The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episodes 1 & 2

The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episodes 1 & 2

Pure Concept of Null

I wasn’t planning to review The Executioner and Her Way of Life weekly. I wasn’t even originally planning to watch this anime. But, since weekly Onipan! reviews fell through, here we are. This review is going to cover the first two episodes. Going forward new episode reviews will be on Tuesdays.

Now, although I’m calling this a review of Episodes 1 & 2, what I’m really going to be discussing in this article is the most interesting part of the series: Pure Concepts. These are an extension of the magic system of this series.

You see, The Executioner and Her Way of Life is an isekai anime. In this series, those who are transported to the world of the series are given magical control over a particular concept — Pure Concepts.

Mitsuki using his Pure Concept of Null from the anime series The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episode 1
Mitsuki using his Pure Concept of Null

In the first episode, we’re introduced to Mitsuki, a boy who was originally thought to have no Pure Concept because his test came back “Null.” However, Menou (the protagonist) discovers that Mitsuki actually has the Pure Concept of Null, meaning he can nullify anything.

Usually, Null abilities in anime are pretty lame — think Touma from A Certain Magical Index. Typically, it means they can cancel out other abilities. Mitsuki might have been able to do that, too. But, we see that his ability extends to nullifying even physical matter.

Essentially, Mitsuki’s Pure Concept allows him to erase anything from existence. That’s an extremely powerful ability. If Mitsuki used it for evil, or if he was unable to control it, the effects would be devastating. And so, we’re introduced to the twist of the series: everyone with a Pure Concept must be eliminated.

Pure Concept of Time

So, Mitsuki only survived about halfway through the first episode. But the second Pure Concept user we’re introduced to is going to last a bit longer. Akari was summoned to this world just after Mitsuki was. She was also told that her Pure Concept had to do with healing, but that’s not exactly true.

When Menou attempts to assassinate Akari, she finds that Akari’s Pure Concept is actually of Time. While this does allow Akari to heal wounds by reversing time, it goes far beyond that. Thanks to her Pure Concept, Akari can even reverse her own death, effectively making her immortal.

Time-based abilities are always the most powerful around. If someone can literally control time, there’s not really much anyone else can do to defeat them. So, Menou needs to take Akari to the headquarters of the church she works for where Akari can be killed once and for all.

Akari's Pure Concept of Time from the anime series The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episode 2
Akari’s Pure Concept of Time

So, I mentioned that anyone with a Pure Concept has to be eliminated because their powers have the potential to be extremely devastating. Let’s just take a look at the Pure Concepts of Null and Time and theorize about what the results of these powers going out of control would be.

For Null, I think the worst-case scenario is pretty obvious. If that power were to go out of control, it could literally erase an entire country (based on the scale of previously known Pure Concept events). Null very well may be the most dangerous Pure Concept in existence.

The Pure Concept of Time could accelerate, reverse, or even stop time for a large area. Any of those options would kill everyone around. I guess stopping time would be the best case because at least then the physical region would still exist. That’s still not great, though.

The Four Major Human Errors

We know of five catastrophes that occurred in the past due to Pure Concepts going out of control. The first one we learn about is one Menou lived through as a child. We don’t know what the Pure Concept was, but it turned everything into white dust.

Flare comments that this Pure Concept wasn’t White, because if it was, there would have been no survivors. Again, we don’t know what White is, but we can assume it’s similar (but worse) than what we saw happen. It’s possible that White is one of the Four Major Human Errors, the worst of the Pure Concept events.

The first of these events is known as the Sword of Salt, which “melted the western continent into the sea.” I think this could be the White Flare spoke of in Episode 1. From the sound of it, this ability turned everything into salt, which was then eroded and washed away.

Menou's superior in the church from the anime series The Executioner's Way of Life Episode 2
Menou’s superior in the church

Pandemonium is the name of the second Major Human Error. It “devoured the southernmost archipelago.” Based on the name I’m going to guess it induced mass confusion among those living there and caused the collapse of their civilization. But, honestly, I have no idea.

The third Major Human Error is the Material Room (another name that isn’t very descriptive). This one “took over the Wild Frontier in the east.” To me, that kind of sounds like Unlimited Blade Works gone wrong.

And, lastly, we have Starhusk, the event that “carved out the center of the northern continent and set it afloat.” That one seems pretty straightforward. I think it’s safe to assume the Pure Concept of Gravity was involved there.

You may also have noticed that each of these Four Major Human Errors happened in a different cardinal direction. So, it’s very possible that they’re just legends. But, if they’re real, I hope we get to visit those locations in this series.

Conclusion

What do you think of the first two episodes of The Executioner and Her Way of Life? I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought this was going to be a boring, slice of life isekai. But, while not the best anime of the season, it’s possibly the one I’m most interested in. So far, I’m loving the Pure Concepts.

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My review of Episode 3 is available now.

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