing Gareth and Riveria fall conjures up memories of her parents' demise. She has “spirit blood,” but beyond that, we still know nothing.

That's ultimately the major failing of this series. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that focusing on Lefiya and her crush on Aiz was more important or interesting to focus on, and that took over what was billed as Aiz's tale in favor of Lefiya's. In another context, Lefiya wouldn't have been a bad character, but she really mucked things up for the plot here. It's a shame - Sword Oratoria had a lot of potential. We'll all just have to go read the novels if we want to know what happens next – or get the story with more Aiz and less Lefiya in general.

Rating: B

Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.