Episode 11

The Mystic Archives of Rasiel
Episode 13 Extra Episode 02: Bibliotheca Razielis Archangeli
Japanese Name	ラジエルの書架
Romanized Name	Rajieru no Shoka
Airdate	September 24, 2011
Adapted from	Chapter 5 (light novel 2)
Manga counterpart	N/A

"The Mystic Archives of Rasiel" is the 11th episode of The Mystic Archives of Dantalian anime and the thirteenth story shown in the adaptation. It's also known as Extra Episode 02: Bibliotheca Razielis Archangeli. The episode is unique for showing Hugh during the Great War, before the events of the first episode.

Ilas is an aircraft pilot who writes poems inspired by the voices of his enemies. The potential of his work draws the attention of Rasiel, the Crimson Biblioprincess.

Summary

Armand excitedly brings the simulated combat between two Allied pilots to the Flight lieutenant’s notice. The superior is surprised to know that Welling is being overwhelmed by a rookie that just graduated from flight school. When Hugh lands after his victory, the Flight lieutenant tries to start a conversation while writing poetry, mentioning how the biplane Camel tends to lurch to the right when the control stick is released. The rookie ignores the remark and arrogantly affirms that he will beat the Flight lieutenant's score in three months. However, Ilas gains his respect after recognizing Hugh and himself as men unsuitable for war. Hugh and Ilas enjoy flying rather than killing. The Flight lieutenant is able to read someone’s mind based on how they fly. As Hugh shakes hand with his superior, a golden key is shown hanging on his chest.

A rookie shows his incredible pilot skills.

Hugh, after graduating from flight school.

Armand informs the Pilot Officer Ilas about the dogfight simulation.

Hugh and Ilas' first meeting.

Months later, the Faceless Phantom is reciting a poem and piloting his German airplane to chase the terrified Allied pilots. The ace writes, inspired after eliminating his targets, until his aircraft is hit. Hugh engages in combat, asking why Ilas is doing that. The Faceless Phantom is almost shooting him down, but Hugh avoids a critical damage when he reaches for his golden key. Because the control stick was released, the Camel escaped to the right.

The Faceless Phantom shoots down an Allied airplane.

The Faceless Phantom writes.

The Faceless Phantom shoots at Hugh.

Hugh narrowly avoids being shot down.

Hugh reaches for his golden key.

That night, a man pours whisky to Ilas, who appears in German uniform in a bar. The barkeeper informs Ilas about the state of the war. Ilas expresses his wish to keep fighting. He’s writing a collection of poems based on the voices of his enemies that he can hear during the battle. Without war, he's unable to make his poems.

Ilas suffers as a strange image comes to his mind. Ilas sees himself in the middle of a destroyed city. A mysterious girl laughs. A lock hides her left eye.

Soon after, the same girl shows up in his room. Ilas’ memory is fuzzy, but he can tell that they have met before. While dancing and floating around the place, Rasiel reveals to be interested in the progress of Ilas’ poetry book. His ability to read the enemies’ minds means that he is using the power of a Phantom Book Egg, a Phantom Book about to be born from the powerful human emotions caused by the war. Rasiel enjoys the war since it produces the madness that brings forth the Phantom Books. She hopes that Ilas’ poems will eventually be worthy to be sealed inside the Rasiel's Bookshelf.

The next day, Hugh is shown looking at a photo of himself next to Ilas. Hugh ponders about Ilas

Ilas has a conversation with a barkeeper.

A strange image comes to Ilas' mind.

Ilas meets Rasiel.

Hugh examines a photo of himself and Ilas.

Ilas dreams with the recurrent chaotic image. When he wakes up, he can feel that the enemies will come. He takes off. A flashback shows Hugh and Ilas discussing about their past. When Ilas was a child, he worked in a mine. There, he found the article about the first successful flight. Another flashback shows Hugh and Ilas playing basketball one-on-one. Hugh and Ilas test each other with facts about the history of aviation.

The Allies bombard the base below. However, Ilas counterattacks fiercely in his airplane, destroying the enemies while reciting. A giant ghost is shown to represent his brutal offensive. Hugh joins the battle, reading Ilas' first poem collection. As Hugh explains, Ilas is supposed to be dead. The latter was in Paris with his beloved when the city was attacked. Ilas doesn’t believe him. Ilas' eyes are red and his lips form a deranged smile. With tears in his eyes, Hugh shoots him down.

