English Dub Review: Wistoria: Wand and Sword “Between Pride and Passion”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sion suddenly attacks Will in the middle of their event at the Grand Magic Festival.  Sion’s emotions fuel his magic as Will struggles to understand Sion’s actions.  Meanwhile, Julius draws ever closer to the stadium and winning the event.

Our Take:

Were we even surprised that Sion’s hatred toward Will got the better of him?  Let’s be honest. Sion is obviously someone you’d love to punch just to shut them up.  However, as it turns out, Sion has reasons for acting this way, as he wants Will’s acceptance as his rival, but Will refuses because he was constantly bullied by other students.  However, if Sion’s willing to lose the team tournament to fulfill his jealousy toward Will, then I’m sorry.  He deserves to be ridiculed just as much as Julius.  There’s nothing wrong with a character who’s nothing but a seemingly unredeemable asshat as long as their reasonings are understandable and their traits are tolerable.

Unfortunately, Sion has yet to have those elements and comes across as annoyingly short-tempered instead of a character we love to hate.  The previous episode and “Between Pride and Passion” are no exceptions, with Sion attacking Will out of hatred while Julius attacks the other teams with his clones.  What is with characters throwing temper tantrums at the worst possible time?  Fortunately, Colette eventually intervenes to give Sion a piece of her mind following her confrontation with Julius, further indicating her as my favorite supporting character in Wistoria.  However, that’s not to say I was constantly annoyed by this episode, as the audience watching the fight may have agreed that Sion has taken this rivalry too far.

But, in all fairness, I will say that “Between Pride and Passion” upped the ante by not just its animation style but also the character depth amid the duel between Will and Sion.  Thanks to Sion’s flashbacks, we see a seemingly broken side of the redhead who wanted to be seen by others like Will.  Unfortunately, he may never get that chance if he keeps up with his ignorant attitude, but that’s just me.  However, what really matters is seeing Will beat the crap out of Julius, which will happen in next week’s episode.