Welcome back to Anime Rants. Though my Gravatar image depicts a person with short hair, my hair is actually quite long, at least for now. If someone were to cut my hair against my will, I would be royally pissed off. In the eleventh episode of RekiAku, a girl named Carol gets attacked by a bully, who takes a pair of scissors to her beautiful hair. Why did this happen, and how is it related to Alicia? Let’s review this episode.

---

Episode 11: The Villainess and the School Idol

Episode Rating: 7/10

This episode opens with a scene at the Magic Academy where Gill answers a question in class. He’s doing well in the Academy, studying the knowledge parts even though he can’t use magic. Some mean girls whisper that Gill is impudent and that Alicia shouldn’t have picked a commoner for her servant, but the teacher doesn’t allow that kind of talk in class. As for Gill, he’s too strong and confident to let it get him down.

There is an uncomfortable scene where Duke sits around contemplating the fact that he can’t literally keep Alicia locked up. If he did, she wouldn’t be the free Alicia that he loved. Duh! It’s messed up that he has to justify it in the first place. However annoyed I am with this creepy love interest, I’m glad when he showed up to “save” Gill. He was being brainwashed by Alicia, and I couldn’t tell if she was doing this on purpose or not. Duke arrives and quickly leads Gill away.

Liz felt rejected and angry that Duke was so terse with her. She began to emanate her negative feelings, which were stronger than what we’ve seen before now. The one who receives the hateful energy is Jane. She cuts Carol’s hair against her will in front of a bunch of other girls. As for why Carol was targeted, it was because she stood up for Alicia in the past. I usually watch darker anime, so I was expecting some bloodshed, but forcibly cutting the hair of a teenage girl is still an awful thing to do.

Alicia and Gill arrive at the scene. Jane furiously raves about how everything is Alicia’s fault. At first, Alicia plays up her villainess role, acting like she doesn’t care about Carol in the least and cleverly insulting Jane as well. This emboldens Carol, who stops crying and stands up for herself. That only makes Jane more livid and violent. She looks ready to stab Carol with the scissors, but Alicia uses magic to stop her. With the scissors in hand, she then cuts her own hair to match the length of Carol’s.

The next day, the school is unofficially divided into those who support Liz and those who followed Alicia’s example and cut their hair. Short hair is now a trend at the Academy. After her bitter and violent stunt with the scissors, Jane found no acceptance from Liz’s other followers. Instead, they fiercely bullied her. Some literally use mud-slinging spells on Jane in the hallways. But Alicia defends Jane, who is clearly feeling remorseful. After saving Jane from the bullies, Alicia gives her space in a quiet room she can cry and calm down without being interrupted.

I felt mildly bad for Jane given that she was acting on emotions that were not her own. She had very little – if any – ability to resist the hateful impulses emanated by Liz. Anyway, I think my favorite part of the episode was seeing Carol stand up for herself. I love when a strong female character helps a less confident girl. It’s uplifting. On a final note, I think Mel discovered a big hint at the end of the episode. She was doing research for Duke. We’ll have to wait till next week to see what she dug up exactly.

~Thanks for reading~

Written by 7Mononoke

---

Click to see more posts about RekiAku

---

~