The Heartlessness of War – ‘Ulysses: Jeanne d’Arc and the Alchemist Knight’ Episode 6 Review

What’s the show? Ulysses: Jeanne d’Arc and the Alchemist Knight, Episode 6.

So how’s this episode? It’s… very dramatic and brutal, let’s just say that.

No, let’s not just say ~just~ that, you’ve got a review to write, you know? Spoilers obviously but Jeanne freakin’ dies at the end of the episode. The 12-year-old title character gets her heart ripped out of her chest by a “Ulysses hunter” with a spear that’s made out of the same spearhead that punctured Jesus’ side while he was on the cross. Her impaled heart then explodes while a crowd of English soldiers (a.k.a the bad guys) rush in to try and tear the philosopher’s stone out of her body. She’s whisked away by an ally on horseback before they can, but I tell you what… that’s one ~metal~ way to end an episode!

“Metal”? Huh… I guess that’s one word for it. So you kind of skipped right to the end there as you tend to do in your rush to get the most ~exciting~ part of the episode on paper. What about the rest of the episode? It’s fairly standard stuff for this show, a lot of talking about doing things, then doing things, a lot of rushed scenes as they try and cram as many light novels as they can into the series. But unlike, say, ‘The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar’ from last season the pacing is at least more even here. Also, Philippe, one of their herself into “Black Ulysses” which basically means she’s no longer an androgynous-looking girl and instead has a rocking pair of boobs and a skimpy outfit to match. Also she dies alongside Jeanne at the end of the episode, her heart skewered alongside the little loli’s.

Philippe, there’s something different about you but I can’t quite put my finger on it… maybe I should try a whole hand instead!

For such a gruesome and dramatic ‘end’ you don’t seem all that broken up about it… #justsaying… This is episode six and Jeanne’s one of the title characters, unless this is one of the ballsiest anime out there, there’s no way they killed her off–Jeanne I mean, Philippe might actually be dead, which would be sad. But yeah, I don’t think this death is a permanent one, not to theorise too much but, well… Montmorency is an alchemist after all and (especially in anime) they love dabbling in taboo things like resurrections and what not.

Okay but forgetting what might happen for a second, how was the actual episode and that final scene in particular? As I said at the start of the review, it was “dramatic”, it didn’t feel cheap or unearned and I genuinely felt ~upset~ by the death. I mean who wouldn’t, she’s a 12 year old girl bleeding out and terrified of dying, the scene is effective and once again proves that this show can pull off some serious material when it needs to.

Anything else you wanted to add? There’s an interesting moment when Jeanne and Montorency are in bed together (just sleeping) when Montmorency confides in Astaroth (the fairy Queen) that he’s worried about a sense of attraction forming between Jeanne and himself. Worried because she’s 12 and that’s–well probably not illegal in this time period but something he still feels concerned about. And this is interesting because in the previous episode Astaroth gave him the name ‘Gilles de Rais’ tying his character to a real life historical figure from the same period (much like most of the other characters in this anime are) and if you know anything about the ~alleged~ crimes the real life Gilles de Rais was executed for it makes you wonder just how dark this show might end up going. If you don’t know who Gilles de Rais is–and I admit I only knew who he was from a Cradle of Filth song–it makes for a fascinating, if disturbing read. Other than that we were re-introduced to Batard, a legendary tier ‘trap’ character as well as some awkward looking CGI throughout. Overall, a really great episode!