©︎Amagishi Hisaya/MF Books/DB PROJECT
For the first time in a while, this episode lets Dahlia back into her workshop and away from any business responsibilities or annoying divorce proceedings. What follows is probably best described as a slice-of-life episode, where not much really happens. Well, things happen – scenes occur, conversations are had, and meals are eaten – but there’s no real conflict to speak of. That could work, given the right conditions, and it’s not outside the norm for a show this low-key, but it just feels like something’s missing.
Part of it is that, while Dahlia and Wolf are certainly compatible as friends (and proooobably more, no matter how much they doth protest) they’re also a little too similar. Pretty much every discussion they have is genial, calm, and without so much as a minor clash in opinions. Even when Wolf shows a distaste for green peppers, he immediately acquiesces to the most gentle of prodding and finds that now he loves them. Wolf is mildly worried when Dahlia proposes using a dangerous element in their crafting session, but nothing really comes of it because he simply trusts Dahlia to be safe. None of these are bad creative decisions, but it means there’s no room for friction when the two are together. Wolf’s penchant for overspending on gifts is the closest thing to a disagreement, and even that gets resolved with swift, professional negotiation. I don’t need a bunch of over-the-top odd-couple arguments, but even the most compatible people are still different people, yeah? Even just some gentle teasing would go a long way to make these two more interesting to follow through the day.
Things get a bit more engaging once the pair start working on their magic sword project. For one, it’s interesting to see low-magic folks trying to engineer a solution usually handled by enchantment. I wish there were a bit more handiwork to it, rather than Dahlia just magically carving out perfectly set notches for magic stones. However, it’s still neat seeing her run into unexpected issues and trying to come up with new workarounds. It’s fun to see the process of finding and testing solutions, even as they ultimately fail and wind up with a magic biohazard. I’m left with a lot of questions concerning how magic works in this universe exactly and what distinguishes Dahlia from these fabled wizards and alchemists. But as an example of the central idea of the whole show, it’s a solid sequence.
From there, though, things just kind of…happen. Dahlia and Wolf write this attempt off as a failure and then go back to eating some huge meals for just two people before moving onto some new “prototype” that Dahlia has apparently been hanging onto for years. Y’know, maybe her dad was right about finding somebody to help her with business because this girl has been sitting on multiple new inventions without even attempting to push them to production. Like, you’ve invented a cure for athlete’s foot, and there’s a literal army with stanky boots just begging to be magically cleansed, but you never thought to sell it? Come on! Show some initiative!
If that sounds hyperbolic, it’s only to make up for the total lack of conflict in the back third of this episode. There’s no narrative or character momentum to carry us to the next stage, so I’m left riffling around to find something interesting. Like, hey, do I detect some doomed lesbian pining from Lady Althea as she stares at her pendant of Wolf’s mom? I can’t say for certain, but I can say I’d like to explore her story and relationship with Wolf over five full minutes of random soldiers talking about their little piggies.
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Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
