REVIEW: ‘Reincarnated as a Sword,’ Episode 9 – “The Monstrous Rank A Adventurer”

After taking a break from the usual monster of the week structure last week, Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 9 succeeds in being perhaps the most exciting episode so far in terms of action, and is an episode that reveals more about the series and Fran.

The episode starts as Fran begins her expedition to “The Spider’s Web” dungeon with her fellow adventurers of varying ranks. Before entering the dungeon or even learning anything about it, Fran’s participation is quickly and violently questioned by one of her insufferable associates, which quickly leads to a violent altercation between the two. This results in the first fight scene, but a short one, as its only purpose is seemingly to show how Fran deserves her ranking and how weak many adventurers are compared to her. However, this changes dramatically when Amanda, the A-rank adventurer who’s tagging along in the expedition, decides to challenge Fran to a duel after watching Fran’s performance with her previous opponent. 

With some low, silly stakes on the line, the two decide to battle, and one of the series’ longest fight scenes begins. The first thing I immediately noticed about both of the episode’s two fights is that Fran makes her own decisions, moves, and skills and does not rely much on the sword. That said, this episode’s fight scene admittedly evoked the most excitement out of me as Fran, now much stronger as an individual, goes toe to toe with the strongest character the anime has introduced so far and holds her own.

Instead of the usual one-sided bouts we’ve been forced to watch thus far, the episode shows Fran’s masterful use of her swiftness, decision-making, and magic skills to go against an overwhelming foe. The episode proves that the anime isn’t like the generic power fantasy isekai anime, as it provided a great, well-calculated, and fantastically animated fight. And without spoiling too much, the episode also succeeded in making the fight seem fair despite Fran taking on such a powerful opponent with just as many, if not more, “unfair” skills.

My only gripe this time is that while the anime succeeds at maintaining the stellar production quality, it also oddly uses the same songs for every episode, especially the track for fight scenes, which at this point is getting quite annoying to listen to despite it being a great song.

While the episode is admittedly a sidetrack to what I’m assuming will be the next major event in the anime, I still really enjoyed Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 9 purely due to its big fight scene. It’s now made the show perhaps my favorite action anime of the year in terms of pure action. However, I still look forward to seeing how the next three episodes will improve its narrative.

Reincarnated as a Sword Episode 9 is streaming now on HIDIVE.