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Trinity Seven
Episode 4

by Theron Martin,

Arata and Lilith are about ready to get back to school class business when they walk in and discover that everyone else in their class is not only asleep but also cannot be woken up. The Headmaster deduces that the cause is a breakdown phenomenon which is putting everyone below Arata and the Trinity Seven's level of magic to sleep, and that the cause is likely Yui, the girl Arata previously met in an extradimensional space who is also one of the other Trinity Seven members. Her magical ability is so powerful that she could ultimately put the whole world to sleep, so she is sealed in the school's dungeon. (Because of course a school of magic has to have a dungeon, as even some of the characters observe.) Something is clearly wrong, so Arata sets out with Lilith, Erin, and Levi to try to correct the problem while Mira and Akio set out to destroy her to stop the phenomenon. A few demons, some intra-group conflict, some fan service, and some lessons on magic later find everyone teaming up to eliminate an even bigger threat than they had originally anticipated.

In other words, this is a “let's help Arata figure out how to use his magic properly” episode, though it does also serve to establish his relationship with the ninja Levi quite a bit more and assure that Erin isn't his only openly-declared love interest. Really, though, the content comes down to developing Arata into enough of a badass that he can pull his weight when surrounded by a bunch of pretty powerful young ladies, a point reinforced by how helpless he looks early on in the midst of the fights against demons while the girls around him are kicking butt. “You need to get stronger,” one of them essentially says to him at one point, as if serving as the audience's voice, for one of the unwritten rules of harem series is that if you're going to be a confident, mouthy male harem lead then you have to be even stronger than the super-powered ladies assembled around you or it's not credible. By the end of the episode Arata has taken another step forward on that.

Also resurfacing is the most glaring fault of the horrible second episode: the editing and directing for the series really aren't that good. Once again the content is being condensed, things are being skipped (or at least seem to be, as I have no familiarity with the source material), and little attention is being paid to the flow of events from scene to scene. Granted, disruptively-lengthy exposition in the midst of action scenes is one of the most common writing/directorial flaws in anime, but this episode also peacefully ends a one-on-one showdown with no explanation whatsoever and without showing the audience any of what should have been a good fight, awkwardly jams in a fan service scene involving tiny demons getting up under characters' clothing (including, interestingly, Arata's), and continues to flop miserably at many of its attempts at humor. At least it does (mostly) get the fan service right; while it may not be on the level of a top-end fan service title and spends a little too much time cracking jokes about Lilith's figure, it does at least provide enough, and scattered widely enough, to sustain interest for those watching mostly for that.

Artistically speaking, the series does get a little ambitious here, as it goes farther than most to show three-dimensional depth even in non-action scenes, but that isn't anywhere near enough to turn what is ultimately a largely bland episode into something more interesting. While the series does still retain its points of interest, its continuing troubles with maintaining a smooth flow are deeply concerning.

Rating: C

Trinity Seven is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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