Handyman Saitou In Another World is an isekai anime and an adaptation of a 4-coma manga that goes by the same name, written and illustrated by Kazutomo Ichitomo. The source material has a decent fan following, but the anime is in a league of its own.
Studio C2C managed to translate this manga really well will nicely animated frames that go well with the occasional fight scenes without the use of CGI. Since its release, it has managed to gain a decent-sized fanbase mainly due to the quality of the animation and the well-timed comedy of the show.
Handyman Saitou In Another World Episode 9 Recap:
Following the trend set by the previous episode, episode 9 starts off with the life of a secondary character, this time a hunting dog in the demon realm who fell for a female wolf that wandered to the demon realm from the human realm.
Soon the episode cuts off to our party returning from their venture into the great labyrinth only to find out that Morlock, the great but forgetful wizard, had passed away a few days ago during their absence. Ironically it was due to a slow-acting poison that shouldn’t have been much of a threat.
The party at first doesn’t express too much worry, partly since death isn’t the last stop in this world, and both Raelza and Lafanpan had died once before but were revived via revival magic used by the church. But the success of the revival magic heavily depends upon the condition of the corpse, and it had been 3 days already since Morlock’s death.
Fortunately, the innkeeper had carefully stashed Morlock’s body in one of the warehouses in order to preserve its condition, as revival magic needs the body to be in good condition along with a huge amount of money.
Unfortunately, the innkeeper had to bury Morlock after a part of his corpse was devoured by a wild dog. Coincidentally, this wild dog is the demon-hunting dog introduced in the initial part of the episode.
The party at first exhibits a bit of hesitation towards digging up Morlock as revival magic needs the corpse in good condition and a huge donation to the church, but they don’t have the knowledge about the corpse’s current condition and no way of acquiring the huge donation needed for revival. But they soon decide to dig Morlock up after being convinced by Saitou.
After some time, they come back to the grave with digging equipment, only to be bombarded by spells from an undead that suspiciously resembled Morlock.
But soon, Morlock himself defeats the undead from a distance, saving Raelza and Saitou, who was just about to be defeated by the undead. But soon, they realize that Morlock is now nothing more than a skeleton.
We soon find out that Morlock had entered a resurrection contract which would’ve allowed him to come back to life once after death. But the magic was now backfiring due to a part of him being missing, a part that was eaten by the demon-hunting dog. So now Morlock was in a constant loop of turning into a skeleton while also generating his flesh.
Later they decide to find the demon-hunting dog in order to reabsorb Morlock’s magic in order to return him to a normal state. Unbeknownst to them, Morlock’s magic had started rampaging inside the dog, who was now attacking adventurers on sight.
The episode ends with the dog preparing to lunge at Morlock and Saitou, who are having a conversation about Saitou’s feelings toward Raelza.
Handyman Saitou In Another World Episode 10 Story Breakdown:
Episode 10 follows up right from the conversation towards the end of episode 9. Morlock calmly asks Saitou about his feelings towards Raelza, to which he gives the typical answer of her being his beloved party member.
Morlock then asks him how he feels about Raelza as just a regular girl while telling him how he met Raelza after getting his memories wiped out and how he found comfort in taking care of Raezla, who was living in the mountains after her mother was killed by a wolf.
Morlock expressed how he had been feeling weak since a while ago and how his regeneration was slowly coming to a halt. During what might be his last moments, he asked Saitou whether he would take Raelza as his partner for life.
Saitou being himself meekly, said that Raelza’s feelings for him needed to be considered oblivious to the fact that Morlock and Lafanpan had known that Raelza liked him.
After this realization, Saitou accepted that Raelza was special to him and agreed to take Raelza as his partner. The emotional moment is soon interrupted by the demon-hunting dog lunging at Morlock, managing to take an entire arm off of Morlock while also gravely wounding Saitou.
Saitou and Morlock being away from the party for such a long time, worried Raelza, and she eventually came to look for them instead.
Raelza then soon came to the sight of an unmoving Morlock and a gravely injured Saitou writhing with pain in front of a berserk demon-hunting dog. The whole sight enraged Raelza as she readied her sword and lunged at the dog.
Soon the episode heads over to Lilyza, telling someone about the ways of hunting a hellhound. She emphasizes the fact that hellhounds are strong and will mostly go for the wrists, all while detaching her own right hand, which she lost while hunting a similar beast.
Afterward, we are shown the aftermath of Raelza lunging toward the hellhound, who is now biting into Raelza’s arm guards as she struggles.
Raelza notices an opportunity while struggling with the hellhounds and tries to go for his vitals, but it manages to get her with a surprise fire breath that melts away the entire right side of the armor along with her arm, leaving a bit of charred flesh along with exposed bones.
Raelza picks up her sword with her other hand, determined to take revenge for the wounds inflicted upon Morlock and Saitou. She then declares how she’ll defeat the hellhound and scrape out Morlock’s magic from its entrails in order to save him.
The fight is then interrupted as the hellhound comes to its senses after hearing the calls of the small white pup, the pup of the female wolf for whom the hellhound had fallen. The hellhound was assigned to hunt down the white wolf as his master wanted to make a taxidermy out of her.
