Wistoria: Wand and Sword episode 11 delivered some heat this week. What more could you ask for from an action fantasy series? Wonderful animation on top of a suspenseful script gave the fans the best climax of the season possible. This is one of those episodes where if you’re talking about its flaws, it’s because you were looking for them from the very beginning.
An Epic Climax to the Climax
When an episode is even marketed on social media as the “climax” episode of the season, you’re, naturally, anticipating some great things to be in store from a story perspective, character perspective, production perspective—everything. So, of course, my expectations for this week were already mounting to anything they were beforehand. Well, Episode 11 of Wistoria undoubtedly checked off every single box imaginable.
The moment Will got back on his feet, albeit an interesting way of doing so, I just knew that this is where the episode either hits a walk-off home run or flies out to deep left to end it all. Luckily for me, and everyone that watched the episode, it was knocked out of the park.
The quick, mysterious moment of both wand and sword becoming one leading to Will’s new Ignis Wis look backed by Colette’s emotional outburst and the best placement of the soundtrack from the entire season brought me back to the days of watching Asta overcoming his adversity in Black Clover. It’s something as an action anime fan you just know that when the main character hits a transformation, the music changes, some flashback occurs, and one or more characters’ voice actor/actress just pours their all into an emotional performance, that everything is about to be dialed up to 11.
Call it standard action anime tropes, it doesn’t matter. It’s a formula that works exceptionally well when executed correctly like it was in this episode. It almost made me feel as if Will was some child of prophecy who would bridge the gap between wand and sword, adding more exciting lore to the story we haven’t seen before. Any criticism I’ve had about previous episodes and their pacing just went right out the window after this week.
It finally feels like Wistoria is ready to take that next step in its story. With character building between everyone, except for (maybe) Julius, it’s like a boulder was lifted off of the story’s shoulders too. That there’s no more doubting Will as a person or a magicless mage. He showed his true strength, and potential, in front of all of the academy’s strongest students and defeated a monster the story set up as one they had zero business defeating, one that even made Workner and Edward afraid.
He bridged the gap not just between an elf and a mage, he did it between an elf and a magicless mage. Seeing Wagnall and Lihanna standing up for him gave me goosebumps and the production team did a marvelous job with their action sequences. It made me want to see more of Lihanna in action than I already did.
I cannot begin to express the wonderful work by episode directors Masahiro Takada and Kentarou Mizuno this week with Hironori Tanaka storyboarding everything. Under Tatsuya Yoshihara’s direction, it all came together in grand fashion.
Looking Ahead
There is so much more for Wistoria fans to look forward to after this episode and that’s not just accounting for next week’s finale. When are we going to see more of the villains? What’s life going to be for Will at the academy now? Who is Rosti really? What will the Magia Vender do about the barrier falling apart? What will the teachers’ reactions be to everything that occurred? How much stronger can Will become?
There’s just so much more to be explored when it comes to Wistoria: Wand and Sword from here on out. It feels like the story has left breadcrumbs for what can come down the road but didn’t necessarily give us a clear map either. This will either lead to the series taking that next step in the future or it will do the opposite. But I have hope it will be the former scenario.
Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 11 Wrap-Up
A certain monster’s points worth reflecting how many points a mage needs to accumulate to show they need to be able to defeat said monster (270 > 270,000) was shattered in this episode with Will and I think that’s why Sion, specifically, was blown away at the end. Bravo, Wistoria. I’ve been a fan all season but now I’m almost fully convinced to pick up the manga. Let’s hope this season ends with something juicy.
Episode 11 rating: 10/10
If you enjoyed Wistoria: Wand and Sword then vote for it in our Anime of the Season poll! The series finale will be released on Sunday, September 29, on Crunchyroll.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©Fujino Omori, Toshi Aoi, Kodansha/Wistoria: Wand and Sword Production Committee
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