SLAMS HEAD AGAINST THE WALL
ENSEMBLE STARS WHY?! Why now of all times do you do a two part flashback AGAIN?! I’m not happy. Not happy at all with having another two episodes worth of flashback, especially now. Ensemble Stars had the ball rolling in its favor by keeping me interested with all the developments it had and then they just go and ruin it. I want to know what is happening between Wataru and Hokuto! Don’t just leave me hanging like this! UGH.
In any case enough of my ranting, it is interesting that out of everyone that Eichi talked about creating a revolution. Not to mention his man crush on Wataru. Which probably makes Wataru’s joining fine a big thing for him. And I suppose in a sense that Eichi’s plan to reform the school was a good thing, which was something we found out earlier in the series. However, building up the five eccentrics just to run them into the ground is quite despicable. Especially when you take into account of what happened to Itsuki. The man was completely broken by the end of that other flashback. I’m actually not even quite sure of why Eichi even needed them to be a thing in the first place. They’re all not even in the same unit. (Though I suppose it was shown that they all were close to one another) Maybe it’ll be revealed in the next episode. However, it does seem like Eichi is trying to rile up the students by pulling strings to push the eccentrics into the limelight. Though considering the “war” basically crippled the eccentrics to an extent, it makes me wonder why Wataru would even consider joining fine in the first place. He saw what happened to Itsuki because of Eichi. So it doesn’t make sense for him to join without seemingly holding any resentment towards him. Unless he’s hiding it very well.
Not to mention that there was a little foreboding in what is to come with Tsumugi. He joined Eichi seemingly just because he asked him to. It was at that point where I recalled Sakuma’s words to him to not just do things for other people. He obviously didn’t think much of the advice and did just what Sakuma warned him not to do. Especially since it seems like Eichi is just using him to further his plans. Guess we already know what happens to him as literally none of the original members of fine are currently a part of the unit anymore. So it’s pretty much safe to assume that either Eichi dropped him once his usefulness came to an end or Tsumugi left on his own.
It seems we are finally introduced to that one dude who was creating a magic circle in episode two, Natsume Sakasaki, the final member of the original five eccentrics. Out of everyone, he’s the only one that I really care about in this flashback since he was teased so early on and such. And while I wish we could have been formally introduced in the present, he really made an impression of being someone who can seemingly do magic. Though it’s hard to tell if magic is actually a thing in this world. I look forward to what exactly happens to him since he is one of the two to have their title renounced. Though I guess “look forward” isn’t quite the right phrase since we’ve seen what happened to Itsuki. “Dreading yet curious” is probably the correct phrase in this case.
While I do like Eichi as an antagonist… I honestly didn’t really want to know about his backstory. At least, not at this time, not when the plot was getting really interesting. And just when I thought that this series had fixed its pacing somewhat… it decides to prove me wrong. While I had issues with the other two episode flashback with Nito, in the end I was somewhat fine with it and I came out of it liking Nito more as a character. However, this far into the series, I honestly just cannot find myself to care about new characters at this time. I’m sure they’re all good in their own ways… but there are just so many characters already and so late into the series. I just don’t have it in me to care anymore. Not to mention that I was actively rooting for Nito to succeed. Why would I want the “big bad” to succeed in his plans? Either way, while I may be annoyed with this turn of events, I do worry for what actually happened to the eccentrics since they all seem like pretty good guys.
