Well, that wasn’t entirely bad, but not amazingly good either.
Best guy Sukari is apparently a traitor, serving the bad guys but we all know he’s not really a traitor, because he’s the best guy. So he’s probably a double agent or something like that. It was cute to see Yukina being mad at him, making my ship sail. Also, those two are one of the few characters that still have some utility and who don’t piss me off. So yeah, I want to see more of them. Finally, Sukari’s uniform is really nice… yeah… really nice… *Ahem*.
Apparently, now there is a system where people have to give their blood, in order to feed the Kabaneris I’m guessing. When everything could go smoothly, some bad guy, more bad than the others start being a dick and cuts a guy’s arm who only wanted to protect his wife. I’ll admit this scene made me laugh a bit but only because this was ridiculous and unnecessary. This scene was used as shock factor to show blood and to make us understand that the bad guys are bad, expect the ones with names, those ones aren’t completely bad and they are probably going to redeem themselves at the end (like the cute blue hair soldier, I’m sure he’s going to switch sides).
So while Ikoma and co are planning to take control of the engine room, Biba is trying to convince Ayame to help him getting into the big station. He promises to keep her people safe but heh, I don’t know about you but I clearly don’t trust that son of a horse. I mean, he’s letting his soldiers cut arms and extracting blood out of people right now, this is pretty red flaggish. Then Biba explains why he’s so mad at his father: according to him, this is not a teenage crisis but some more serious matter. When he was 12 and commander of some troops, his father left them to die during some attack in the Kyushu islands. First of all, he was 12 and commander? Oh wow, that’s young and also, I don’t care. Okay that wasn’t very cool from the Shogun to abandon his son but heh maybe he had reasons, the shogunate is a military government after all so I doubt it would take extra measures just to save his son. Oh there you go, me and my pragmatism, I would be such a bad shounen hero. So, does taking revenge on your father justifies the extermination of so many people? I think not. Why do all bad guys have to be huge dicks when they hold a grudge against ONE person, gosh they are making things way more complicated for everyone.
After that, Takumi and Ikoma talk a bit, just to remind us that they are friends and to put some huge death flags on Takumi’s head. This episode Takumi had more screen time than Mumei and maybe Ikoma, it only means one thing: sorry bro, but I don’t think you are going to last long. Then, we learn Ikoma wants to protect Mumei cuz she’s like his sister. Nothing surprising, I knew Ikoma was a lolicon, it’s the green hair, it’s the hair I’m telling you.
The pleb is attacking the guards, according to Ikoma’s plan. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, what kind of dumb guards let the prisoners go near Ikoma’s cage? He’s in this cage for something right? They did not think it would be dangerous to let people go near that cage? Like, Ikoma, was going to sit, silently and not plan something to escape? Oh well, guess it’s also convenient that the bad guys are dumb.
Biba promises Mumei that he will not hurt her friends but again, heh, that’s most likely a lie. He also says to her “go kill people” but she’s like “noooo I want to be with my frieeends.” So Biba is like “u traitor, capture her”.
Then, Takumi and Ikoma meet with Biba and Biba shoots Ikoma but Takumi protects him so he gets shot. Well, that’s dumb. I doubt this bullet would have had any effect on Ikoma so heh, that’s dumb. But anyway, after that, Ikoma is not very happy and wants to kill Biba, but because he’s still shit at fighting he gets rekt by the blond soldier guy who cuts his arm. Then Biba shoots him and asks Mumei to finish him. She stabs him and he falls off the train, in the water. BUT! you know the rule, if we can’t clearly see a character dying, it means that he’s not dead and might come back later. So yeah, if there’s no body, there’s no death.
I have to give this episode one credit, the last scene was beautiful, those backgrounds, man, I’m in love. While the animation is lacking a bit, the single shots on faces are beautiful and quite powerful, so I’m willing to concede this. But overall, this is still weak, Biba’s motivations felt short to me; most of the cast is still useless, Ikoma too. For some reason, Takumi’s death did not have any impact on me and I’m pretty sure Ikoma is going to survive so, I’m not that stressed for him.
This show is rushing everything, the idea to create some sort of dictatorship inside the train, using people to extract their blood and stuff was a good one, but it wasn’t developed at all, there was no feeling of real oppression and the revolution of the pleb was too quick. So to me the pacing is awful and therefore I can’t be affected by the events. And to the awful pacing, the show is adding a huge amount of cliches and over-used character tropes which to me, contributes to make this show not a bad one, but a meh show. A meh show like: “Meh, there’s some good action sometimes, but there’s nothing more to it”.
☆☆I’ll see you next week then. This time I won’t be late, I swear ☆☆
Maybe its me but this show started off as one of the best shows this season but now they are driving the hype-train at fullspeed into a wall.. oh that pun. Not as terrible as mayoiga but still a wall. Bad decision turning bad-ass Mumei into a little kid that needs to be saved and bad-ass protag into a guy that wants the right thing only to end up getting beat up by everything. Not to forget the sudden plot in the last episode with drama for characters we barely know besides.. well yes this person is there. I am more interested in how kabanes came to be instead of crazy dictatorship out of the blue
I fully agree. The pacing is just ewww. Why bringing this new plot when there’s only 4 episodes left? We barely know the original characters ( their backstories, motivations and stuff) so why bringing new ones now? And you can see this lack of character development with Takumi’s death. What did we know about Takumi? Well, he’s Ikoma’s friend, there you go.
And you’re right about Mumei being a little kid, if there’s one rule to follow when making a “wannabe bad ass ” anime, is that it needs at least some bad ass characters that people can, if not relate to, like or admire. Here, the main cast is flat and the supporting characters are not developed enough. I would love to see more Yukina, Sukari and Boris but sadly there’s no time left. Now we need a final battle to wrap things up in a traditional way which we are probably going to get in the remaining episodes.
An anime magazine spread published some detailed info on why Biba wants revenge. A Redditor was kind enough to translate.
http://yaraon-blog.com/archives/86296?s=%E3%82%AB%E3%83%90%E3%83%8D%E3%83%AA#more
Biba was the sacrificial pawn in a power play between 2 opposing government factions 10 yrs ago. The militarists wanted to wage war and destroy the kabane, while the moderates thought it dangerous and wanted to hide out in their fortresses.
The shogun was part of the moderates, and to strengthen his faction’s cause he created a 400,000 strong army squad to fight the kabane with the intention of ensuring the squad would be killed by denying them necessary reinforcements. This was to convince the militarists of the futility of fighting the kabane. 12 yr old Biba was chosen as the squad commander, and Kurusu’s dad was part of that squad.
The plan worked – everyone but Biba died, and the moderates were able to gain their political leverage. Biba was made a scapegoat and exiled to the Hunters. For 10 years he’s been investigating who betrayed him, and as of the current timeline he’s discovered the truth and wants bloody vengeance.
Thanks for sharing this info with us 😀
As expected the Shogun is a pretty Machiavellian man. Scarifying his own son for political matters, I kind of like that. Furthermore, this contributes to my theory that the show is inspiring itself from the Tokugawa Period, where the shogun and people hide behind walls, to prevent invasion from western countries.
I wouldn’t mind if they spend an entire episode just for this story instead of throwing the plot into a few minutes which makes us understand his suffering more etc.
HAHAH I LUV YOUR REVIEWS. I also think this anime has actually so much potential but mehhh.. its going further down.. but I still enjoy it ~
Oh my, you are making me blush ^
I’m still struggling to find the reasons why and when this anime became “meh”. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure that out with the final two episodes.