Now I don’t know what I was expecting after the fallout between Michiru and Nazuna… but this episode wasn’t it. It seems like they shifted focus a little and the cult isn’t the main focus but something that is kind of going on while others things happen. Which felt a little weird since it felt like focusing on another thing kind of downgraded what happened between Michiru and Nazuna a little.
Anyways, we’re introduced to quite a few new characters. First this albatross guy named Pinga (the name Pinga makes me giggle and I don’t know why) who looks like a pretty boy with trigger’s typical “Kamina” feel. Though maybe not in personality, but he has the Kamina eyes. Trigger always has to implement Kamina into some character in every one of their series. I was honestly hoping this guy would join the group since he seemed like an interesting characters… until he turned out to be some kind of terrorist. I wanted to give him the benefit of a doubt, but after that smug look on his face when he passed by the Mayor’s place, I got a bad feeling especially since the episode made a point in making the guy pretty sympathetic with how albatrosses are wired. They have the instinct to migrate and a lot of his friends and family were shot down by the human military because they were “trespassing.” So I was disappointed to find that he was taking part in terrorism so that his voice would finally be heard. But then he turned out to be just ex-military who had fought against anti-beastmen extremists only to become one himself when it ended up putting restrictions on flying. Which felt rather selfish in a sense from how he put it at least. I’m also not a fan at how the whole thing was resolved. Since he just essentially told us everything without much prompting and Michiru gives the “protag speech” about whether he thinks what he’s doing is actually right.
I know there is a lot of different things going on with the whole “do beastmen deserve rights” type of thing. Especially since it another layer of complicated was added when it is addressed of whether beastmen should be forced to accept “human rights.” It’s an interesting point, especially since why SHOULD beastmen be expected to act a certain way? Just because people say so? But then there’s also the point of beastmen acting on instinct, that could lead to harming not only humans but other beastmen. We’ve seen beastmen duke it out with each other on multiple occasions and it’s chaos. I can understand the human stance of wanting to put restrictions on beastmen because in a sense, yes, they are very dangerous. But that in no regard justifies how poorly they treat them. It’s almost like it’s begging the question if it’s even possible for humans and beastmen to live together in harmony.
But man… MICHIRU YOU’RE ASSUMING AGAIN. She definitely takes too many things at face value… it’s been biting her in the butt every time but she keeps doing it! When she told that there’s no way Pinga is a terrorist I was like: YOU’VE JUST MET HIM. He may have given you his sad backstory but that in no way tells you whether he’s good or not! And while we learn that Michiru was like, half right about Pinga, as he was only going to do scare tactics to get the major to hear him out rather than using outright violence, he was still planning on an act of terrorism. Which I’m thankful to Shirou for being able to stop him.
However, after watching the episode again, I think I can kind of understand why Michiru didn’t want to think badly of Pinga. Considering at the beginning of the episode, she was pretty down all with the rain pouring down on her. I feel like she needed a change of pace after her little blowup with Nazuna and Pinga did offer her a nice fly through the skies, something I’m sure she’s never experienced before. So after someone was able to help bring her mood back up, I can understand why she didn’t want to see him as someone who could cause terrorism. But she still needs to work on trusting people too quickly because that is still a big problem of hers.
And then we finally introduced to that blond haired guy that has been showing up for a while, Alan Sylvasta. Considering he’s the head of the Sylvasta Pharmaceutical, he just feels pretty shady from the getgo. Not to mention the way he talks make it seem like he’s not really taking anything seriously when he was talking to the mayor or Shirou. Not to mention he just became a backer for Animacity on a whim, nothing more. Well, so it seems for now. It’s honestly pretty infuriating since he seems to be extremely wishy-washy about everything. Like he doesn’t have any passion for anything and is just doing things because he’s bored or it amuses him. Considering there has been an ongoing trend of people in power being the ultimate baddy in trigger shows, I would not be surprised if he is the “big antagonist” at the end. I guess we’ll find out if he follows suit or if that honor actually goes to Nazuna. I’d actually root for Nazuna being the big bad at the end because then I feel like it could develop Michiru’s development in a way that would be interesting since she would have go against her best friend.
What I liked about this episode how it finally demonstrated Shirou and Michiru actually working together for the first time and pretty well might I add. This had to be the first instance where they were able to help each other out without anyone screwing something up or getting hurt. Not to mention Shirou actually accepted Michiru’s help this time rather than scolding her. He even smiled. So it’s nice to finally see these guys slowly start to develop their teamwork, even if they’re still at odds with each other’s morals. Though it seems like Shirou is slowly beginning to allow Michiru’s ideals to rub off on him with allowing Pinga go without clobbering him as he did to those terrorists in the first episode. I do hope that Shirou learns that not all humans are evil and that there are good ones. I’m sure Michiru’s influence will help with that though.
This episode felt a little weird to me. Maybe it was the pacing, but it felt slightly disorienting with bringing in Pinga who wasn’t the real threat while cult stuff is still going on. Maybe I expected this series to continue with the plot set up in the previous episode and they just kind of went down a filler-ish route instead. In any case, it felt like took an unnecessary and obscure detour to get the cult to stay in Animacity by having Nazuna save Alan from the other bird assassin. The pacing of this series has honestly felt a little weird lately and it’s definitely getting a little hard to wrap my head around what direction they’re trying to take. It is around this time where trigger shows get a little too convoluted for their own good so guess we’ll find out if BNA continues the trigger trend or not.
