REVIEW: ‘Reincarnated as a Sword,’ Episode 11 – “The Wolf Summoned Hither”

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 11 is another mixed bag of an episode that somewhat needlessly teaches viewers even more about the anime’s fantasy, combat, and magic elements while revealing how capable one of our protagonists truly is.

The episode resumes the last episode’s events by showing Fran’s weakness against a new monster she’s faced with without the sword. Thankfully, all the adventurers show camaraderie by dropping everything to find the isolated Fran, who’s more in danger as time passes. As the adventurers form groups and split up to find Fran and their other missing members, the sword scrambles his brain to find a way to rescue Fran. He eventually comes up with the idea to summon a familiar with the skill to locate items and people. The anime then uses this opportunity to give the viewers another lesson about summons, their need for names, and their relationships with mana. While informative, this scene felt unnecessary, especially with the sense of urgency the anime quickly set from the first few minutes of the episode.

Thankfully, the scene is short and the episode quickly moves on to the summon and its goal of finding Fran. Meanwhile, Fran holds her own against the spider monster, but not well, as the episode reveals she’s not very powerful or skillful without her sword. She noticeably couldn’t use any magical skills and. without a sword, it’s not clear whether or not she’s even capable of using standard or advanced sword skills on her own. This also proves my suspicions that she isn’t much of a protagonist if all her skills can be taken away by separating her from the sword. 

The episode also seemingly clears up the confusion of whether Fran gains the skills shared with her with the sword permanently or if they are temporary and can only be used while in possession of the sword. With this answer revealed, it’s now clear that Fran’s journey to being an evolved black cat may be a long one, despite proving to be a very resourceful warrior. The rest of the episode progresses much like the previous episodes, with the same light-hearted hijinks and tropes seen in those episodes. 

My major gripes with the episode are how everything wraps up too quickly and easily and how it doesn’t spend enough time exploring the elements it brings up, resulting in it ending very similar to almost every prior episode. And speaking of samey elements, the action in this episode was quite minimal, and in case anyone was wondering, the anime still uses the same song in this episode’s fight scenes as with the other episodes, and it seems that won’t change this season.

Aside from that, there isn’t much else to say about Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 11. While it highlights Fran in a new way, it fails to fulfill any of my expectations for storytelling yet again. And with the next episode being the last, I doubt that will change. However, judging by the ending of this episode, it’s safe to say we can likely anticipate a big fight to wrap up the season, regardless of where the story leaves off. 

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 11 is streaming now on HIDIVE.