REVIEW: ‘Reincarnated as a Sword’ Episode 8 – “The Villainous Blue Cat”

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 8 is an episode that is solely dedicated to displaying character depth and an interesting part of the narrative, which no episode has done before. The episode picks up from where the last left off, but begins with bloody revenge. A new Blue Cat villain named “Gyuran the Legion Slayer” is introduced, and Fran is terrified upon meeting them. It’s quickly revealed that Blue Cats have been the mortal enemies of Black Cats ever since they deceived them in the past and began torturing, killing, and selling them into slavery.

It’s never revealed what exactly occurred in the past between the two races, which is unfortunate, as it seemed like a missed opportunity to flesh out the storytelling and world-building. However, things progressively get worse as Gyuran also reveals that he’s tormented many Black Cats and that he’s taken pleasure in killing, maiming, and doing all manner of horrible things to them just because he could.

This unsurprisingly leaves Fran distressed, but thanks to the Sword, she quickly turns that emotion to seething rage and uses it to give him a taste of his own medicine, murdering him in the most brutal fashion she can. This scene is as shocking as it is engaging. It also further emphasizes the anime’s willingness to go into dark subjects, which is no surprise, considering its frequent use of gore. It also proves the characters have much more depth to them than just being caricatures meant to go on soulless, albeit well-animated adventures. Additionally, the episode does well to highlight Fran’s real trauma and her surprisingly dark ideology.

However, while the episode manages to do all that in a single scene, it also cuts that scene incredibly short and fails to detail this new character, who seemed to be a big deal. Instead, he’s quickly killed off in the first few minutes of the episode as it returns to the regularly scheduled light-hearted adventures—as if the series is afraid of being too dark. It also makes the episode’s pacing incredibly jarring and leaves a weird feeling that stays throughout the episode.

It’s not all bad, however, as while not much else happens in the episode, we are introduced to a character named Amanda, an A-rank adventurer who’s taken a liking to Fran. She follows her throughout town, and when Fran is given a new mission to head into the next dungeon, she decides to tag along for unknown reasons. However, judging by the episode’s final minutes, she may or may not be as friendly as she seems.

Overall, Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 8 was another mixed bag. It focused on the characters and narrative, but in a lackluster way and featured no action scenes whatsoever. Yet, I still admittedly found it satisfying. It still shows viewers a side of the characters not seen before, more details about its world, and, thankfully, more narrative development. The next episode should be interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses the plot.. 

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 8 is streaming now on HIDIVE.