Jack of All Trades, Party of None 1×10 & 1×11 Review: “Makes them Train Hard” and “Fears For His Friends”

Jack of All Trades, Party of None anime season 1 episode 10, titled ‘Makes Them Train Hard’, and episode 11, ‘Fears For His Friends’, offered details about Orun’s students while drawing a very serious threat closer to them.

With Orun responsible for training Sophia, Caroline, and Logan, ‘Makes them Train Hard’ was all about Orun’s skills as a teacher. Even though we have spent quite a lot of time with the trio of young recruits, there’s still much we don’t know about them. Fortunately, we got some interesting details in this particular episode.

Beginning with Logan, his desire to become the best Enchanter in the realm was due to his wanting to support his home village. Apparantly, his village didn’t have money. However, after realizing Logan’s potential, everyone pitched in to ensure his journey to join the Night Sky Silver Rabbits. Logan aimed to become an official adventurer so he could start earning money to send back to the villagers, because they all believed in him. Logan’s backstory added a nice emotional layer to such a determined young individual. I liked how he had a goal that included benefiting others instead of just himself.

As for Sophia, her backstory revealed that she was Selma’s half-sister. However, unlike Selma, Sophia had been treated poorly by the family because her mother, a maid, was a mistress and had given birth to an illegitimate child. Selma always held a soft spot for Sophia. However, Selma couldn’t be around Sophia 24/7 to protect her from emotional abuse after she began her life as an adventurer. Fortunately, that changed when Selma decided to come back. She took Sophia under her wing, leading her younger sister to become a member of the Night Sky Silver Rabbits. Sophia stayed positive and understanding due to what she had been put through as a child. She also looked up to Selma as a role model.

While I continue to enjoy the strong bond shared between the siblings, I have to say that I can’t help but groan whenever their interest in Orun pops up. Apparantly, both sisters were aware they were crushing on the same guy. And yet they seem to be in a weird state where they are mature enough not to be manipulative and try to garner Orun’s attention by making the other look bad in front of him. In my opinion, the fewer such scenes we get, the better.

Caroline’s backstory was the most interesting to me. Her past was linked to the lingering threat posed by the Cyclamen Church. It’s revealed that the reasons Caroline’s so gung-ho about facing enemies herself had to do with her special ability and past trauma. She didn’t feel the need to wear armor because her special ability allowed her to heal at an incredibly fast rate. She did, however, feel pain when injured, but, to her, it was okay to bear said pain as long as her teammates remained safe. Caroline was all about making people happy by taking on hardships because she equated sadness with being punished.

I knew something was up when she noticed Sophia and Logan’s worried faces and immediately thought that Orun, who was also worried during their dungeon adventure, was going to physically punish her for not doing her duty. Caroline’s current state of mind was due to her being experimented on by the Cyclamen Church. They had been abusing her on their mission to revive an evil God. Albert had rescued Caroline from the zealots. Albert’s death because of the Black Dragon had led to Caroline experiencing even more emotional turmoil.

I liked the scene where Orun hugged Caroline and told her that her wish to make others smile was making the same people sad instead. It wasn’t because they were disappointed in her. It was because seeing Caroline put herself recklessly in danger emotionally hurt them too, because they cared for her well-being. Also, as Orun put it, Caroline needed to be a team player because her getting overwhelmed by enemies caused Logan and Sophia to try and help her (regardless of her healing ability), leaving themselves vulnerable to attacks.

With the Cyclamen Church keeping an eye on Orun, I’m looking forward to seeing how Caroline behaves when the zealots reappear. I would like for Caroline to get some revenge.

As for the Cyclamen Church wanting to resurrect an evil God, I take it Orun was put through a similar ordeal of experiments, which he likely doesn’t remember. I’m looking forward to learning more about why the Cyclamen Church deemed it necessary to revive an evil God in the first place. The plan might have something to do with making the adventurers clear the Great Dungeons ASAP. Take note that Orun was surprised that his Guild expected his students to become skilled enough to clear the middle floors within six months. Why the rush?

Talking about Orun’s training sessions for the young trio, it involved making Caroline better at dodging attacks. Logan sparred with Wilkes while using a spear. Sophia began training in parallel construction. There was a moment where she seemed to have toppled a target just by pointing her staff at it. Her budding special ability might have to do with telekinesis.

‘Fears For His Friends’ was about Orun and Unit 1 getting ready to face the Black Dragon and avenge Albert after a whole year. Their mission was on the same day that the young trio would be sent to clear floor 30. So, of course, you could tell something bad was going to happen. The moment Orun handed the tiro three necklaces as good luck charms, I knew the gems were going to serve as an SOS signal to Orun, making it difficult to deal with the Black Dragon while worrying about what danger the trio got themselves into.

Though predictable, episode 11 still managed to surprise me because the inevitable danger turned out to be a criminal gang called Amunthoth. It was the same gang that Scion’s a part of. It’s revealed that the Amunthoth gang didn’t want adventurers making their way through the dungeons. To achieve their goal, members of Amunthoth were okay with killing any adventurers they came across. With Orun being their current target, Scion and her team decided to use the young trio as bait. I highly doubt any of the trio will die, but Scion’s team being menacing toward them still helped raise the stakes while Orun tried to remain focused on slaying the Black Dragon with Unit 1.

I have a feeling that Unit 1 will be forced to flee from the giant creature to go help the trio, especially after the dragon exhibited regeneration. I wouldn’t be surprised if Orun used himself as a distraction to allow Unit 1 to escape, leading to Selma and the others facing Scion’s party before Orun showed up to lend a hand.

I’m quite excited about Scion’s reunion with Orun and learning more about their shared past.

Did you watch Jack of All Trades Party of None anime season 1 episodes 10 and 11? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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