Damn, this episode got the plot moving more than every other episode so far combined. Not only is the mystery behind Hizakuriger and his connection to Robby is solved (spoiler: it’s not very mysterious), but we also got some interesting detail on the origin of the exciting RobiHachi universe.
When I first saw this guy I was like “wow I had no idea Neil Armstrong was such a bishounen” but it appears that the first man on the moon in this universe was actually some random Japanese civilian astronaut who beat Neil and the boys there by mere hours (I assume, having no concept of how long space travel takes) and also discovered alien life. Like… he just built his own space shuttle and went to the moon? In a 1969 presumably comparable to our universe’s 1969? Are they… are they going to explain how that worked? I guess that’s just what go-getters do. I’m glad to get some background on the origin of the universe, though. And let’s face it, the dumber the better. It’s not like we’re striving for high art here.
The planet of the week is Yokkamarché, aka Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism: Ota
ku Edition. What do they mean it’s not known for anything? Surely it’s known for objectively being the best planet. I wrote that before they restrained Robby and tried to erase his memories to get to the sweet Hizakuriger content, but I stand by it. Nothing but respect for these dedicated media collectors.
This episode is actually pretty meta. It’s clear that RobiHachi knows the best it can hope for is being dug up and obsessed over by a bunch of losers decades after its end, which sort of makes me like it more. Honestly, this show is low-effort, but I don’t wish it ill. It has its moments, and this episode felt like they were actually trying for once. It’s like the creators had the final few episode solidified in their minds and they were just killing time until they could get there.
I mean, we’re not taking a drastic improvement here, but Yokkamarché was the first planet that it felt like they thought about for more than 30 seconds; easily double that amount of time and care has gone into its worldbuilding.
Now that we know the full deal with Hizakuriger, I wonder if that’s basically it for him. Unless maybe Robby ends up reuniting with his family somehow? I’m never sure what this show is going to address and what it isn’t, because it’s dangling an awful lot of plot threads in front of us and we only have three more episodes to go. There’s all the stuff with Robby’s family, they’ve still barely touched Hatchi’s backstory, and frankly I feel like they might not even end up getting to Isekandar. Still, I guess more material to get through can only be a good thing considering how devoid of it the show has been so far.
On a fin
al note, I thought Yang was fairly well utilised this episode! Painting him as the hero of the day was a fun, semi-unexpected twist, and his exchange with the otaku at the end was actually pretty funny. I’ve decided I quite like Yang, but he must be used sparingly.
Oh man, is it really a “we had a stupid argument so we’re splitting the ship in two” episode next time? Egh, that’s one of my least favourite clichés. I hope it doesn’t take up the entire episode.