Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

For a series that for a good while I was enjoying in spite of rather than because of the recurring plot, Shingeki no Bahamut has proved itself to be a rather interesting story.  The importance of veteran writer Hasegawa Keiichi (he’s written for pretty much every Ultraman series) seems to be crystalizing as the series progresses.  I don’t see much tokusatsu in this show but it is a fascinating stew of East meets West influences, and it’s quite clear that a very experienced and capable pen is charting its course.  This is a complicated story but it is fitting together, and it’s advancing in a very unconventional manner for anime.

Compared to most recent efforts, this was definitely a low-key and reflective episode – it’s easy to see why it was another outsourced one (though DR Movie always does a capable job).  That said, it painted in a good deal of the remaining empty space in Amira’s portrait, starting with the fact that she remembered spending a good deal of her time in a “cocoon“.  After she persuades “Fava” to take her to see “Father”, Lavalley fills in still more – she’s indeed the child of an angel (Nichole) and a demon (unknown) and is in-fact only five years old (Favaro attributes her childish temperament to this).  Of course this also means that Rita is a grown – very grown – woman who looks like a little girl, and Amira is a little girl who looks like a grown woman.

Why does Amira look so grown-up?  Because she was kidnapped by a demon while her mother was under his protection, Lavalley says, and her growth accelerated (Rita says).  Of who the father is Lavalley is unable or unwilling to speak, but it definitely isn’t him.  At this point the evidence looks pretty strong that I was wrong about Lavalley, and he’s not in fact in league with the forces who wish to revive Bahamut but genuinely protective of Amira and a defender of the city (though I’m not absolutely sold yet).  He gives Amira the other half of her pendant, and when combined they magically project a compass which will take them to the land of Prudisia, where he tells Amira her mother is likely to be.

There are other headlines here too, starting with the fact that Chaorice (who’s been drugged and convinced that Jeanne is about to assassinate him) has knighted both Favaro and Kaisar (which increased the likelihood that one of them could be the knight foretold by prophecy, rather than Jeanne), who naturally react to this news quite differently.  This of course represents a vindication and a fulfillment of an oath for Kaisar, and if this were a different story it might mean his journey could be over.  As is he stays behind when Amira cleverly coerces Favaro to go with her to Prudisia, but I think it’s a safe bet he and Rita will follow soon enough.

On the demon side, things have gotten quite complicated.  As best I can tell Beelzebub (Ootomo Ryuuzaburou)is betraying Lucifer (for whom Azazel works) under the guise that he’s trying to revive Satan (who may or may not be Bahamut – I’m honestly not sure).  I’m also not sure if Azazel is dead for reals this time, though Beelzebub certainly seems to think so, though I am sure that Lucifer is played by Sakurai Takahiro, apparently still questing to appear in every anime this year.  These are demons after all, so betrayal and subterfuge are pretty much SOP, but I’m convinced we’ve not seen the true depth of the machinations that are going on.