Oh crap… Is Alan trying to turn beastmen human??? Which is something I really shouldn’t be surprised over since it’s obvious OF COURSE someone would think of doing this in this world, but I digress. Alan just keeps getting more and more shady with each episode. Though it’s obvious the series is pointing at him like: DON’T TRUST HIM, HE’S THE BAD GUY. I already didn’t trust this guy when he first appeared so it won’t be a surprise to me if he ends up being the big bad.
Not gonna lie, this episode felt weird. Pacing-wise and content-wise. There were times where the episode felt really long and way too drawn out but rushed through a lot of build up and information. I find myself getting bored when I’m presented with a lot of text explaining different things, I blame Ensemble Stars for that. It felt like there was just A LOT of talking and explaining this episode, not allowing the viewer to find out about the information in a progressive manner. Usually Trigger is pretty good on the show don’t tell aspects, but not so much in this series. So I’m kind of bummed about that after watching this episode.
Though I will admit that the fight with the rampaging rhino was fun to watch… even though I’m confused as to what even happened. As far as we know, the rhino scientist back in episode 3 was seen by Boris and all of a sudden, a moment later he morphs into this gigantic monster and presumably kills that other chameleon scientist and bird terrorist in his rampage??? Did Boris inject him with something that caused this??? All I know that Boris did something and I’m just sitting here wondering just what the heck Boris even is. I have suspicions of him being some type of lizard, but hasn’t quite revealed what kind of beastman he is yet. And if he did inject him with something, that leads me to believe that he has some sort of connection with Alan. So there’s that conspiracy theory.
What I did like was seeing that Michiru and Shirou were starting to act more like a duo. Shirou seemed to be a bit more nice and thoughtful towards Michiru. Going as far as to invite her to see the interrogation of that bird beastman who tried to kill Alan. And when they started working together against the rampaging rhino, I couldn’t help but think that Shirou started acting like a mentor of some sort. If Boris is Nazuna’s trainer, it seems like Shirou is starting to become one for Michiru. ABOUT TIME. I had hoped they would start working together earlier so I guess it’s better late than never.
Speaking of Shirou, I FREAKING CALLED THAT HE WAS GINROU! I FREAKING KNEW IT! But honestly, it felt very obvious. From how he spoke and especially with how he could heal despite a severe wound that should have killed him. And him basically saying something along the lines of “it’s just a flesh wound” while after being impaled was also very telling. But how it all played out felt… weird. Not gonna lie though, the part where Shirou was shanked by the angry rhino legit shocked me. I thought he was just gonna get hit and fly across the room, not freaking impaled like a kabob. Not to mention there was an EXCESSIVE amount of blood in that scene while all the prior scenes were pretty tame. Talk about mood whiplash though, I was literally laughing at how he just shoved Michiru away… only for him to get impaled through the chest. I immediately stopped laughing after that.
We finally get the true backstory to Ginrou but… what??? It felt so weird and I felt like I couldn’t quite grasp or accept it. I feel like all of this lore and backstory made the series feel a little… too big? Or at least too ambitious for this series. It’s very trigger by making a simple story into a bigger than life spectacle, but I feel like they missed the mark with BNA. All of this information didn’t make the series more interesting, it just made it more confusing. It felt like they were just adding way too many things to the story that weren’t really necessary.
And literally right after they told Michiru not to tell anyone, she literally asks if she can share it with Nazuna. I honestly wanted to slam my head into the wall. MICHIRU NO. But the fact that Shirou allowed it was like: DUDE WHY???? At this point, I feel like Michiru went off to brag and I’m not about that. But with that aside, I just cannot fathom why she keeps trying to reach out to Nazuna when it’s pretty obvious she’s just not listening to anything Michiru has to say. Whether it’s because she’s brain washed or just too high up on her horse that she can’t be reasoned with is still a mystery. But I’m sure we’ll find out in due time.
What is happening with BNA??? It felt so simple at first and now… ugh… typical trigger just can’t keep things simple. As I’ve learned after watching Ensemble Stars, when a series devolves into telling not showing, it just becomes a detriment to the storytelling and overall flow of the episode. So when the mayor told us Shirou’s past as Ginrou, it felt like I was being lectured in history, which made me feel disconnected with the information. I’m also seeing Trigger reusing plot points (again) they’ve used in their previous works. Such as the choker that Shirou was hiding a scar to unleash his Ginrou power was also used in Kiznaiver, where the main antagonist was hiding a scar that linked to the plot. I see what you’re doing Trigger… as I’m sure more reused plot points are bound to show up. I’m not particularly wild where BNA is headed, but I guess I’m here for the long haul so I’ll see what it has to say to the end. There’s just a lot of information to take in and it was hard to take it all in.
Michiru: “I really don’t understand.” Me too Michiru. Me too…
