Summary
Wistoria: Wand and Swordhave positioned itself as an action fantasy series to watch if you want something simple and fun. After all, the fast-paced fighting scenes with vibrant special effects and dynamic camera angles are so intense and super exciting to see. Unfortunately, it suffers quite a bit from a mediocre story.
That being said, the story started to get better in the fourth episode. The introduction of deeper lore and the magic festival seem like the perfect ingredients for crafting an interesting story. So let’s see how the story develops in this new episode.
A Magical Battle Royale
The Grand Magic Festivallets the students compete in several different categories. But the one that garners the most attention and is often considered the most prestigious one is a competition called “The Crown Attack”. And it is not just any competition, it’s a battle royale, which is the best kind of tournament there is.
The Crown Attack
The rules ofthe Crown Attackare pretty simple. Every participant has to enter with a team of three, with a combined credit of 21,000 points at the very least. The battle royale will be held in a vast arena comprised of different kinds of areas, such as a dense forest, a barren desert, a scorching volcanic area, and many other dangerous places conjured by elven magic.
The goal for each team is to get to the center of the vast arena and claim the winner’s crown. Apart from the difficult terrains, there are also countless traps and obstacles provided by the Regarden’s professors. To reach the goal, they can choose to hinder another team by setting up traps of their own or even attack them outright. Anything goes until there’s only one team left standing to claim the crown.
The Best Kind of Tournament
Tournaments come in different formats. There’s the knockout tournament, the round-robin tournament, the multi-stage tournament, and many others. However, when it comes to providing the best entertainment value for a fictional story,Battle Royale is by far the best kind of tournamentout there.
The premise of a Battle Royale tournament is quite simple. A group of participants is thrown together in an arena, it may be a stage or an entire island, and then the last one to survive is the winner. The elimination method can be varied depending on the nature of the tournament. In theHunger Gamesmovie series, it’s all about killing each other. InWistoria: Wand and Sword,however, if a participant surrenders or is unconscious, they are eliminated.
Drama Intensified
The story ofWistoria: Wand and Swordhas been getting interesting since the beginning of the Grand Magical Festival arc. This new episode pushes it to a greater height. The drama is deeply intensified in episode 5, with different characters pursuing their own vendetta which leads to a highly engaging drama.
A Quest for Vengeance
Three characters in this episode are out for blood for each other. The first one is the honor student Julius Reinberg.He wants a payback against Willfor humiliating him in front of the dwarves. Likewise, our protagonist, Will Serfort, also wants to beat Julius and make him apologize for saying nasty things to the dwarves.
Unbeknownst to Will, there’s actually another person who wants to beat him. His teammate, Sion Ulster. The prideful Sion still couldn’t accept the fact that a laggard like Will saved him. So Sion fully intends to pay Will’s generosity back by knocking him down.
I’m sorry Professor Workner. Even if it makes me a laughingstock, this is one bout I want to win.
– Will Serfort, Episode 5
Engaging Drama
So as you may see, there’s quite an interesting web of vengeance going on. What’s more, this intricate drama happens right in the middle of the battle royale. So not only do we get to see thrilling action sequences featuring different landscapes and magical traps, but we also get to enjoy intense battles between two genius mages againsta powerful swordsman.They are driven by different motivations but the goal is the same, to defeat the opponent. If this is not the perfect recipe for an engaging drama then we don’t know what is.
Character Development Galore
One of the most important elements in a story is character development. Unfortunately, there’s hardly any character development inWistoria: Wand and Sword.At least that is the case for the first three episodes. But just like how the story suddenly picks up the pace, the characters also receive a much-needed development in this episode. Let’s focus on two of the most stand-out ones, Will Serfort andSion Ulster.
A Much More Determined Will Serfort
For the first three episodes, we get to see two different sides of Will Serfort. While he is studying or just roaming around the Academy, he is a meek and gentle boy who won’t complain no matter how hard his day may be. While he is fighting in the dungeon, however, he becomes a hyper-focus swordsman who won’t back down no matter how terrifying the monsters may seem.
In episode 4, we get to see a different side of Will when he gets angry with Julius and his goons. That feeling is further enhanced in episode 5. Gone has the docile and submissive Will. What appears on the screen isa young man who is determined to do whatever he canto knock his enemy down and force him to apologize. He doesn’t care what anybody else thinks and says about him, he has a clear objective and he will achieve it no matter what. He will even mow down the entire competition if necessary.
A Prideful Sion Ulster
Will is not the only one who gets to showcase another side of himself. Sion Ulster also undergoes some interesting character development. As a prodigious mage, Sion always looks down on untalented people like Will, which is whyShion often bullies him.But when the laggard Will Serfort saved him from the terrifying monster in the dungeon at the start of the series, everything changed.
That moment shattered Shion’s pride. From that point on, he is obsessed with Will. Not to thank him for saving his life, but rather to prove that as a mage, he is much better and more powerful than somebody like Will. In a way, saving Sion’s life makes the young man hate Will even more than before. And all of that pent-up anger is let loose during the Crown Attack battle royale.
Conclusion
The Grand Festival Arc is an improvement in every front forWistoria: Wand and Sword.The action is getting even more exciting, the characters receive some proper development, but most importantly, we can finally enjoy a proper story that is so fun and engaging to follow. Looking forward to the next episode.
Wistoria: Wand and Swordis available to stream onCrunchyroll.
