Drifters Episode 4 [Weird Exposition]

Remember how I mused in previous episodes that it was amusing to see Oda and Toyohisa muse together about their time? I retract that statement this episode and find I know the shows one major flaw: the love of the narrative to be explained is excessive and pointless when done so unnaturally. At one point Toyohisa says point blank that he is not Oda’s son and Oda seems to tear up at the reminder. This felt like an awkward time and place to have that conversation in the story already and I was left going. . .okay, don’t let me develop that sense for myself? So far I’ve only had 3 episodes of Oda and Toyohisa interacting, given that Scipio and Hannibal had their own content, and that dialogue felt incredibly unnecessary. The best thing this author does it show interesting information during awesome cut scenes but these character were sitting on stools.

So far the most interesting things that have been done are to see the kindness of the Black King towards demi humans, essentially confirming that all the martyr victims resent the world for killing them (though for Jeanne de Arc / Joan of Arc…frankly that is bullshit, she believed God led her mission soooooooo unless something in the afterlife convinced her God isn’t real this entire concept is something I must argue with. Hijikata and Anastasia, however, I will buy. Hijikata’s entire way of life was cut down and Anastasia was shot and buried in a ditch with her brother. ), and seeing everyone fight in a fantasy world is really cool. Hearing Oda essentially admit he cares more about power and control than what is right is hilarious!

That being said, hopefully the enormous exposition of this episode is setting up something really great. Maybe we won’t get anymore stilted content or annoying dialogue between characters and we’ll stick to what makes the story work: really cool fight scenes and the idea of opposing ideologies. I am a bit troubled by the reality that so far the characters do more bickering about their differences than have thoughtful insight between each other. Hannibal and Scipio came the closest and they still resorted to a screaming match in the middle of a deadly situation. I kind of miss the somber nature of Hellsing where Integra was always serious and Alucard was the comedian. . . as in, there wasn’t much comedy other than mocking your enemy.

I’m anticipating many issues to clear up, but we will have to see. Until then, how bout that Black King though.

Oki