Rage of Bahamut Genesis

Episode 10

Rage of Bahamut Genesis is not a deep show. There isn't really anything to say about its thematic meat, because it doesn't have any. It's just a rip-roaring good time. This makes it a difficult show to write about week after week, limiting me to discussion of its technical merits and the surface details of plot and character arcs. Thankfully, this week was finally the exception to that rule. Rage of Bahamut did something original with its well-worn fantasy formula, that wasn't just about spectacle and bombast. It's something it's been building to for a while now, but this week it finally blossomed.

Amira is the type of character we see a lot in fantasy series: the Mystical Artifact Girl, who is part person and part object, a walking MacGuffin. These girls (and the character is nearly always female) are rarely given very much complexity in their background or personality. If they have a role in the story beyond being the Mystical Artifact, it's usually as a love interest, often in the form of a damsel for the hero to save once she's served her purpose. Giving depth to the Mystical Artifact Girl is anathema to her object status, and her role in the story.

Amira was set up this way early on, but she always had more personality than most of these girls, full of pluck and childlike naïveté. As the story went on, her arc became more and more about the lonely existence that comes with being a human MacGuffin. I'm not sure if I believe her demon sensei that her happy memories with her mother are false ones. (After all, why would that knight's story support them?) Still, merely being told that you were engineered specifically for one role and have no right to your own will or even emotions and memories is pretty devastating. As we watch Amira in this moment, we see how no one should ever have to be the Mystical Artifact Girl. Regardless of her origin story, she still has to watch her mother disintegrate in her arms, finally losing the woman who was both her goal in life to meet and proof of her purpose beyond housing a key. None of this is at all new to anime, but it's one thing to see the Mystical Artifact Girl explored in a more artsy story like Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's another to see it in action-adventure fluff like Bahamut.

By contrast, I thought Jeanne would be the more compelling of our two angelic ladies at first. Her name gave her historical and literary baggage, and last week dug into how she'd done everything right in life and was still misunderstood by the people she worked to protect. Yet this episode, like before, only dangled that before shunting her in a completely different direction—by having her turn into a demon. I'm sure this isn't the end of her story, especially considering who else the demons lured to their side this week. If it isn't a permanent transformation for Jeanne, at very least it doesn't mean a permanent change in sides. Still, it's kind of frustrating to get the first flush of depth we ever saw from her, and it have it only last for a second before it's snatched away. (Also, are she-demons always so scantily-clad? It looks a bit odd to see the armor-clad soldier suddenly fighting in a flimsy pink crop top.)

On the other hand, Favaro's position in the same boat yields a far more fascinating story. His arc is all about him learning that he can't constantly fly by the seats of pants, and has to stick to some tough choices sometimes. The end of the previous episode set him up for this, with the dragon's stern warning that Favaro needed to kill one of his closest allies. Still, Favaro tries to have his cake and eat it too, and he pays dearly for it this time. He pretends to join the demons' side, ready to pull a fast one when their backs are turned—but of course, his mortal weapons and wits are no match for superpowered ones. The demons get the better of him and force him to their side for real. Kaisar watches on in adorable and heartbreaking despair as they shove a demon bud down Favaro's throat. Unlike Jeanne, Favaro didn't even briefly consider joining them voluntarily. For all his disloyalty and capriciousness in the past, Favaro has grown some strong convictions.

As for the technical stuff, Bahamut seems to be getting its brightness problem under tighter control. Scenes like Jeanne's demon transformation and Amira hugging her mother looked far better than similar fare in previous weeks. The second in particular was one of the most original visual spectacles I've seen from this show so far, and that's no small feat.

For a dumb swashbuckling action show, Rage of Bahamut Genesis has shown over and over again that it can be smart when it wants to be. The character writing is the best evidence of this, and what this episode revealed about Amira and Favaro brought that to light. Now, if only it can give Jeanne and the rest of its main cast the same depth they deserve.

Rating: A

Rage of Bahamut Genesis is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rose is a graduate student in musicology, who has written about anime and many other topics for Autostraddle.com and her own blog. She tweets at @composerose.