7. "Cave of Vinca" Episode Review (POOR)
"Enough! None of us should be going in there! Why would any of you choose to walk into this nightmare?!" - Zinnia, wondering why they are going into the cave
"No! No! I'm too young and way too attractive for a suicide mission!" - Zinnia, just before she ditches class
"Looks like we're all going to die here after all." - Thyme, declaring her and her team's fate in the caves
"Is that how stars are made?" - Rosemary, asking this question to Sage when the dragon flies into the sky and bursts into stars
As much as "Cave of Vinca" is less of a filler episode than "Crushing Obstacles," it is a worse episode; but ironically, its opening scenes are not only the best moments of the episode, but also the best of the series.
It is the one and only time when Zinnia has any dialogue, and the same reason why she is the best part. Being openly terrified of the cave, she is adorable for not only looking cute, but also being cute; just watch how she hyperventilates while Dretch explains their assignment. Zinnia is completely honest with herself and voluntarily fails by leaving class, and presumably leaving High Guardian Academy. In a bizarre twist, what Rosemary and the others go through actually prove her correct; so she made a smart decision by not entering. She was right the entire time about how dangerous the caves are
But after she leaves, Rosemary's team goes through a series of plot points that are unnecessarily dramatic, yet also trivial.
Shortly after entering, they are attacked by giant trabbers; and despite being based on real-world crabs, who have shells as a form of protection, none of the girls have difficulty defending themselves. Rosemary's sword easily slices through their flesh, Thyme's arrows pierce their bodies, and Parsley has no issue using her hammers against them. I am, however, forgiving towards Sage because she has magic.
This fight scene is done so clumsily that you can even see when the animators use flash animation. Not only that, but the blood effects are just as goofy, so it's hard to take the action seriously. Thyme is also somehow able to extract her arrow out of one of the trabbers, but she does it effortlessly. Overall, the fight is just quick action-shots that happen spontaneously and randomly.
When a large trabber appears above Rosemary, she instructs Sage to blast it with magic, but Sage warns her that it will crush her; and this is true. It also has the risk of damaging her sword. But after doing it anyways, the trabber lands on her blade; and surprisingly, it doesn't even so much as dent. Not only that, but she is able to lift the trabber off of her without much difficulty. And despite all of this happening, Rosemary does not show any sign of injury or harm when it falls. But if you watch very carefully, when the trabber falls, one of its claws lands on her abdomen, and cuts her. However, this happens so quickly you won't catch it at all.
So when more trabbers ambush them, they locate an exit and escape, even though they could have done this in the first place. Not only that, but none of them are tired after fighting; and shortly later, the girls enter a new room and find Vinca, in the form of a statue. Despite her name in the title, she is not even a character. She's not even the antagonist, let alone a major element of the plot. The one bit of info on her is that she turned her suitors into wine. But who exactly is she, why is she important, and why is the cave named after her?
The girls discover that Rosemary was injured during the fight; and for no reason, Sage doesn't have magic that can heal her wound. Additionally, the new magic she has, inside her terrasphere, also does not have healing magic.
Then, a goblin, or troll named Buckles appears and makes the girls solve a riddle. So now, I wonder if Vinca is familiar with him, or he just decided to make his home in her cave. A few minutes pass before Rosemary solves the riddle. For answering correctly, Buckles gives them an egg before opening a trapdoor beneath the girls.
In the next room, two diamond titans attack them when they try to take the healing water. Because the girls can't defeat them, they make a plan where they maneuver around the titans so that they run into each other and shatter to pieces, but inconveniently, they ran into each other in front of the exit, meaning that it is blocked.
I can believe that the rubble is too heavy and too dense to remove, but I can't believe that Sage doesn't have magic that can remove it from the exit. She doesn't even try to levitate it out the way. And if new magic is more powerful than old magic, then does it also have teleportation, i.e. can't the girls teleport out the caves? For that matter, wouldn't any kind of magic be able to lift the diamond rubble away?
Then, the girls decide to bond with each other by playing truth-or-dare. As much as I like Rosemary's energy and cheerfulness, she does not understand the reality of being sealed inside the cave. Because of this, she will not become the hero she wants to be, and instead, she will disappear just like her mother. More importantly, she will not know if she is still alive. This is a fact she should have known before playing the game.
Afterwards, Parsley reveals that the egg is actually a dragon egg. Because of this, Sage throws it into the healing water so that it can grow into a full-size, mature dragon that takes the rubble away before the girls hitch a ride on it as it flies away.
In all honesty, this part is fun to watch, due to the fast, break-neck pacing, and especially because of Rosemary enjoying herself. Afterwards, the dragon returns the girls to High Guardian Academy and then flies into the sky to explode and become stars.
Then, the conclusion at least establishes the events of the next episode, not just the rot that is infecting the Fairy Woods, but also Olive.
If this review sounds more like a plot summary, that's because it is. I had to explain everything in detail because the writing is just so bizarre. I could not jump around or give a broad critique of why I dislike the episode. The plot is like a labyrinth I couldn't solve.
I think it would have been nice to see what happened to the other students and how they struggled through the caves. I wonder if they faced similar problems to what Rosemary and the girls go through. And because I like Zinnia, I want to know what happened to her after she left.
As much as Hakone claims that the cave is wondrous, it is a place that none of the girls, let alone students, should have entered. Not because it's dangerous, but because nothing significant happens.
Why Zinnia ran away, from the episode
previous episode review: Crushing Obstacles
next episode review: Festival of Fall