Atelier Escha and Logy The Animation – Episode 8 – Willbell’s Quest to Win Fire Spirit’s Trust and Hot Springs!

This episode may look like your typical hot springs episode, but it’s not since Wilbell is after something.

While I don’t think there were any fanservice events in the Dusk games, there were some in the Arland games. Of course, they mostly deal with girls wearing swimsuits having fun at a beach or having a swimsuit contest. The only exception was the hot springs event (and ending) in Atelier Meruru, which gets discovered after beating Airshatter. This episode is like that event, except Willbell tricks the R&D division in going to a legendary hot springs that will make a person younger so that she will be prepared to take on the Fire Ruler. Yep, she even had Escha make some weapons, which she ends up not using.

As for the hot springs scene, it’s pretty typical. Of course, they have to go there and mention Lucille’s desire to grow, which in turn causes everyone to become fixated on Escha’s bust. Of course in the actual game, Threia actually has the biggest as seen in one of Lucille’s events when she misinterpret her desire to grow in terms of height as bust size. Nevertheless, I still feel sympathetic towards Lucille for being short for her age.

Overall, the events aside from the fanservice pretty much follows the game as Escha makes the fire jewel and give it to the Fire Ruler. The spirit will play some part in making the engine for the blimp, which hasn’t been mentioned yet for the fact that Logy’s past is not revealed yet.  Even so, it’s kind of sad that Logy is being treated like a typical spineless male lead. After not being invited to the last two parties, he had objects hurled at him just because he was in the same hot spring. It’s clear that some fans of the series don’t like the idea of having a male lead in their games. There is probably no wonder why the male protagonist was scrapped in the sequel and replaced with a tomboy even though Logy was a pretty decent male protagonist. As of now, only Escha is slated to reappear in the sequel and not him. It’s kind of sad considering that he was more popular than Escha in a recent character popularity poll.

Aside from that, it looks like the next episode will probably focus on his past, which will play a big part in achieving Escha’s dream of going to the Sky ruins. ¶