Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Alchemy is an Explosion

Episode 8 of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout begins with Lent, Tao, and Klaudia visiting Ryza about a new task Mr. Lubart has planned for them.

Ryza and company arrive at their destination. Ryza’s surprised that Mr. Moritz and Agatha are with Mr. Lubart. They inform Ryza they’re here because their next task involves them cleaning up an area of junk left by an old building using her alchemy. They want her and the others to complete this task within ten days before someone important arrives.

Although Agatha isn’t sure Ryza can handle the task, Ryza tells Agatha she’ll complete it within a week. Ryza tells the others she wants to synthesize bombs to blow up the stones and wood. However, Lent and Tao warn her that the bombs will be too dangerous to set off here. Ryza visits Atelier Ryza to think of a plan. Empel arrives and hands Ryza a book filled with advanced alchemy recipes. This gives Ryza an idea of how she can create bombs that won’t leave the whole town a mess, along with the stone and wood.

Tao, Lent, and Klaudia find Ryza and her equipment at Empel’s place. Ryza asks Tao if he can help her with note-taking. Meanwhile, Lent and Klaudia head outside to train. After having lunch and dedicating time to testing her newly-made bombs, Ryza visits the junk’s location to investigate and plan. Agatha asks Ryza if she can complete the task since the deadline’s approaching. Suddenly, Mr. Pat arrives, hands Ryza some snacks, and tells Agatha how Ryza used alchemy to solve his and others’ issues. This reassures Agatha that Ryza can get the job done.

A day later, everyone from the village stops by the site to witness Ryza utilize her alchemy to whisk the junk away. Thankfully, Ryza’s plan succeeds, and she impresses every villager. Mr. Lubart tells her they’ve passed the second test. Bos encounters our group later, but he’s still not impressed by Ryza’s alchemy. Klaudia wonders if her father set up this challenge to get people to recognize Ryza’s abilities. Agatha bumps into Ryza later and asks her if she can fix an ornament for her.

Meanwhile, Romy goes around spreading narratives about Ryza’s incredible abilities. A few villagers question if she and her friends could solve their issues, upsetting Samuel (Lent’s father). Mio (Ryza’s mother) asks Samuel if hearing Lent receive praise is bothering him. Samuel turns the question on Mio and leaves. Meanwhile, Ryza heads for the dock and tells Agatha she fixed her ornament. Agatha attaches the ornament to her sword and says it shows she’s an esquire, a knight who hasn’t been appointed.

Despite passing the test to become a fully-fledged knight, Agatha decided to become this island’s guardian instead. She didn’t like how the other knights acted and missed her days on this island. Ryza believes living in the royal capital would’ve been a better route for Agatha. However, Agatha reminds Ryza how much her relationship with the other villagers has changed. The episode closes with Ryza asking Agatha more questions about the royal capital.

The Episode Review

This was another fine chapter of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout. It shows how far Ryza has come as an alchemist and demonstrates how she’s starting to earn respect from many of the villagers. Although she has her naysayers like Bos and Lumbarr, she’s still striving for her dreams alongside her friends. While it’s great seeing Ryza accomplish this task, it’s upsetting that Lent, Tao, and Klaudia didn’t assist Ryza in some form. After all, you’d think Mr. Lubart would want everyone to appear strong in front of him. 

So far, we’ve only received small glimpses of Lent and Tao putting in the effort to grow as people. Although they assisted Klaudia in calling over Empel to motivate Ryza with the advanced alchemy recipe book, it would’ve been great to see them train in their respective fields more. On that note, it would’ve made the scene between Samuel and Mio more effective. With the series reaching its end soon, it’ll make viewers question if proper character development for Lent and Tao will occur. 

Hopefully, we’ll at least see these characters participate in some activities that’ll demonstrate their growth. Otherwise, it could lead to them growing off-screen, which could be bothersome for people who want to witness their progress in real-time.

Overall, this episode was decent at best and shows our protagonists completing more tasks to gain approval and respect from the island’s residents. Hopefully, we can expect more exciting developments to happen in the upcoming chapters.