How would you rate episode 4 of
The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold To Another Kingdom ? Community score: 3.9
No matter how hard they try, the Adenauers and Prince Julius can't separate Mia and Philia. If I had to pick, I'd say that's the strongest element of The Too-Perfect Saint - yes, seeing Philia finally find wide-spread acceptance and love is beautiful, and yes, it's very rewarding to see Mia figure out what was really going on in her kingdom and family, but the one thing that ties all of the plot threads together is the sisters' relationship.
That's really brought home this week as Philia begins to realize that Mia never received her letter. It says a lot that she realizes almost immediately that her parents must have destroyed it rather than give it to Mia; Mia herself doesn't go there right away. Instead, she assumes that Philia is either unable to or unwilling to write, coming down more on the side of the former. Based on the fact that Parnacorta bought her sister from Girtonia, it's a reasonable assumption to make, especially factoring in what Mia's learning about how Philia was treated.
But what's really great is that neither sister gives up. When she doesn't get a letter from Philia, Mia takes it upon herself to write herself – and just as important, she sends the letter without going through their parents, which may indicate that she has her suspicions about them withholding her mail. And the minute Philia gets Mia's letter with that tell-tale ink blot, she asks about a way to get her correspondence directly into her sister's hands. In many other stories, one or the other of the sisters would have given up, making wrongheaded assumptions. Here, they prove that their bonds are stronger than anyone ever imagined.
It also continues to emphasize how overburdened Philia was back in Girtonia. While I can empathize with her inability to stop working (in my case, it's because many of my hobbies became my work), to Lena it just proves once again that Philia was abused. What Philia sees as normal, Lena sees as a young woman not being allowed to simply exist, and her eagerness to share her romance novels is both her being excited to potentially bring someone new to Romancelandia and her desperately trying to help. Philia likes reading? It's an in! Of course, Philia's been reading ancient nonfiction tomes, but that won't stop Lena, even if she seems to have a few second thoughts when Philia struggles to define the genre. But Lena is ready to guide Philia down the garden path, and it's not hard to see where her brain goes when Prince Osvalt shows up to explain his feelings about his brother having bought himself a saint.
Not that Philia gets it. Her blank expression most of the time just shows how repressed she's been, but in the case of Osvalt pouring out his heart in as careful a fashion as he can manage, it's clear that his feelings are going right over her head. That's got two roots: she's always believed that she's more object than person, so being sold doesn't outwardly faze her, but she also has so little experience with any kind of warm feelings that she honestly has no clue that Osvalt is trying to hint that he likes her. The only person she can conceive of liking her is Mia. Poor Osvalt has his work cut out for him.
But Philia's got bigger concerns right now, namely her sister. When she asks Himari, the requisite ninja from Totally-Not-Japan, to get Mia out of Girtonia, that's serious. Philia knows that Girtonia is doomed without a saint, so by making her request, she's putting Mia above an entire country's population. It's the first real sign we've seen that Philia may resent her previous life, even if she's not fully aware of it, and seeing what comes of Himari's offer and Mia's new understanding of what's at stake may crack Philia's shell even further.
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The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold To Another Kingdom is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Wednesdays.
