Two episodes ago I would have never thought I would have titled this episode that, but hey, that’s what this show does to you. Challenges your preconceptions of well….everything. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, was this a bad episode? Let’s start up the review and find out.
So the episode starts out with this random bunny girl singing and dancing when she gets a notice from that asshole bunny slave girl from earlier telling her that she has to assassinate the rescued prisoner because that will cause the Japanese to attack the prince and his dudes in retribution.
So that glasses dude from earlier goes in to talk to his supervisor about Itami and he’s surprisingly in favor of helping him out even sending some guys out to assist him.
However, he wants the glasses guy to talk to the king guy who got blown up in episode 2. (yeah I don’t really know his name and I don’t want to learn it) They strike a deal that they’ll escort him back to his country and they’ll not only get the right to cross his land to fight the dragon, but also get all mining rights as long as it isn’t precious metals that can be used for currency. (as they’re probably looking for oil)
We then cut to the girl who got captured sitting outside and not being able to get ahold of her family, she thinks they’re dead and she has no reason to live.
Bunny assassin hears this and feels better about killing her. However, glasses guy shows up and she attacks him. She manages to stab him, but he unloads an entire fucking 9mm clip into her.
However, surprisingly they’re not dead as we see both of them in the infirmary later.
I can see how he survived as he just got stabbed in the side. but dayymnn.. She got shot SIX TIMES point black in the torso. It’s like…HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?
As this could obviously not have been kept hidden, the army goes to check out this girl’s room and finds the murder order still on the floor where she left it (Like I said, top notch assassins here) and they’re not only able to get that, but also the fingerprints from her and the guy who sold the royal letterhead paper to trace the line back to the royal family of the prince.
So I know i’m forgetting something……..what was that….. oh yeah! The dragon! THAT THING! yeah, about 2/3 of the way through the episode it’s about time we get back to the dragon. So the guys who were going to help out Itami by doing reconnaissance on the dragon do just that and figure out his maneuverability.
That’s enough of that scene though as the dragon flies away and the finale of the episode finally culminates and we actually get back to Itami.
The dark elf leads them to her home and goes off to find the elders, but some dark elves show up and threaten to shoot them with arrows wondering why they’re there as she wasn’t currently with them.
However that is exactly when the dragon shows up.
Itami uses this time to finally convince the elf girl that her father is dead and to take her revenge on the dragon. She freaks out and misses with the rocket launcher he was helping her fire at it. The dragon flies away and that’s the end.
So…this episode was……interesting.
First off, it did not have a lot of Itami. At all. I think the main 4 characters screen time comprised of about 5 minutes. Then again, that seems to be a theme with these season two episodes. The magic girl and Rory seem to have little to no screen time this season so far, and even Itami and elf girl are kind of pushed to the side to make room for…other people doing stuff. That can be fine if we didn’t have a pertinent main story going on.
The issue is, they’re trying to shoehorn in this bunny girl story, when as of right now, it is not very necessary. I am trying to watch them fight this dragon, but it’s relegated to only 3 minutes of the episode as for most of it, we have to worry about bunny girl being mad at the asshole prince.
I don’t know if you’re supposed to feel sorry for her, or sympathize with her or something, but I really really don’t. She’s like “Hey, know that human prisoner that’s been tortured and raped? Kill her to satisfy my own goals.” When you do that, basically any “Feel sorry for me” backstory has become null and void and I can’t care about you. Also, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THIS STORY.
This character is completely stupid and useless. If you wanted to have something like this, make it happen AFTER you kill the giant dragon and wrap up the elf girl’s story. I’m trying to focus on something else here, and it’s not a nice departure from what’s going on. I shouldn’t have to worry if you’re going to kill the human girl who was a prisoner because bunny chick is an asshole and she has a stupid “Wah wah” story. It just feels like it was placed in here at the wrong time.
I DO understand the world keeps moving here and other things are happening besides the dragon, but this is not the way to go about it. Don’t throw a new character at me and expect me to think she’s cool, or scary or even remotely threatening.
I came into this season wanting to see these characters.
These are the characters I fell in love with. I spent all first season with them. And as of right now, this is the first time all four of them have done ANYTHING together since the season started up. Keep with this story. Keep telling THEIR adventure. I CARE about this. Don’t skip to glasses guy talking to blown up guy to talk about mining rights. Cut back on the other random military people who I don’t even know their names. If you’re going to tell your story, TELL YOUR STORY.
I don’t mind if you have several stories going on at once, but don’t build your main story and nearly forget about it. I hope next episode will get back on track, because as of right now, with the exception of glasses guy shooting the bunny girl and itami telling the elf girl her father is dead, there was NOTHING memorable about this episode. I had to rescroll through the episode just to remember what happened. And that’s never a good thing.
Episode 5/10
Come on…GIVE ME MORE RORY AND ITAMI SCENES DAMN IT!
-Hideki