This was a pretty solid episode of Noblesse on the whole.  But it confirmed what I more or less suspected, which is that I prefer this series in light-hearted mode.  There are a fair number of manga and anime that broadly have the sort of plot that was laid out in this episode.  But there aren’t many shounen which apply the quirky and often whimsical perspective to it the way Noblesse does.  It feels more distinctive when it’s doing that than when it’s doing what we saw this week.  And it’s more fun, too.

I’ll give Noblesse this, though – it did need to show us Rai and Frankenstein’s origin story at some point.  And it so in perfectly fine fashion here, spinning the tale of how Frankie went from an angry revolutionary to Rai’s lap dog (albeit a beloved one).  It’s pretty clear just how crucial Rai is to the nobles’ hold on power, though it seems that they seem to see him as a resource rather than an individual worthy of respect.  Rai is fortunate that the Lord (who we know is no longer in power and presumably in this world, which the nobles blame Rai for) has a deep affection for him.  He indulges Rai’s eccentricities – which it seems are quite considerable.

The Lord, in fact, is (much to the horror of the nobles) encouraging Rai to make a blood pact with Frankie, the true implications of which we haven’t yet been shown.  The noble who takes especial umbrage at this is the one called Urokai, who eventually shows up at Rai’s mansion to challenge Frankenstein to spar with him.  He thinks this is just another weak human, even when Frank summons his Dark Spear.  But that weakness is restraint – he’s holding back because he can’t control the power.  And once he unleashes it, only Rai seems to be strong enough to subdue him.

I’m quite curious to know how a human came to possess such formidable power, but that’s for another day.  In the present, Gejutel confirms his status as a moderate, and agrees to let Rai – and his grandson – continue to live the idyllic life they are.  It’s obviously good to have Regis experience such things now – it will make him a better family head later on – but the current Lord is none too please Gejutel has returned empty-handed, and order him imprisoned.  She also orders that Seira should be recalled so that she can read her mind – and volunteering for this task is Ragar’s younger brother Rael.  He has a strong whiff of recurring villain to him, and I suspect we haven’t seen the last of him.