First thoughts after watching Wistoria: Wand and Sword episode 23 (season 2, episode 11)

This post includes a spoiler.

I watched Wistoria: Wand and Sword episode 23 twice. 9/10. Story was 5/5, animation was 5/5, voices and audio were 4/5. This was a great episode. The main thing was the battle between Zeo and Elfie.

This episode showed how fierce the battle was between two Magia Vanders. And obviously, Ellenor lost to Elfie with ice magic alone, so they both seemed strong. So, the battle was basically one between the cream of the crop and it was worth watching. Zeo's attacks were mostly simple. He used his lightning to move blazing fast, but that was so fast that the animation got good. Like when he threw the wand and then he instantly reached the place where the wand landed, or when the wand came and broke Elfie's clone from an unexpected angle.

Elfie's magic was the exact opposite. She built an ice castle, made a lot of clones, attacked with hundreds of ice shards from every angle, and summoned more ice by drawing a large magic circle. And also, using those remnants, she completely froze his lightning with her ice magic. What was unexpected was that she punched him, with a perfect, anime-style motion, unlike what I imagine a mage would do, and with her magic, the blow landed on him completely. Also, before starting the incantation of her prime magic, she sat on the handrail of the staircase and slid down, and that was so weird. It probably showed her princess-ish behavior but not something you do during a fight.

The animation itself was also great. It wasn't the kind of episode that stops to talk. Characters, buildings, and objects move a lot and fast in most scenes. Of course, when they talked about something, it stopped, but that made a good contrast with the fast-moving scenes. And the entire episode was for this battle alone, and it didn't even end within the episode. The battle between Will and Devander was more like a showcase of Will's Wis ability, so there was some of that, but not at this level. So I was satisfied with this episode.

Story-wise, Elfie put all her effort into fighting him for Will. It was because she had only waited for Will all along, and it was Elfie's turn to do something. This was great, because I thought she hadn't really done much so far and they already had a relationship. Well, it was still a question why they did, but at least, the fact that she stepped up to fight Zeo with all her might changed my opinion about her in this episode. Colette got angry, though. I guess she's already completely lost her chance.

It was also great how Carriot and Ellenor thought and saw the battle. They knew who those two were, so they didn't stop them. And they also noticed that even Zeo got serious once they both used their prime magic. Finn was also smiling and watching the battle, and somehow he knew everything, including Elfie's secret magic. I wonder why he knew how deep Zeo went into the Dungeon, though. He might've been with Zeo? He used to be with the Mage Queen in the past, so I guess he also enjoyed watching mages' battles.

Also, I liked the voice acting of Elfie before the fight started, and Sarissa's shout was great too.

So what's going to happen in the next episode? It looks like Aaron will come down into the venue and butt in. Then Will is going to join Elfie's faction and the season will end shortly.