Twelve Days of Fantasy and Ash (Christmas Special Part 5)

Episode 5 starts with our party still mourning the death of Manato. This scene is valuable as it gives an insight into how each of the characters react to such a traumatizing event. Ranta is moved, yet maintains his standoffish demeanor. Yume breaks down crying while the rest quietly mourn. A scene like this is rare in anime. Usually character deaths either are unceremonious or spark a passion against the cause. Watching a realistic reaction to such an event is a uncommon deviation from the norm and really sells the impact.

The boys meet up in a bar afterwards to discuss their future. Ranta, being typical Ranta buys them drinks then spends most of his time arguing with Haruhiro. At this point, they know they cannot continue without a priest, but know no way to go on. Ranta suggests quitting the hunting business until he remembers he cannot quit his guild. Then a friend shows up to help them. Ranta's arguments and disagreements with his teammates is truly a disservice to the show's quality. It is true that people being such stereotypical trolls is possible, but there is little narrative justification to have a character like him in this series. It just makes some scenes too cringey. It's almost like he has three personalities: one laughably trollish, one utter jerk, and one insincere friend. The utter jerk shows up way too often when the other two serve his character perfectly well.

This friend they made in the bar introduced them to a new priest by the name of Mary. Mary is exactly the person that the team needed: a priest with more defensive capabilities, and lots of experience. The only bad thing is her personality. She starts off being incredibly forward and demanding, brushing off attempts to greet or be friendly with her. The party is not very kind back to her either. When she is introduced, no one says anything; even perplexing Ranta.

Mary's character kind of works as a complement to Ranta. While Ranta doesn't get along with the team because he is a shameless troll, Mary simply doesn't want to become attached. She wouldn't mind being friendly once she gets to know them, but her initial hesitation makes her seem confrontational. Her initial straightforwardness confuses Ranta to the degree he cannot tell if his trolling offends her or not. The addition of Mary to the party marks the second half of the show when the party learns how to work better as a team and how to make friends. The show does slow down a bit at this point, but the rest is important. There's also this scene where Ranta switches back and forth from being amicable to insulting Mary. He uses the words "お前" and "てめえ," insulting ways of saying you in Japanese, then switches to saying "メリイさん," (a polite way of saying you) at her request.

Following is a montage of the characters not getting along, interspersed with a few fights and revisits to the bar. In this part, the writers focus on Mary's characterization. She does not want to play nice with the party members, and while they do want to make friends, they are simply too angered by her demeanor. She does immediately fix up their tactics though. She makes sure to conserve her magic for when it is most needed and keeps herself better guarded than Manato ever did. Haruhiro is also given some character development. He is shown as having an unhealthy obsession with judging his own actions based on what he think's Manato would have done, kind of like a what would Jesus do.

One of the better scenes in the show follow this. Renji, now a fully-fledged mercenary comes back to give the team a gold coin, making up for Manato's death. Haruhiro has too much pride to take advantage though, and gives the coin back. While the party does want to progress and get past Manato's death, they would rather do it by maturing as people rather than by taking advantage of someone else's pity. After all that, Haruhiro tries to get the entire part on the same page again as he felt the boys and girls had fallen out of touch. Yume has a moment with him where she explains that they should all face the problems together as friends, rather than just being depressed that their leader is gone. Of all the scenes in the show, this is the one I remember the most for its impact on the story and characters. It is such a strong scene that I would say to you if you haven't already, go watch the show just for this.