Snow White with the Red Hair

Episode 10

Without going into too much detail and thus risking a big spoiler, let me just say that this is the episode a lot of us have been waiting for. Ready your foolish grins.

Before we get there, however, we have an episode that largely returns to the feel of the first few, with Shirayuki once more showing her determination and gumption in a more obvious manner, rather than her subtle actions of more recent weeks. The story begins when she meets Kihal, a girl roughly her own age who has come to have an audience with Zen about the hunting of birds on her native island. Kihal lives on a southern island that technically is part of Viscount Brecker's lands, and the newest viscount thinks that it's jolly good fun to come and shoot the parrot-like birds the locals use to help them fish, mine ore, and just generally revere. When Brecker started shooting the birds for sport and profit (they're indigenous to the island, and so fairly unusual), Kihal confronted him. His reaction was to sneer that if she thought her precious little birdies were so important, she should just come with him to talk to Prince Zen about them. Apprehensively, that's just what she's come to do.

There's an interesting statement about, or at least parallel to, colonialism in this episode, with Brecker showing a complete disregard for native customs and traditions and thinking only of his own profit and pleasure. He's full of his own importance as a viscount and sees himself as above everyone else, sneering audibly in Kihal's and Shirayuki's presences and even being so self-important as to laugh at Zen's diplomatic suggestion that he seriously discuss the birds with Kihal. He's almost a caricature of the conquering lord and all questions of symbolism aside, reminds me of the bad guy in a Regency romance novel. His power over the life and death of the birds is very real, however, and even if you aren't an animal person (which I'm sure you've all figured out I am), the question of their survival feels very pressing.

In fact, it's really a very tense episode, with Zen's hands legally tied until Shirayuki finds a way around the problem, and then again when Brecker insists on going with Shirayuki as part of the test of the birds' usefulness in long-distance communication. Brecker is not one of her fans, and his attempts to ruin things are worrying...but nothing is as clear as Zen's anger when he learns of it. His emotions in the last ten-odd minutes of the episode are palpable, flowing from the screen in tangible waves as he clenches his fists, and his movements, stiff with worry, are animated excellently. The softening of his fear also comes across clearly, and the best parts of this episode are really those where no words are spoken. (Which includes Obi's face when he sees Shirayuki go by the window. It's priceless.)

In fact, the only major complaint I have this week is Kihal's clothes. Her short-shorts and cowboy boots are not a good match for the aesthetic of the show, and far more of an issue in the established pseudo-medieval world than any amount of strike-the-box matches. While she is clearly meant to represent a different culture and way of life, she looks too modern and really jarred me out of the story when she first appeared. It is a safer route than if the show had tried to make her look “ethnic,” but it still feels like a little more thought could have been put into it.

Kihal's questionable wardrobe aside, this is a stellar episode in an already good show. It has a lot of the elements that made Snow White with the Red Hair attractive in the first place, and the way emotions are depicted seals the deal. Plus there's that bit at the end. That's pretty great too...and it should be interesting to see how the characters handle it next week.

Rating: A

Snow White with the Red Hair is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.