• As a child, Ilas found an article about the first successful flight.
• Hugh and Ilas play basketball.
• Hugh and Ilas' past.
• The Faceless Phantom counterattacks.
• The Faceless Phantom counterattacks.
• Hugh reads Ilas' first poetry collection.
• Ilas' red eyes.
• Hugh maneuvers behind Ilas.
• Hugh cries for Ilas.
• Hugh shoots Ilas down.

1/10

Rasiel and the barkeeper, referred as Professor, watch the remains of Ilas’ airplane. They didn’t predict the existence of another collection of poems. While piloting the Camel, Hugh notices their presence below. He had used Ilas’ first book as a Phantom Book Egg. Rasiel wonders if Hugh is the key-keeper of another library. Ilas walks out of the burning wreckage. His compilation of poems is lost, so he wants to start writing again. However, Rasiel affirms that he won't have a second chance. Her soft touch makes him collapse. The Professor reveals himself as the one who raised him from the grave. Failing to complete a Phantom Book, now Ilas has no use for them. Ilas' body disappears when the Professor removes a bookmark from between the pages of a Phantom Book.

Hugh burns Ilas’ first book, but he seems frustrated after noticing that he also destroyed his photo with Ilas. Since fire is prohibited, Hugh is scolded by Armand. Hugh receives a letter from him. Armand is astonished to see Hugh discarding the Victoria Cross before leaving the base. The letter informs about Wesley’s death. With the end of the war, Hugh returns to the Disward estate. He tries to use the golden key to open the front door.

Rasiel and the Professor witness the end of the Faceless Phantom.

Ilas leaves his ruined airplane.

The Professor uses a Phantom Book to dispose of Ilas.

Hugh receives a letter informing about his grandfather's death.

Hugh reaches the Disward estate.

Light novel-anime main differences

Light novel	Anime
A mechanic tells Ilas about Hugh beating his superior during a simulated dogfight.	Armand tells Ilas about Hugh beating his superior during a simulated dogfight.
Hugh and Ilas don't get along at first.	Ilas gains Hugh's respect from the start.
Hugh dodges Ilas at the last moment. Hugh took his hands off the control stick, probably because he was afraid. When that happened, the Camel turned right by itself.	Hugh dodges Ilas at the last moment. Hugh took his hands off the control stick to grab his golden key. When that happened, the Camel turned right by itself.
At the bar, Ilas feels like a little girl is looking at him through a window.	-
Rasiel lifts her skirt to provoke Ilas.	Rasiel floats between the chairs. Her legs are exposed due to her movements.
In the original, Rasiel reveals more about the angel Rasiel and why she wants to create Phantom Books.	-
-	Ilas kisses Rasiel's hand. He doesn't show this kind of reverence in the original.
Rasiel asks if Ilas gave his poem to someone. Hugh has Ilas' first collection of poems.	Hugh has Ilas' first collection of poems.
Ilas wakes up to alarms. His base is under attack. He uses his power to read minds to safely take off.	Ilas wakes up knowing that his enemies are coming.
-	The anime shows scenes that develop Ilas' past and his relationship with Hugh.
Ilas is unable to predict shots from the ground. Hugh flies next to the airbase. Ilas follows him. Ilas is shot down by friendly fire from an anti-aircraft gun.	Ilas destroys an anti-aircraft gun and its gunner. Hugh shoots down Ilas' plane.
-	Throughout the episode, Ilas has memories of his past life.
-	Hugh sees Rasiel and the Professor next to Ilas' crashed airplane.
Hugh burns Ilas' poems. A mechanic scolds Hugh, since fire is prohibited at the base.	Hugh burns Ilas' poems. Hugh also burns his photo with Ilas by accident. Armand scolds Hugh, since fire is prohibited at the base. Armand gives a letter to Hugh. The letter talks about Wesley's death. Hugh returns to the Disward estate.

