Berry’s Impression
I thought last week’s episode was pretty great because the pacing last time felt perfect. This time it went back to cutting to the chase quickly so The Phantom Thieves have their next target. Like I’ve been saying, it’s fast paced as hell but it included all the important things we need to know.
The mystery stalker boy that appeared before the group is none other than best boi Yusuke Kitagawa, an art student that suddenly became enamored with Ann’s beauty when laying eyes upon her days before. He cuts right to the chase and asks Ann to be the model for his next art piece. After school, the group hangs out on the roof and discuss Yusuke and some art exhibition tickets he had given them, as he also mentioned that he’s the pupil to the very famous artist Madarame. Ann wants to go because it’s mature, but something bothers Ren. It’s then that Makoto asks them to leave the roof area, and Morgana tells Ren to keep watch for her. The kids go to the exhibition and watch as Madarame gives an interview, and Yusuke happily shows Ann around the exhibit while Ren and Ryuji can do whatever, but Ren wants to check out something else. While Ann is with Yusuke she learns a lot and has fun, with Yusuke showing pride for Madarame but acts odd when Ann gets fixated on a certain painting.
When Ann meets up with the boys, it turns out that the boys were looking up these ugly rumors about Madarame that have been posted by many people on the Phan Site. Apparently, Madarame is nothing but a sham, taking in students only to abuse them and plagiarize their art. At first they’re not sure to believe it, and they don’t when they actually meet Madarame in person at his home. But things get weirder when they accidentally open Madarame’s Palace.
As it was already told to us through the interrogation scene with Sae, Madarame is indeed a terrible criminal. His palace in the form of an art museum, the thieves find self portraits of Madarame’s past pupils and happen to stand in front of Yusuke’s portrait. Inside the Palace, they overhear Madarame’s shadow self speaking to his guards how stupid the kids were in believing him, and that the rumors are definitely true. The kids confront Yusuke and he admits to them that it basically is true, but he takes it as a student helping his master. For Yusuke, it’s also a touchy subject because Madarame took him in when he had no family, so it’s understandable for him. It shows how devoted he is to him, but it’s also very saddening to know he’s putting up with the abuse and plagiarizing, where his own painting (the one Ann liked) isn’t getting the proper recognition.
To cement things for The Phantoms, they meet with the guy from Mementos, Nakanohara, who begs them to stop Madarame as he again confirms the rumors, even mentioning that Madarame’s evil ways even drove his friend to suicide. The group gets together and decide that Madarame needs to be stopped, and that he’s going to be their next target.
I know they probably don’t want to spend too much time with exposition and slow build up, but I didn’t expect them to go this far. It’s nice seeing Yusuke on the screen, but I feel like we haven’t spent enough time with him yet to really know him. Of course, this isn’t the last time we’ll be seeing him, but to get to the meat of the arc’s story, some of the charm and fun banter from the game had to be cut. Darn. 🙁
Also please give my boi Ren some more damn lines. Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana are basically doing all the talking and…wait, that’s exactly like the game. When I said I wanted some things from the game, I didn’t mean that!
