Good news: episode 10 is an improvement over episode 9 in terms of animation quality.
Bad news: this is the last episode we will be getting of Maerchen Maedchen, as the broadcast has been suspended. I don’t know if or when we’ll get the final two episodes, but let’s just focus on episode 10 for now.
Two members of the American team drop out
We begin with a disagreement within the American ranks, caused by Lynne’s cheating. Two member drop out – Lucy Burton, the girl with the Zombie Origin, however, is indebted to Lynne, so she remains as part of the team.
That leaves the American team with three members for the next match of the Hexennacht.
The British team
Just before the next match of the Hexennacht starts, there are a few announcements to get through. These include the retirement of Shizuka from the Japanese team, as well as Drew Verhoeven and Cameron Walles from the American School. We already gathered that much; the next announcement is a surprise though. The entire British school retires from the game.
Agathe confronts Arthur about it, and she says something about the revival of the nightmare from the incident seven years ago. Arthur insists that the British School must destroy it.
Hino Sachi
Before the next match of the Hexennacht can begin, Hino Sachi makes a grand entrance. There is some doubt about whether she is allowed to participate, but she has the documents required. Either way, Ariko doesn’t really want to be associated with her.
With the announcements and interruptions done, the match finally gets started.
Lucy puts her zombies to work
The first thing that the Japanese School has to contend with are Lucy’s zombie. However, they didn’t come into the battle without a plan. Hazuki and Mai draw the enemy’s attention, which leaves Ariko and Sachi the opportunity for a sneak attack.
Sachi and Lynne clash
Ariko and Sachi launch an attack on Lynne and her allies. Sachi fights Lynne, whilst Ariko deals with Lucy and Angelina.
Sachi’s Origin allows her to cut through words, which cancels out an enemy’s magic. Quite a powerful technique, to be sure, but perhaps not suited for Sachi…
It seems Angelina’s Santa Claus Origin allows her to pull various items out of a sack
To quote Mai Sadohara from earlier on in the episode, ‘America has no history of its own’. As such, they used mixed media for their Origins, hence the various powers we see displayed during this match.
Going back to the fight, Sachi’s Origin is only effective until she speaks. Unfortunately, Sachi struggles to keep her mouth shut for more than ten seconds. This results in the American team gaining the upper hand, as Hazuki and Mai soon discover.
Ariko and Sachi are forced to turn against their team
Ariko and Sachi end up being bitten by Lucy’s zombies, and turned against their own allies. However, Mai has a plan to combat that, which she carries out.
Mai’s plan results in the elimination of several combatants. Unfortunately, Hazuki is left on her own to face both the Daves sisters.
Hazuki’s castle
Hazuki uses her castle to defend herself from Angelina’s attacks. Since the direct method doesn’t work, Lynne uses one of her matches instead. It is the yellow one, that creates a mist that weakens Hazuki.
With Hazuki at a disadvantage, Angelina suggests that she surrenders. However, that isn’t enough for Lynne.
We discover that the Dave sisters have quite a traumatic past. It seems they were adopted into the Daves family, and Lynne wants an absolute victory for her dad.
Lynne summons this monstrosity
Lynne lights all of her matches simultaneously, which results in a Cerberus-like creature (or perhaps it is Cerberus itself – the Americans do have mixed media after all) emerging. Hazuki is spent, so she is about to give up. However, the battle is not over yet.
Shizuka arrives
Whilst the Japanese School had been fighting the Americans, the headmaster had been doing some snooping around. Shizuka wasn’t just doing nothing whilst she was absent, either.
The headmaster discovered the truth about the report concerning Shizuka’s mother, and Shizuka was able to reclaim her Origin. Taking a cue from Hazuki from earlier on in the season, Shizuka creates a new story for herself.
Any tree can drop an apple. Shizuka will drop the freaking moon!
Shizuka brings the match to its conclusion in a most impressive manner, incredibly reminiscent of Majora’s Mask. Shizuka claims victory for the Japanese school, meaning that they will face the German School in the final.
If Hazuki smiles, then Shizuka can too.
There is much jubilation with the Japanese victory. Lynne, on the other hand, is not happy at all.
This is where the episode ends.
That was more like it! This episode was an incredible improvement over the previous one. We got a proper transformation sequence courtesy of Sachi, and the battle between the Japanese and American schools was a lot of fun to watch.
Talking of fun, I like Sachi quite a bit. She only had a brief appearance previously, but she won me over pretty quickly here.
This is episode is what Maerchen Maedchen should be, and I’m glad it didn’t suffer the same fate as episode 9.
As for what the future holds… well, there is a preview for episode 11, so we know it at least partially exists. I don’t know if or when we can expect to see the last two episodes, but I am quite keen to know what happens as it seems that Arthur and the other British ladies will be playing a more prominent role.
It’s a shame about them dropping out, but it is clear that they have something other than the Hexennacht mind. Here’s hoping that the wait for the last two episodes will be worth it.
I won’t review Maerchen Maedchen just yet, simply because it is unfinished. I will say that it sucks that the production had all the problems it did, since I find a very enjoyable anime.
I do appreciate all the effort everyone involved went to in order to produce this anime, and I am perfectly content with waiting for the final two episodes.
Rory Muses 