Trivia

• The introduction is set in Norfolk, England, 1917. A large number of men were called up to join the regiments in the rural county and sent to fight in France during the First World War. Airship hangars and manufacturers of aircraft, shells and electrical motors producing for the war effort were located in Norfolk. The county was one of the first places on earth bombed from the air after raided by German Zeppelin airships.
  • 1917 is marked by the involvement of the United States in the Great War, when the country severed diplomatic relations with Germany and declared war on the Empire. The first two SPAD airplanes destroyed by the Faceless Ghost during the episode had the insignia of the United States Air Force.
  • That same year, London suffered the first major German bombing raid, Soviet Russia negotiated a peace treaty with the Central Powers after the October Revolution, and Germany adopted a policy of using submarines to sink vessels without warning as response to the Blockade of Europe.
• The scene where Hugh and Ilas first fight is set in Aisne, France, 1918, when Germans carried out a surprise attack, focusing on capturing the Chemin des Dames Ridge, resulting in the Third Battle of the Aisne. The operation was part of the Spring Offensive, an effort to defeat the Allies before the full deployment of the overwhelming resources of the United States.
  • 1918 is marked by the ending of Russia's involvement in the Great War after signing a treaty with the Central Powers. That same year, the Red Baron was killed in action, aircraft carriers were used in combat for the first time, and the Second Battle of the Somme began. On November 11, Germany signed an armistice agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front.

• Armand mentions that Hugh transferred from Eastchurch. Active from 1909 to 1946, it was a Royal Air Force training station near Eastchurch village where an Englishman piloted an airplane in Britain for the first time.
  • Hugh, Armand and Ilas were assigned to the Yarmauth station. It's possibly a reference to the Great Yarmouth, a land and seaplane base used by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during the First World War, before they merged with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1918.

• The bar has a wall showing the French patriotic expression "Vive la France" and the flag of the country painted over with the Iron Cross, a military decoration in the German Empire, and the words "Berachtet mir den Meifter nicht", meaning "Do not disdain the Masters". It's the name of an aria from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, opera by German composer Richard Wagner, premiered in 1868.
  • Ilas drinks the Sprin' Bank whisky. Springbank is a real family-owned distillery established in 1828 in Campbeltown, a Scottish town once considered the center of smuggling and illegal production of whisky.
  • A bottle of Edrodour whiskey is also shown. Edradour is another Scottish distillery, recognized as one of the smallest, founded in 1825.
  • The barkeeper mentions that the French Sixty Army and the British Ninth Army were preparing an attack by marching down the Aisne, a river in northeastern France, where the Third Battle of the Aisne was fought. Formed in 1914, the 6eme Armée contributed three troops to the Battle of the Somme, the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. The IX Corps, formed in England in 1915, suffered several losses during the Spring Offensive.
  • A blackboard is used to record the number of shootdowns made by each member of a Jasta, a fighter squadron of the Luftstreitkräfte, the World War I air arm of the German Army. The blackboard is taken from a scene of The Blue Max, a 1966 British war film about a German fighter pilot during the Great War.
• The room where Rasiel and Ilas talk has a portrait resembling the Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan, a 1633 portrait painting by Dutch painter Rembrandt.

• The article found by Ilas has real publications from The Times, a British daily national newspaper founded in 1785. "A Flying-Machine that Flies" is the title used by the San Francisco Call to report the development of a successful airplane.
  • The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were American inventors and aviation pioneers, generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903. They flew the Wright Flyer, powered by a 12 hp engine, at the Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Hugh and Ilas memorized the time and distance of the Wright brothers' first flights.
  • The book used by Ilas to decipher the article is the 1828 edition of A Dictionary of the English Language, one of the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.

• Basketball was introduced in England by the worldwide organization Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), almost immediately after it was invented by Canadian-American physical educator and sports coach James Naismith in 1891. The sport gained more popularity with the arrival of the Americans into the Great War.
• Ilas spent his last moments in a place that resembles part of the Gardens of Versailles. Curiously, the Palace of Versailles is where the Germany and the Allies signed the peace treaty that ended the First World War.
  • However, the building next to the garden is the Château de Cheverny. It's a grand estate which has been in the same family for over six centuries. It opened its doors to the public in 1922.
• The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system, introduced in 1856 by Queen Victoria, presented usually at Buckingham Palace to a person of any military rank who shows gallantry in combat. There are 627 recipients that acted in the First World War, 19 of those are airmen.
• The episode ends with the first scenes of Episode 1.
• Composer Yo Tsuji created the song TangoAntiqua played on the gramophone at the bar, although he was not familiar with tango. GAINAX sent a lot of material for him to use as reference. It was a fun composing work compared to the rest of the soundtrack, especially the improvised piano parts.
• During Ilas' first dogfight, his target is named Evans (エバンス Ebansu), voiced by Hiroaki Tajiri. During Ilas' second dogfight, the head of the opposing company is voiced by Tatsuya Kuramochi.