REVIEW: ‘Reincarnated as a Sword’ Episode 2 – “The Hellish Trial at the Adventurer’s Guild”

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 2  begins with Fran and her “teacher,” the sword, deciding to become adventurers to earn money and acquire a room for board. They quickly head over to the adventurer’s guild, with Fran receiving nasty comments and unfair treatment along the way due to her being a member of the black cat beastkin race known as Kuroneko. Upon arriving at the guild, the pair are asked to take a combat test to qualify to be guild members, and this is where the sole major fight scene occurs and where the episode peaks in terms of entertainment and engagement—unfortunately, Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 2 doesn’t do much to improve the previous episode’s poor storytelling and a lackluster narrative.

The fight scene is a little longer than the previous episode, as the challenger is much more formidable this time. Fran uses both attacks and spells to down her opponent through another beautifully animated combat scene. However, there is a noticeable lack of movement in this episode’s fight scene especially compared to the previous episode, which managed to showcase Fran’s speed and mobility quite well. But what this episode’s fight scene lacks in longevity and mobility, it makes up for with its crisp visual effects and a consistently fantastic soundtrack that only seems to really get going during fight scenes.

The episode’s narrative structure is quite simple and easy to follow, which admittedly disappointed me, as said story so far is incredibly predictable. The episode starts off with Fran being discriminated against and unsurprisingly ends with Fran being discriminated against by shallow villains with the most basic backgrounds who get predictably overwhelmed by Fran’s strength. 

It’s also worth noting that the anime has yet to receive any significant narrative plot point as it’s so far still in its early stages, featuring Fran and the sword going on adventures together. However, we are also not given any clue that this might change any time soon, and judging by the trajectory of the anime, it’s quite hard to be hopeful. Lastly, while the anime’s production quality is so far consistently impeccable, my main fear is that the fight scenes and animation will be the only entertaining factors of the show as the narrative and most characters are incredibly dull thus far.

Overall, the second episode of Reincarnated as a Sword was, in a word, disappointing. While it thankfully proves that the production quality will remain consistent, it fails to explain several narrative points left in the air from the previous episode and doesn’t make any effort at proper world-building or creating a narrative that separates it from other generic isekai anime so far. However, as this is just the second episode, one can only hope it changes soon, but I won’t be holding my breath. 

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 2 is streaming now on HI DIVE.