Trinity Seven

Episode 7

How does one defeat a mage so powerful that his grimoire can only be seen by someone with a high power level herself? Go straight for his weakness, of course, which in the case of the Headmaster means flashing boobs.

That was probably meant to be funny, but like every other attempt at humor by the Headmaster (who is implied to be canny enough to have let himself get defeated so that Arata and the others could have the challenge, and yet has no sense of comic timing or follow-through), it falls miserably short. In fact, falling miserably short on everything except fan service is par for the course for Trinity Seven at this point. Once again action scenes and magical displays are paced so casually that they fail to generate any real tension, excitement, or enthusiasm, once again the villainess simply isn't wicked enough in demeanor to feel like a real villain, and once again so much effort is putting into establishing the magic system that each episode is practically more a tutorial than an actual story. A few of the magical element established here are, indeed, a bit interesting; apparently being one of the Trinity Seven means more than just being one of the strongest at the school, for instance, and using their ultimate powers can have some bad consequences for the user. The Astil Codex is also apparently not limited to assuming human form just to copy someone (which gives the fan service side of things the requisite lolicon element), and some implications are dropped that Hijiri may have actually been a practicing mage and her disappearance in the story-establishing breakdown phenomenon may have had something to do with her magic being exhausted. Otherwise, though, the episode is just as much of a failure as the previous one.

The story, if it actually matters, has Arata continuing to learn Agio's magic while Liselotte seeks out the rest of the Trinity Seven. They try to convince her not to be evil as she laments not being able to bring her sister with her into the fold of “evil mages” (yes, that phrase really is used), but she is still fully intent on sucking out the power of all of them, and even the newly-empowered Arata arriving on the scene doesn't change that. When Arata shows that he might actually be a threat, Liselotte plays her trump card, which is effectively a Time Stop spell. (And this is where the carefully-constructed logic of the way magic works in the series breaks down, as Liselotte can't interact with those frozen in time by her spell, and yet she can apply its effect to Arata so she can steal his magic?) Arata uses his newfound power and insight to outwit her, which leaves her trapped outside of time. Meanwhile other evil mages seem to be on the move in the west.

So there does, indeed, seem to be an actual plot and outside threat developing, but that and the series' decent artistic merits aren't enough to reverse its entropic trend. In fact, at this point the series is so trapped in doldrums that it is no longer worthy of episode-by-episode commentary. For that reason Trinity Seven's reviews will go on hiatus until the final episode airs, at which point I will give a wrap-up review and look at whether or not the series ever overcomes its many deep flaws.

Rating: C-

Trinity Seven is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.