This episode means half-time for The Price of Smiles! Things seem to move a bit slow, because we have many characters and their background stories to catch up on and focus heavily on the strategics of war. This episode gives hope that things will move a bit faster in a bit.

Japanese title: 運命の岐路 (Unmei no kiro)

Episode 6–The Crossroads of Fate

It turns out that the Royal Empire has lost the last fight and the enemies are slowly coming closer to Hariant, where Princess Yuki is. Things are looking down for them and Yuki wants to help somehow, but all she can do is tell her people to stay calm. To keep the Imperial Army from getting into Hariant, commander Harold is personally going to fight. The battle starts and Yuki comes to watch them from the commanding central spot. There she hears that Harold has gone on a suicide mission. She manages to turn things around last minute but at the same time decides that she is sick of this war. She wants to turn herself over to the Imperial Army and end the war to not have any more people die.

Highlights

Two sides

It is revealed that the very fast Thaurgear last time was in fact Yuni, who got hurt in the process. Did you cheer for Stella and her team back then? Did you cheer for the Thaurgear, anyway? I was crying out for Harold to not get killed in the progress but also fearing for Stella and her team when he was going berserk. I imagine it feels like watching your parents fight as a child. You just want it to stop.

Family Stories

Aside from the two sides at war, we also get to see one more time how hard it is to stop a war and how many more people are involved than just those fighting at the front. There’re children and mothers, wives and parents. Good friends and aunties and uncles. Everybody is being disrupted, their happy life taking a turn for the worse because of some resources and technology. Sometimes it’s also because someone can’t let go. Getting revenge for losing someone in the war. Returning the hurt and sadness you received. It’s understandable, but at the same time so much more devastating.

Who cares about the Princess

My highlight in this episode has to be once again how Yuki is not taken seriously by anyone. They use her idea to fight in one war, they let her give orders and follow them that one time. But as soon as the ‘grown-ups’ think her ideas are bad, they simply ignore them and do what they think is right. Yes, they did save Yuki from death. But they also disregarded their Princess. Might as well take the title from her and simply run the country on their own. That might be taking some pressure from her shoulders…

Comments

I don’t have much more to say this week. There was a lot of fighting and the war is getting more intense. It does look very bad for Yuki and her country. I do hope she will somehow run away and get to meet Stella in a more free setting than being a prisoner or however other way they could meet. I kind of miss the blossoming friendship between the two of them that was advertised so nicely in the promotion before broadcast. If it takes over half the series for them to meet, how is there enough time to have them become friends and work towards an end to this war??

COMING NEXT: The Sunflowers of the Palace

The Price of Smiles

Winter 2019 | Anime Info | Simulcast