Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout Season 1 Episode 10 Recap & Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sRNt93A2ZU

Chasing Down the Hunting Party

Episode 10 of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout begins with Ryza visiting Klaudia and discussing her bomb recipe troubles. They overhear Agatha and Mr. Lubart discussing problems with the Highway and the issue concerning the dragon Ryza and her friends encountered in the previous episode.

Ryza and Klaudia follow Agatha and Mr. Lubart and observe their conversation with Mr. Moritz. Mr. Moritza wants to get rid of the dragon despite someone telling him they shouldn’t. He plans to set out a dragon hunting party to deal with it.

Bos bumps into Ryza and Klaudia. He reveals he suggested his father hire a dragon hunting party. Bos wants to finish what he started with the dragon and tells Mr. Moritz and the others that he’ll join the hunting party. Ryza sits in bed as we get glimpses of her telling Lent and Tao about the hunting party. She wishes she could’ve volunteered to join the hunting party and worries for Agatha, Bos, and Lumbar’s safety.

Lent overhears his father speaking with Agatha in the morning about the dragon. Lent’s father suggests they leave the dragon alone since it’d be foolish to fight it. Lent confronts his father and asks him if he’s lost his will to fight.

Lent follows his father inside their home. He pleads with his father to hand him his sword since he wants to assist the village with the dragon issue. However, his father refuses to give it to him because he only sees Lent as a child and is not worthy of wielding it. The village sees the hunting party off, and we cut to Empel and Lila investigating an area. Lila notices scouts have been in this area and suggests they defeat them to limit the information they take back. Meanwhile, Ryza and the others discuss what happened earlier in the day.

Despite their bad blood Bos, Lent, and Tao want to help him out but are unsure what they can do. However, Ryza isn’t giving up and synthesizes a secret weapon to beat the dragon. Lent develops a plan to reach the castle and asks Ryza to use her alchemic abilities to craft items that will assist him with this plan. Klaudia insists on helping them and visits her father to ask for permission. However, he refuses despite Klaudia telling him she’s been training diligently.

Meanwhile, Tao wonders what he can do to assist Ryza and Lent with the dragon since he doesn’t believe he can contribute much. He recalls Empel’s speculation about the dragon and the stone text and contemplates. At the same time, Lent tells his father he plans to fight the dragon and pleads with him to hand him a sharper sword. His father refuses.

Ryza tries leaving her home in the morning, but she bumps into her father. Her father knows she wants to help Bos and the others with the dragon. He reveals he saw Ryza use alchemy to complete Mr. Lubart’s second challenge. He wishes Ryza good luck in defeating it but asks that she protect herself and the others from danger.

Before Lent meets up with Ryza, he notices his father left a sharper sword for him on the front porch. Lent takes it and departs. Mr. Lubart opens his window and sees Klaudia practicing archery. Klaudia leaves to visit Ryza and the others at their agreed meeting area.

The episode closes with our protagonists getting ready to head out.

The Episode Review

From what we know of our characters up to this point, it’s a no-brainer that Ryza and the others would insist on embarking on a trip to fight the dragon. Considering we’re only two chapters away from this season’s conclusion, it looks like Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout is gearing up for a thrilling and action-packed conclusion.

It’ll be interesting to see our heroes fight the dragon, now that most of them have sharpened their skills or acquired better weaponry. Unfortunately, the series didn’t spend much time fleshing out Lent’s developments with his father. While it did a great job of alluding to Lent’s father’s disdain for him, it felt minorly convenient that he’d just openly hand his son a new sword to fight the dragon. 

More time could’ve been spent on examining their relationship as many would’ve loved to see Lent’s father undergo gradual change. Furthermore, Lent and Tao indicate they received incredible training from Empel and Lila behind the scenes. It would’ve been great to have an episode or two show us how that all turned out. 

Despite the series’s shortcomings so far, this episode sets viewers up for an enjoyable, action-packed conclusion. Despite losing to the dragon in episode 9, we can expect Ryza and her friends to triumph over the dragon and save Bos and the others from their ends. As to how it’ll all go down still begs to be seen. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to seeing it.