Uncle From Another World

Episode 6

Uncle From Another World is such a fun (and funny) series that it can be easy to forget that there's a lot of intrigue sitting on the back burner, and this episode basically spends its entire runtime answering those looming questions.

The most important of these is what happened during the first days of Uncle's time in the fantasy world. We were given a glimpse of that last week, but it ended up raising more questions. After all, if Uncle's power wasn't the result of some divine gift, how did he get so strong so quickly?

This episode reveals that, while he may not have gotten his extremely powerful magic directly from the god of reincarnation, his magic is a byproduct of his wish nonetheless. His wish to be understood allowed him to communicate with not only the humans of the fantasy world, but elemental spirits as well. With the guidance of the spirits, he was able to access powerful magic with no actual training.

The implications of this are more than a little interesting. Despite living 17 years in the fantasy world, he never learned to use magic like the native inhabitants do. Rather, he basically built his own unique magic system by working directly with the spirits—and never even realized what he had done. This is why Elf seems so baffled at the things he can do. Their respective understandings of magic are completely different.

Beyond seeing Uncle learning magic for the first time, we also see his first meeting with Elf—which comes with its own context-altering revelation. Rather than him one-shotting the monster and saving her thanks to his impressive powers, we learn that the monster was already a single hit from death—Uncle was just the one to do it. Not only does this make for a great anti-climactic joke, it also shows just how powerful Elf is. While she may not be able to wield magic quite like the way Uncle did, she is very much on his level—and likely stronger than she realizes.

The final bit of the episode also serves to explain another one of the series' looming questions: How on earth could Uncle consider himself “alone” for 17 years when he's constantly been with Elf and Mabel? Simply put, they never managed to form a permanent party. Both Elf and Uncle have their own goals (which don't always match) and Mabel's night owl sleep schedule prevents her from teaming up in general.

All in all, this episode is far more interested in divulging plot points than expounding upon deeper themes like in previous episodes, but I'm not complaining. The humor is solid throughout, and what we learn about magic, the fantasy world, and Uncle's history helps explain a lot of Uncle's eccentricities from previous episodes. Episode 6 is another solid episode in a consistently strong series.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• There are still some important questions about Uncle's past left unanswered—such as “How did Uncle get back to our world?” and “What happened to Elf and Mabel?”—but I doubt we will get to them anytime soon.

• If his first few days were “good” in Uncle's estimation, I'm worried to see what a bad day was like.

• So, memories aren't erased, they're simply blocked. That's useful to know.

• When I read a bit of the manga a few years back, I didn't care for Mabel. Aoi Yūki's interpretation of the character has completely changed how I see her.

• The sounds Mabel makes while sleeping are hilarious.

• Elf wants her ring back bad.

• While there are two ways to interpret Uncle saying he'll treat Takafumi and Fujimiya to ramen and then not having enough to pay, the one I'm inclined to go with is that he was still thinking in the 2000s when he assumed how much a bowl of ramen costs (especially given that he didn't pull a similar “scam” when treating Elf and Mabel to a meal). It's just that inflation's a bitch.

Uncle From Another World is currently streaming on Netflix.

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.