Romelia War Chronicle ‒ Episodes 1-3
The first episodes of Romelia War Chronicle that I covered for this Fall's Preview Guide made a remarkably strong showcase for this more grounded take on the “Scorned Noblewoman” subgenre of fantasy anime. Beyond the solid production values and the generally compelling world-building, the standout element of the whole experience was easily the title character herself. Thanks to a smart and reserved script that avoids spelling everything out for the audience, we were encouraged to examine Romelia as a proper character and leader in her own right, rather than a mere collection of cliched tropes and genre signifiers.
This week, Romelia and her motley crew of recruits are heading out to battle for the very first time, and the show is very intelligent in how it handles the buildup to the battle. Al and Ray are acting as audience surrogates of sorts, because they want to get into their leader's head just as much as we do. Will this calm and confident young woman really prove to be the leader their people need to push back the hordes of monsters that have been left in the Demon King's wake? Or is this just another arrogant noble's doomed attempt to ink their name into the annals of history with the blood of the regular soldiers who died under their command?
Obviously, it's not very likely that this rousing fantasy anime is going to be all about a feckless nincompoop who has no idea what she's doing, but it's still important to capture the tension that is rippling through Romelia's ranks. It's also worth noting that the premiere did establish that Romelia never actually ended up helping much with any of her party's battles, so even though we have the benefit of the fourth wall and all of its metafictional knowledge on our side, this is the first time that we're getting to see how Romelia fares, too. Amusingly, it quickly becomes clear that Romelia actually is a pretty terrible fighter, but the show doesn't play this as a joke. She makes up for whatever strength and agility she lacks with a damned keen eye for strategy and effective leadership. If nothing else, this is one of the most effective portrayals of military leadership and tactics that I've seen in an anime for quite some time.
If Romelia War Chronicle took the path of so many of its contemporaries and assumed that its audience had the intelligence and attention spans of common forest squirrels, none of this development would be anywhere near as effective. We would have learned about Romelia's “Grace” power within the opening minutes of episode one, and this entire fight would have been filled with obvious explanations of how Romelia's supernatural buffs are the only reason her army is winning. Instead, this episode introduces Romelia's commentary very organically, to the point that I wasn't even entirely sure at first if the whole “Grace” angle was simply meant to be taken as metaphor.
Take the scene where Romelia gives Ray an object lesson in execution, for example. I don't know how much any of this “Grace” stuff factors into how inspiring or convincing Romelia is during one-on-one conversations, but it doesn't really matter, because the drama of the moment was powerful enough. It's clear when Romelia coldly informs Ray that he needs to learn how to be okay with the maiming and killing of the demons they're fighting. Nobody can deny that this woman was born to lead her men into the hellfire of battle, regardless of whatever heavenly bonuses may be helping them along.
If I had to pinpoint what is making Romelia War Chronicle so successful in these early episodes, it would be the story's complexity. The world feels truly lived in, the battles have genuine weight, and none of the characters can be reduced to cartoonish or contrived caricatures. We may have started this fantasy by replaying one of the most tired clichés of this generation of anime, but Romelia War Chronicle feels like a story meant for real grown-ups. Hallelujah.
Rating:
Romelia War Chronicle 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.
discuss this in the forum |
back to Romelia War Chronicle
Episode Review homepage / archives
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.