The billion yen Shinkansen mission begins! Things more or less went pretty well for the team, and it looks like the real action is going to start next time.
Shoutout to Swindler this episode. I wasn’t exactly sure what she would bring to the group, but she was definitely the star of the episode. If it weren’t for her adaptability and quick thinking, the plan would have been a huge failure. The ending was especially great and I can only imagine how terrified she felt when she was low on time. Everyone more or less did their jobs great and they did manage to work together well, with both teams completing their tasks. But for a mission that’s worth a billion, the first part was relatively “easy”. I say easy because the lack of security, such as one human guard at the gate, is kind of laughable. He didn’t check for paperwork, a seal, a license/badge, literally nothing. But I guess I shouldn’t expect realism from this show, now should I?
The episode was fun and entertaining, but what I’m more interested in from this episode is Swindler and her sense of belonging, and something from the executioner presentation that caught my eye.
It’s starting to seem like Swindler is slowly getting used to being around the Akudama. She was lamenting her situation at first, but it was a little telling that she was able to look at the Akudama and think “They act like this…”, “this” as in human I’d say. They mess around and laugh, have fun, etc. But let’s be clear, they are criminals but I do think it interesting that Swindler doesn’t look at them with disgust or anger. Sure, there was some fear at first but now she’s pretty comfortable with them. Comfortable enough to closely work with them and interact with them, and comfortable enough to ask Courier a personal question. There was that moment by the elevator where she looked genuinely happy that they had completed the elevator task, and she seemed surprised by her own reaction. We don’t know anything about Swindler right now, like her past and upbringing. But maybe, just like Courier, with the backdrop of a large Kansai behind her, Swindler is just trying to find somewhere she belongs too? And maybe she’s found it.
It’d be pretty cool if in the end she continued on with her life of crime as an Akudama, but who knows what’ll happen in this story.
Because what if Swindler actually lives up to her name and is actually a spy? One thing that stood out to me from the rabbit and shark presentation about the executioners was that sometimes they’ll work undercover. And so it gets me thinking, could one of our Akudama actually be a spy? It would explain why Master and Pupil knew what the Akudama were up to…unless they just listened in, which I guess is plausible as well. :/ OR…one of them is a spy and is relaying all the information to the executioners. I mention Swindler because that would be a cool twist, but I was actually suspecting either Courier or Cat. Cat, because we don’t even know who they really are, and Courier just because. I have zero evidence for this theory but this is an original anime so I may as well theorize.
Next week looks like it’ll be lots of great action, so I can’t wait to see how the mission will go with the executioners around to stop them!
Looks like I overanalyzed the previous episodes. I thought that Swindler worked at Kansai station, but it seems that she doesn’t. I do wonder how the executioners knew about their plan as well. Maybe someone is indeed feeding them information as you say. Doctor would be my best guess given that Pupil’s attack on Doctor was shallow, allowing for Doctor to survive.
Hmm I’m not sure about that. Doctor can operate on herself so it’s not strange that she was able to survive that attack. I really don’t think it could be Brawler, Hoodlum, Cutthroat, or even Hacker so it kinda narrows things down but we shall see~