Granbelm – Episode 9 – Kuon Comes to Her Senses and The Truth About Mangetsu

Kuon confronts Suishou after she experienced a strange interaction with her cursed older sister. Also, Nene reveals the truth about Mangetsu to Ernesta.

We finally learn more about Kuon’s older sister through two flashbacks. It seems that she is willing to participate in the Granbelm to protect her little sister. She eventually hands Kuon a note and gives her a sword. Sure, Kuon begs her not to do it, but she still decided to go ahead with it. She eventually confronts Suishou since she suspected that she was using the curse.

Of course, Suishou taunts Kuon saying that Kuon’s older sister wanted to be eaten. While Kuon thinks it’s a lie, Suishou taunts her more. Kuon eventually slaps her in the face before Suishou disappears. Still, I wonder why Kuon’s older sister decided to allow Suishou to curse her. More on that later.

In the meantime, Ernesta does some more training with Mangetsu. This time, it involves helping her to summon her spirit. Initially, Mangetsu had some trouble summoning it as she sees a familiar dream. After Mangetsu ask for the spirit to come out to protect Ernesta for her sake, she was able to do it. Now, she can use her spirit during battle.

While they had a snack outside a confidence store after practice, While Ernesta walked home, Nene and her younger sisters meet her. Apparently, she wanted to see Ernesta in private and reveal something about Mangetsu. This will become very important towards the end. While she kept it a secret, she wasn’t the only one that know about this.

Knowing this, Ernesta is becomes a bit protective over Mangetsu in the next competition. She doesn’t want her to do something risky as she knows the truth about her. Of course, Suishou created a trap so that Mangetsu, Ernesta and Kuon fight each other. Suishou eventually takes out her spirit, Medusa. In other words, Kuon faces off against her.

While Kuon had trouble and came close to defeat with Suishou taunting her to give up, she drops the sword that her older sister gave her. After she heard a familiar song, she gained strength to fend off Suishou. She soon realizes that her older sister is with her all this time.

Kuon now believes that her older sister has Suishou eat her so Kuon can defeat her. I guess one can say that Suishou’s obsession for Kuon’s older sister is the weakness that will ultimately bring her down. Believe it or not, Suishou came close to being defeated, until her Armanox transformed into her second form.

Of course, it appears that Suishou also knows the truth about Mangetsu that Ernesta already knew.  Suishou attempting to do a finishing blow on Kuon was a trap. She lures Mangetsu to protect Kuon. Ernesta fears the worse as Suishou stabs Mangetsu’s Armanox. Mangetsu is in despair that she realizes that she is not an actual human being, but actually a doll.

It’s quite subtle that Mangetsu is not an ordinary mage. Kuon was curious about Mangetsu since she doesn’t know what mage family Mangetsu came from. Apparently, she is not alone wondering about Mangetsu’s orgins. There is also Anna who doesn’t believe that powerful magic from Mangetsu shouldn’t exist. This is not too surprising since Mangetsu tapped into a hidden ability which causes her to lose control with immense magic, which she used to defeat Rosa and Nene.

This along with her feelings of emptiness can explain why Mangetsu is not a normal human being. A regular mage wouldn’t have this much power. A similar thing happened with Anna when she is about to be defeated. Is this the reason why nobody knows about Anna since she is a doll too? It’s up to speculation, but it’s probably more of her using the Fugo Crystal that her body can’t handle. After all, she didn’t go berserk during her battle against Ernesta compared to Mangetsu in two separate instances. Also, her eyes bleed, which wouldn’t happen if she was a doll.

Regardless, I highly doubt that Kibou is also a doll and she doesn’t know anything about mages and such. Also, Nene only saw one magic source, which is most likely Mangetsu. After all, Mangetsu is the only person in her family that is participating in the Granbelm.

Now that Mangetsu knows the truth that Ernesta doesn’t want revealed, how will she deal with it? My guess is that it does not go so well.  Still, I wonder what is the purpose of Mangetsu’s existence. Is her purpose being to help Ernesta? Some think that she is some kind of creation from the Magiaconatus. I guess we’ll find out soon enough as the grief and despair pile up. Not only that, there is a high likelihood that Kuon will finally defeat Suishou. Either way, the next episode should be interesting. ¶