Wistoria: Wand and Sword Season 2 ‒ Episode 5

Alrighty, now that we've all had the chance to celebrate the belated conclusion to Wistoria's first season, we can settle into the aftermath of Will Serfort's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (but Also Pretty Badass) Day. As it turns out, despite the near destruction of the entire Academy and surrounding city, things are pretty chill! Well, that might be a terribly insensitive turn of phrase, since the only person that we know of who actually died was, you know…Rosty…

The more I think on it, the more I think it was a mistake for Wistoria to pull its punches and preserve basically every member of the cast up until now save for ol' Rosty Nowman. Let's be honest, even if Rosty wasn't just a fancy, magical golem for Elfaria to puppet from long-distance (which I still definitely believe he was), it isn't like Rosty was the most developed or beloved student at the Academy. For as much as the battle of the last four episodes was presented as a grim and climactic point of no return, a whole lot of folks sure did end up returning. I would have even been fine if Wistoria had just committed to killing off Workner, since it would have added some much-needed thematic weight to the proceedings. For Will to lose his beloved mentor is a sure sign that he is crossing the dark threshold into adulthood. Instead, we just lost that one roommate of Will's who the show swears was totally his best friend the entire time, even if we never saw any of their bonding happen on screen until all of these flashbacks.

Ah, well. As those extended and wistful credits last week made sure to communicate to us, Wistoria is moving on to a brand new phase of its “real” story (since those first sixteen episodes were just the Prologue, I guess). At the very least, ensuring that everyone has stuck around for this new act means that Wistoria has all the more opportunity to develop its characters and tell interesting stories with them. As for this week, though? We're very much in the exact sort of low-key transition mode that you'd expect from an anime after expending so much of its energy (and budget) on a month-long battle. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing. If the show is going to start branching out beyond the walls of the school, we'll need plenty of world-building and plot setup to make sure that all of it matters.

Still, anyone who has ever watched a lengthy anime aimed at teenage boys can tell you that the post-battle cooldown is never anyone's favorite part of the story. To its credit, Wistoria tries to flex some of its muscles by tossing in some arbitrary conflict between the Magia Vanders and whatnot, but make no mistake. The Wistoria Train has taken an extended break in Exposition Town to restock and refuel. The conductor will let us all know when it's time to gett rolling again, but we've got some time to kill until then.

Here's a perfect example of where Wistoria is at as a television show. This week, “The Day of Departure" concludes with the long-awaited graduation ceremony that gets a shocking twist when Will is suddenly announced as one of the graduating members of his class. It's a heartwarming moment that you love to see for our put-upon hero…Except, I had completely forgotten that his graduation was even in question until right this moment. There was all that stuff about failing the test because of that bogus question, but that was such a tiny blip in the narrative that came in the middle of two very long and very busy arcs that consisted almost entirely of action. If I have one hope for this next stage of Wistoria's story, it's that the show can take the time to make the parts of its story that don't involve Will hitting stuff with his sword just as interesting as the parts that do.

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Wistoria: Wand and Sword is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.