Izetta: The Last Witch

Episode 9

I've made no secret about how inclined I am to liking this series, as many of its concepts and story elements align almost perfectly with my tastes. Because of that, I have been more willing to overlook some minor faults that have been a problem for some others. However, episode 9 goes far enough off the tracks that I have to reluctantly admit some of those fears about the writing voiced back at the beginning of the series are now being realized. The big plot twist that lands this episode – one that I didn't see coming – depends on some incredibly shaky logic.

To be clear, I fully expected something like what happened in this episode in a more general sense. It was practically a given that Germania was going to come up with some way to stop Izetta and perhaps even recapture her, which would mean bad things for Eylstadt. It was also pretty much a given that Berkman's pet witch (who we now know is named Sophie) was going to be involved, as was the red stone that turned up last episode. However, I did not anticipate that Sophie would actually be the clone of the original White Witch, one Germania had been trying to develop for years after digging up remains located via an obscure and forgotten scroll. Granted, Nazi Germany was involved in some pretty out-there scientific research, and exotic extrapolations of this idea come up regularly in more fantastical interpretations of World War II, but even by that standard, this development is a huge reach. It might have been a little more plausible if knowledge of DNA existed at that time, and it would be much more plausible if magic was made available to the Germanians to jump-start the process, but neither of those options is confirmed here. It just requires too much suspension of disbelief.

The personality Sophie comes out with is not as extreme a problem. After all, since witch's blood is involved, the magic involved in calling the original White Witch's spirit into a copy of her body is not so unbelievable, and given the supposed true ending of her story, it's easy to understand why she might have such a mad hate for Eylstadt or want so badly to detach Izetta from potentially fatal loyalties. It will be interesting to see how she relates to the captured Izetta going forward; will she just be Izetta's enemy now, or will she keep attempting to sway Izetta away from her allegiance to Finé? Also, for as smart and perceptive as Berkman is, I seriously doubt that he has as tight a rein on her as he thinks. What happens when she is satisfied with her revenge on Eylstadt? I seriously doubt she's going to tolerate anyone controlling her or hold any allegiances, but hey, this series has already disappointed me a couple of times with its story development.

All of this washes out what could have been some interesting innovations. The torpedo incident a couple of episodes ago leading to torpedo-like missiles for Izetta to guide is a cool concept, as is the notion that the red stone can apparently cancel magic respective to a certain target. Also seemingly left behind in this twist is the importance of where Izetta can and cannot use her magic. What was the whole point to playing that up if they were not going to use it?

Despite my displeasure with this whole cloning business, I still want to see how this scenario plays out, as I think the series could salvage itself with some good conversations between Izetta and Sophie. Also, seeing Finé reduced to being a resistance member within her own country has potential too. So yeah, this is the low point of the series so far, but there's plenty of room and potential for it to start ascending.

Rating: C+

Izetta: The Last Witch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.