Note: Apologies for the lack of usual screencaps, it’s extremely late and I’m dying to get to sleep. Sorry!
Impression
The overarching plot is beginning to move forward again, and Night Raid have decided to boldly enact their plan to assassinate Borick, a corrupt advisor to the religious organisation they’re trying to remove. While it does feel that we’re still very far away from anything resembling a final battle -Akame mentioned that it’d be a mission to assassinate the Prime Minister, and that sounds about right- with each death Night Raid are still getting closer and closer to the heart of the corruption. The introduction of the Four Rakshasa Demons this episode was actually quite funny – because, well… all but one of them are already dead. I guess the immunity of being a new character also doesn’t apply on the enemy’s side. It’s even odder because they were supposed to be last-boss material, and yet they were taken out like fodder with relatively little suffering on Night Raid’s part – I know they’ve ostensibly killed Teigu users in the past (and are strong despite that) but I can’t help but feel that a useful Teigu in the hands of someone who knows how to use it is at an advantage over enemies manipulating their bodies.
Lubbock was a wonderful example. He hasn’t been featured in many major fights so far, so it was great to learn about Cross Tail and see more of what it could do – and alongside that Lubba has proved himself to be very badass. He took out two of them, one after another! And I swear there was a bit of regret in his voice after he killed the cute girl – I agree, it feels like it always happens to him. With the high mortality rate, I admit I got a bit worried for Lubbock there, especially as he doesn’t have the plot armour that Akame does. All worked out in the end, though! It would have been bad for Night Raid had these Rakshasa Demons lived, but in the end they were sacrificed as a sort of meet-and-greet for the upcoming events of this new arc – which will hopefully escalate into yet another climactic confrontation between Night Raid and the Jaegers. Happily enough, it looks like we won’t have to wait very long for the next confrontation at all. On an unrelated note, Kurome is managing to keep herself alive somehow – and I definitely didn’t miss how she spent most of her screentime this episode being held by Wave. It’s even a ship that’s plot armour-friendly!
Anyway, for all the strength these new enemies were purported to have, it didn’t feel like it was an overwhelmingly thrilling episode the way past weeks have been – maybe that’s just because it was intended to be a sort of set-up, or I might just be exhausted. I’m very excited for next week though, because it’s Seryuu time at last!
…Please hurry up and die.
Look at the time, what time is it? It’s Seryuu and her dor death time.
I’ll be cheering so hard for Mine. It’s finally happening!
Rush, Rush, Rushed this episode was. They’ve been skipping small things ever since episode 1, but this was over-the-top.
And I know that the Run vs Akame fight was never that important, but seeing it reduced to “Oh, hello Akame, now bye!” was annoying.
They were four, and then there was one Aladdin reject cannon fodder.
Run properly fought Akame?! Maybe that’s why the episode as a whole didn’t feel as intense as it could have been. I think they’re trying to find a proper stopping point for the adaptation, although by this show’s nature there doesn’t really seem to be one. The only real lulls are when people die, and that would be a really tragic yet fitting way to end things.
The fight went something like this:
1. Run attacks, Akame barely dodges.
2. Run: Hmm, she barely dodged that. The feathers lose strenght and speed with distance (this is information you’d think they would not skip). Let’s go a little lower.
Rinse and repeat, until Run realised she’s baiting him and he actually descended quite a bit from his initial position. That’s when he said: screw it, my role is reconnaissance.
I know that does not sound very exciting, but it looks much better in images.