Sword Oratoria Episode 12 (Final) Review

Hello everyone! I hope all of you have been doing great! Unfortunately, this is going to be the review of the very last episode of Sword Oratoria and to be honest I am feeling quite a bit down. This one was hard to write, not just because the episode was packed with action but also because I grew to love Danmachi. I got connected to all of its characters, and thanks to Sword Oratoria, a new side of the story became quite clear to me. If you have followed all of my previous reviews, you might remember I have mentioned a couple of times that I never expected to like the show. Danmachi had always stroke me like the most generic and cliche ecchi/harem/fan service anime. And of course, I cannot deny that these elements are present in the anime as well as in the light novels (which I started reading just a couple of days ago, by the way), yet there is so much more to it: struggle, friendship, goals, dreams, betrayals, and so SO much more.

Danmachi is a better version of say Sword Art Online (yes, I know that the setting is very different, but you can classify both of those as RPGs). The characters have depth, they make you grow to love them, and they develop and mature and a proper pace. And not only the main characters, even the supporting ones are designed to function properly in this universe.

But okay, that was a long introduction, so let’s just move on and see what the final episode of Sword Oratoria was like. Off we go!

Plot

The finale episode was pretty much concentrated on the fight between the Loki Familia and the Spirit. As you might have guessed, a Spirit is not a regular opponent, and not somebody who would be easily defeated. I’m going to jump to the information that we got at the end of the episode and say that Spirits have originally been designed by the gods to protect the people of Orario. But this particular Spirit that we got to see had submerged into a regular monster; if you can call it regular of course. It is the strongest and the most formidable foe that the adventurers of Danmachi have met in the two seasons. It is not only extremely powerful, it can also enchant, and nonetheless is capable of consecutive chanting. I’m not even talking the incredible speed the Spirit could chant its spells with.

Fighting an opponent you know nothing about and who is much much stronger than probably all of you together is not an easy feat to accomplish.

But long story short, after going through a lot of trial (and by a lot of I mean A LOT) and after making us doubt the safety of some characters, they finally manage to bring the Spirit down. Well, to be a bit more precise, Aiz manages to bring it down. Of course, she doesn’t do this all by herself, the other members of the group help her, back her up, and guess what? Lefiya actually proves to be useful for once (yes, yes, I’m one of those people who isn’t exactly fond of Lefiya, but more about that in the series review article).

Everybody is happy, everybody goes home safe. Happy ending. … or is it?

Episode Highlights

My favorite part of the episode for me was Finn’s speech. I guess in a way it is his task and duty to give speeches like that, speeches that will help his teammates gain some morale and keep fighting. However, this time the speech was quite affected by the sight of Bell in the dungeon fighting the Minotaur. Having almost all of the members at action present when Bell’s duel occurred, it helped boost their fighting spirits. For Lefiya, who wasn’t there, this was more like a push. We all know she’s been jealous of Bell for a while now, and seeing her teammates pushing themselves beyond their limits just because they were reminded about Bell makes her even more jealous and pitiful. Thanks to this, however, she manages to provide the essential support to Aiz.

Themes & Trivia

This was a fighting episode. An episode where a team of strong adventurers meets an even stronger enemy, an enemy of such strength that will challenge their existence itself. This is their trial and hardship on their way to obtaining more power. But because of the motives of the episode, it was extremely fast-paced and action-packed. Sometimes this is a good thing. When you can’t get a breather and the episode ends without you realizing it, it can be refreshing. But I don’t think this was a good choice for a final episode. Finales should usually bring you answers. They should close all the open doors, and they shouldn’t leave you with more questions. And some very important things were left unanswered. Let’s pray for a season two of Danmachi (just in case you hadn’t realized, Sword Oratoria is not the second season of Danmachi, it’s a spin-off).

Comments

I’m just going to leave the best dialogue in the history of Danmachi here. You think of the rest:

Gareth: Damn that cocky little Prum. Oy, you disagreeable Elf. You gonna sleep all day?

Riveria: Shut up, you Dwarf savage. Will you ever lose that glib tongue of yours?

I ASK YOU FOR COURAGE!

The end is here. It is time to say goodbye. Many people are not exactly happy with the spin-off and I can see why. Some of us hoped for more Bell, some of us were annoyed with Lefiya, some others hoped that the spin-off would be centered on Aiz rather than Lefiya. But either way we went through it and finished a whole season. I am still thankful for getting a spin-off instead of nothing.

I do hope that you enjoyed Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darouka Gaiden: Sword Oratoria to a degree, and I hope you didn’t find my reviews too boring. Thank you for sticking to my reviews for this whole season! I hope we meet again!

Did you like the final episode of Sword Oratoria? Let us know in the comments below by using either the forum or the Facebook tab! Join us in our new forum and let’s talk about our favorite series! Also, don’t forget to check the last of our episodic anime reviews and the first series reviews for Spring 2017, and then go straight to our new Summer 2017 reviews!