REVIEW: ‘Reincarnated as a Sword’ Episode 7 – “The Horrible Lieutenant of the Knights Brigade”

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 7 gives me hope that the anime might end up being a decent isekai anime with some semblance of a cohesive narrative. The episode introduces new characters and fleshes out previously established plot points. 

Episode 7 continues where the last left off by introducing a new obnoxious royal villain named August Allsand, who berates and accuses Fran of stealing materials she fairly earned in the previous episode. Unfortunately, as this world has odd politics, the materials she earned aren’t entirely hers, and this nobleman claims to have a stake in it for the royals and the knights he represents. Fran and the Sword decide to get some payback by using the skill thief ability they acquired in the last episode to steal the skills he used to falsely accuse Fran. This, of course, ends up being a catalyst for an even more serious event that occurs in the last few minutes of the episode. 

The first half of the episode highlights an integral part of the anime’s world not touched on before: the politics between the adventurer’s guild and the knights’ brigade. It’s revealed that while the guild has processes for hiring adventurers and assigning quests, the knights still have influence and power over how said quests can go. And should the quests succeed with their assistance, the knights have a share in the rewards and spoils. It also revealed that the knights have their politics, most of which include using royal money to rank up and climb up the ladder, and that the adventurer’s guild has an association that approves individual adventurers’ rank, which was revealed through Fran’s rank up in the episode. While short, I found these scenes surprisingly satisfying and do a good job showing off the world-building, albeit in a minimal manner.

After being celebrated and rewarded for her valiant heroics in the last episode, Fran and the Sword go on a quest to find the most scrumptious ingredients to make a delectable-looking Curry meal. The montage showing the characters acquiring the ingredients, cooking, and tasting the meals displayed their goofy sides yet again and was the most entertaining part of the episode. 

That said, it’s still it’s to ignore the surprising scene near the halfway point of the episode that shows a short dream of the protagonist before becoming the sword which hints that the transformation may not have been an instantaneous and unexplained one. This is undoubtedly a huge deal for the plot as it now provides a clue to the basic things that should’ve bled earlier, and it only took seven whole episodes to do so. This, coupled with the additional characters and details revealed at the end of the episode, proves the anime is finally dedicated to evolving the narrative despite the snail pace of the progression seen in all the previous episodes.

Overall, Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 7 was another great episode featuring a good blend of the anime’s best attributes. It’s a shame the series took this long to progress its narrative, but if it continues on its current trajectory, it might just become a competent isekai.

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 7 is streaming now on HIDIVE.