Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

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

A Memorable Scent

Episode 3 of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout begins with Empel giving Ryza the staff he used to synthesize something in the first episode. Ryza returns home after gathering items for synthesizing purposes. However, her mother stops her and tasks her with completing an errand to Mr. Pats. Before then, she bumps into Klaudia and shares her love of alchemy with her. After hearing how things have been going with Lent, Tao, and Ryza, Klaudia admits she’s jealous. Ryza promises to visit her place after she handles her mother’s task.

At Mr. Pat’s place, Mr. Pat thanks Ryza for her delivery. We learn he plans to restart his dyeing business, has an apprentice, and that he made a dress for Ryza in the past. However, Mr. Pat says he won’t be able to craft dresses for a while because he doesn’t have specific fabric. Ryza asks Mr. Pat what fabric he needs and how much. She promises to make it using alchemy and departs to Klaudia’s place.

Klaudia welcomes Ryza with baked goods and shows Ryza her flute. She reveals that she went to the forest in episode one to practice this instrument without her father knowing. Klaudia doesn’t give a solid reason why she doesn’t want her father to see her play. However, she asks Ryza if she could play for her “someday,” confusing Ryza. Klaudia admits she’s not ready yet, but feels Ryza will help her muster up the courage she needs to play it.

Ryza stumbles across Mrs. Barbara and gives her some ointment to heal her leg. Mrs. Barbara tells Ryza that she, Pat, and Walther were the old troublesome trio of Rasenboden and liked adventuring together. Mrs. Barbara smells the ointment. It reminds her of a specific flower she received in a congratulations letter from an unknown sender for her marriage. Ryza hands Mrs. Barbara ointment as a gift and returns to Empel and Lila’s place. She asks Empel if she can leave Rasenboden to find the flower at the Pixie Forest. Empel complies but says Lila will tag along with them for supervision purposes.

Ryza and her companions arrive and search for the flower. After some failed attempts, she asks Lila if they can go deeper into the forest, and she accepts. Meanwhile, Klaudia visits Empel and is worried Ryza got the wrong intel about the flower. Empel tells Klaudia of a way she can help Ryza without leaving the island and upsetting her father’s wishes.

At the same time, Ryza finds the flower thanks to a random goat leading her to it. She visits Mrs. Barbara’s home with Klaudia to present it to her. However, Mrs. Barbara says the flower doesn’t have the same scent as the one she recalled from years ago. Ryza and Klaudia offer to help Mrs. Barbara find another flower, but she says they’ve done enough already. She and Klaudia depart. Ryza still wants to locate Mrs. Barbara’s flower. However, she wakes up the next morning, upset that she couldn’t think of a new plan. Klaudia visits Ryza’s home, and the two visit Mr. Pat’s place.

Mr. Pat arrives after performing his warehouse cleaning duties, and Ryza hands him the fabric he sought. Klaudia introduces herself to him and gets a whiff of a strong scent. Mr. Pat says the scent is Delphi Rose Incense, a product used for making tailored clothing and keeping moths away. Ryza asks Mr. Pat if he was the one who sent Mrs. Barbara the letter. Although his memory’s poor, he believes he did send it to her and forgot to put his name on it. Klaudia explains how she traced Mrs. Barbara’s flower to Mr. Pat, and he tells her how impressive that is. Unfortunately, Mr. Pat tells the girls he doesn’t have any more Delphi Rose Incense, inspiring Ryza to make the flower using alchemy.

After noticing the method of making it wasn’t in Empel’s collection book, she visits his place to ask him to teach her how to make it. Although Empel says it’s a tough product to make, he hands Ryza a rare material that will allow her to make it. Ryza successfully synthesizes the Delphi Rose Incense and visits Mrs. Barbara to sprinkle some on her flower. Mrs. Barbara confirms this is the smell she recalls and thanks the girls for their hard work. She plans to visit Mr. Pat to thank him for the letter after receiving intel from Ryza. Ryza and Klaudia leave. Ryza reminds Klaudia that she’s a part of her team of adventurers.

Klaudia and Ryza visit a cliff, and Klaudia asks Ryza if she can play her flute in front of her. Klaudia plays her flute, and Ryza loves the sound of it. Meanwhile, Mr. Pat and Mrs. Barbara visit Walther’s grave for their reunion.

The episode closes with Ryza praising Klaudia for her flute playing and Mrs. Barbara leaving the flower at Walther’s grave.

The Episode Review

It appears we’re still slowly moving along with the plot of this show. While it’s great Ryza’s tackling new side quests for people in Rasenboden that have some connections to her past, it doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten into the meat of the series yet. Somehow, Lent feels the most relatable in this episode since he’s impatient and questioning Lila’s reasons for not teaching him things he doesn’t know yet. 

Although this episode felt bland, it gives viewers some developments with Ryza’s alchemic journey. She now wields a staff that’ll come in handy for her in the future. It’s a small but nice upgrade compared to what she was initially using. The reunion between Mrs. Barbara, Mr. Pat, and Walther was bittersweet and touching. It was saddening learning that Walther bit the bucket and couldn’t physically be there with his former friends. It would’ve been a beautiful sight to see after all these years of them being apart.

In conclusion, this was another decent chapter of this anime. Nothing spectacular happened this week besides Klaudia developing the courage to play her flute in front of Ryza. That in itself felt somewhat rushed and not as impactful as it could’ve been. Nonetheless, there are still many chapters left of this show. Hopefully, things will pick up soon.