The hellhound decided to betray his master and help the wolf escape back to the human realm. Unfortunately, the wolf died at the hands of a greater demon during their escape.
Since then, the hellhound had been taking care of the pup she left behind after death while resisting the binding spell that his master had put upon him. Ingesting Morlock’s magic-rich flesh somehow made the hellhound go berserk.
The hellhound then requests Raelza to slay him while he’s able to resist his berserk nature and asks her to take care of the pup. Raelza, angered by what it did to Saitou and Morlock, refuses.
Soon a greater demon attacks the hellhound and tries to retreat back to the demon realm as his master orders him to take the hellhound back along with the powerful magic that it had ingested, that powerful magic being Morlock’s magic that the hellhound had ingested from his corpse.
The greater demon is then slayed after a bit of help from Lafa. But soon, the greater demon arises again, but this time his master crosses over to the human realm while using the greater demon as a vessel, as strong demons like him cannot cross over easily.
The archdemon then unleashes a really powerful spell point-blank toward Raelza and the others, but they are saved by defensive magic used by Lafanpan at the last moment. But the scale of the spell renders Lafanpan unconscious.
Raelza, noticing the grave danger along with the otherwordly strength of the archdemon, forces Saitou to take Lafanpan and run to the town while she makes her stand to confront the archdemon.
Saitou retreats with a heavy heart as Raelza and the archdemon engages in combat, but the archdemon soon gains the upper hand and binds a bloodied Raelza with wires. Saitou manages to cut the wires with his pliers, surprising the archdemon, which is then cut in half by Raelza within a moment.
But their triumph is shortlived as the archdemon rejoins itself and unleashes a spell that freezes Raelza. But she is pushed out of the way as Saitou is frozen solid in her stead. The archdemon is then struck down by none other than Morlock, who had managed to reabsorb his magic from the hellhound as Saitou had placed him directly next to it before coming on Raelza’s aid.
The archdemon then recovers, and a battle between Morlock and the archdemon begins. Both of them start preparing high-tier spells. The demon finishes his spell and launches a huge ice shard which is then intercepted and overpowered by Morlock’s spell, eventually vanquishing the archdemon.
The episode ends with Morlock, Raelza, Lafanpan, and Saitou reuniting as Morlock reveals the dog ears on his head.
Handyman Saitou In Another World Episode 10: Where To Watch?
Episode 10 of Handyman Saitou In Another World is available on Crunchyroll and Bilibili, along with all the other episodes.
Handyman Saitou In Another World Episode 10: Review
Episode 10 explores the emotions of Saitou and Morlock as he asks Saitou whether he will marry Raelza. It even gives background to Raelza, how she survived in the mountains after her mother died from a wolf, and how and why Morlock found and adopted her.
This episode manages to give weight and character to Morlock and his struggle with the void left in his soul after being unable to save his own daughter from death, his own trauma after being unable to save one little girl even though he had become a great mage.
The episode even expands on his meeting with Raelza and his longing for his now-dead child that Raelza replaced, essentially giving Morlock some sort of closure and a family to fill in the place of a family that he failed.
The episode also delivers some spectacular action sequences and intense moments. Raelza getting her entire right arm melted off but eventually taking down a greater demon and an archdemon for a moment is truly a spectacle to watch.
But the biggest highlight of the entire episode would be Morlock and the archdemon’s faceoff. Their dialogue, intensity, incantations, and activation sequences of the spells, along with the final clash and spectacular visuals, make this episode the best episode of the series so far.
Episode 10 overcomes the sheer quality set by the anime throughout all its episodes, especially episode 8. Episode 10 has everything in just the right amount, emotional moments along with a good story paired with good animation to make you feel the weight of the emotions of the characters.
The episode is truly a masterpiece through and through, and it managed to keep the tension it had built up since episode 8 all throughout its run and even surpassed it while also managing to deliver a badass yet satisfying ending while also progressing the romance between Raelza and Saitou essentially confirming them as a couple towards the end of the episode as Morlock acknowledges Saitou as his son-in-law.
Handyman Saitou In Another World Episode 10: Final Verdict
Episode 10 is the best episode in the series so far, delivering a conclusion to the build-up since episode 1 of the anime while also showcasing Morlock’s ability as a great mage, Lafapan as the support Raelza’s tenacity and fighting prowess, and sheer will displayed through her fight with the hellhounds as she picks up her sword while having a right arm that’s molten to the bone.
The anime delivers on the source material through and through. The jokes are intentional and well executed, the comedy is not overdone, and the action sequences are spectacular, even though they are short most of the time.
The ending of the episode pays off for all the tension built up in a spectacular fashion. All of this without a single frame of CGI. This anime is one of the rare ones where armors aren’t odd pieces of CGI clashing with the well-animated frames. Almost every frame and every entity of this anime is hand drawn, delivering quite a refreshing experience.
Overall this episode is a must-watch for everyone who has been following this anime. The anime as a whole is great and surely won’t be a waste of time, unlike many other isekai animes that have been coming out for these last few years.
Our Rating: ⭐ (4.7/5).
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