Koutetsujou no Kabaneri - Episode 6: Retaking Ground

A cliffhanger in the last episode sure made us wait what shall become of Mumei. In this episode 6, Gathering Light, we start where we left off, and find some way to kill the big black shadow, with the usual action--plus we'll hear more of what made Mumei tick. Spoilers, then, intentional or otherwise.

It all started with another flashback. It seems her past wasn't too different from Ikoma, after all. She's got pretty much the same backstory, with the added drama that she must remain strong or be thrown away. It does make the two even closer on one side, but does seem a bit recycled, at least for now.

The despair in this scene was blatantly obvious, and only quelled by Ikoma calming Mumei by answering her questions with his own thoughts: equally hating himself for getting them in this situation, but a little more hopeful. The questions asked by Mumei and Ikoma's responses were very philosophical (although, once again, a little overused). Really, the connection between these characters could just go up from here on.

However, here, I have no idea why did Ikoma have flashbacks of Mumei's life while he was fighting. That said, the show seems to give us a new mystery: who was the man that saved her?

Anyway, the fight scenes were nothing too flashy apart from Ikoma tearing up a horde.

Yes, the usual pep talk that made people realize their mistakes. It seems Mumei quickly snapped out of the state she's been in only for just the past episode, by apologizing to the kid that lost his dog.

Intetresting, the people has gone from liking kabaneri to not to liking them again, in just about three episodes. Perhaps that was indeed what truly happened.

Kurusu is back, and now he could slash kabane like nothing. Finally, they could all work together defending the train from the kabane bursting away from the shadow, which was quite an interesting (albeit quite gruesome) twist.

But, as the last few episodes has become, Mumei still took the spotlight by being the one to pierce the big thing's heart. Apart from that, it still manage to make it a tense moment, when Takumi needed to judge the right time to fire their new cannon so she could leap in.

One fault, though: she said, "wait until it closes in," NOT "when it's above us." Oh, one more thing: where did the cannon come from?

Actually, not too many things happened in this episode, though one thing to know is that now we know what happened in Mumei's past. But even the last part was nothing of note, just keeping the train from derailing. 

So, while they did use some overused plot, somehow Kabaneri still manages to captivate... now, with them out of the infested station, what shall happen next week (or, in 5 days)?

Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 7: Death of a Disease Called Ideal

Well... seems like my charger's left behind somewhere. Well, I shall make this quick and dirty.

Now, last time we were left wondering with a cliffhanger. A bomb in the city, and the detectives shall now attempt to disarm it, while following the trail of the Azure Messenger with the usual detective work, plus as this episode 7's title says, Kunikida shall be tested quite some about ideals, such that I shall title this article the same. Spoilers, intentional or otherwise, are ahead.

Nothing too special from the first scene. A shame, though, that the OP song needed to be cut. Some comments, though: at the very least, we got to see more people, so far ignored, talking--but, sadly, quite a shame that even halfway through the season, we got no action from Miyazawa nor Yosano.

Also, it seems they put Ranpo out of the picture so he couldn't deduce the location of the bomb. It is cheaty both ways, though. Either we have him finishing the story quickly, or sneakily silencing him.

As usual, the first half would be almost all laughs. It was not often we get to hear Kunikida agonizing over a spilled secret--and a big one, that he was quite attracted to the woman that became a victim.

Although, there were some moments where Kunikida seemed to see that the woman hides more than she was saying. Subtle, at the same time noticeable--and cliche.

Oh, it seems Ranpo checked in and said immediately the bomb is near the port. So much for that.

And it seems they could still keep us interested, by making the bomb unable to be defused.

What came next was quite something: Kunikida stopping the car, blocking the road, to take a call.

Now, here, once again I'm at a loss (or just not paying to much attention, but...). The three phone calls just dropped a massive amount of information, all of a sudden, just to advance the plot. Shame, but I guess they need to make some progress in a season.

However, what they were led to was interesting. The power with the numbers was new, and Kunikida getting thrown around was borderline hilarious.

...but shame Dazai only got himself a generic thug.

...but then again, how the two worked together, switching foes to maximize their strengths, awed me as much as it awed Atsushi. It was not at all a long fight, actually, nor did they use many really fancy moves like the last episodes, shame there, but it was something to watch for a different reason.

The scene after that, Kunikida dealt with his past and shared it with the woman--name still forgotten, sadly. Once more, we delve deep into what made Kunikida tick, the ideals and the guilt behind it. This one was emotional, especially coming from him.

And finally, Dazai lured the Azure Messenger in. Kunikida arrived, and shortly after, the hacker.

Lo and behold, the woman is the Azure Messenger after all, still in line with the late Azure King, her lover. That does explain everything.

At the end, it became all shades of surprising. The Azure Messenger shot Kunikida, which the kid took a shot for--and he took Dazai's gun and shot her back. What a way to end the show.

But it's not done. Kunikida, ever the idealistic man, agonized over how it could have ended better, no one dying. Dazai ended it all by saying that his ideals might drag him down like the Azure King. Thus became the title of the episode. This was a damned strong episode emotionally, dealing right at the heart of Kunikida's idealism--though sacrificing plot and action, sadly. So, we shall wait a week--no, five days, forgive the lateness--for what has become of our man here.

The Roman Legion

The Roman Empire, perhaps the greatest and my favorite nation (besides my own, obviously) to exist. Behind such greatness were the Legions that fought for it. This infographic details the legion of the post-Marian Reforms in 107 BC, with the familiar late Republic and early Empire legionaries and their organization.

Please click to enlarge image.

Please keep in mind that this infographic does not suit to become a reference for any academic papers on the Romans, as it was made mostly from memory for my design class. Also, due to lack of space, I have decided to not spill all minor details about them carrying all their tools and rations during a march, that the chain of command is far more complex, that they not always won such as the case of the tragic assault in Teutoberg Forest at 9 CE, that...

Okay, point is that I could go on and on about tactics and history, but at the very least this will give the barebones of what someone interested might want to know.

___

And the tasks just keep on coming. Excuse the lack of content these days, especially nearing the final tests.

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri - Episode 5: Neverending Darkness

One problem solved last week: the kabaneri and humans could now work together. And here, they shall do so--along with Mumei simply showing off, there are some more dangers, humans and kabane alike. So, in this episode five of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, I warn you of spoilers, intentional or otherwise.

Right at the beginning, this episode is certainly going to be Mumei show-off time. Beating two squabbling men is no small deal, and it seems the people's approval of them is quite high. Quite a change of pace from the last times.

And it seems Ikoma has gotten a new shirt.

After that, we learn a new side to this little girl. Things start to get mysterious again with the presence of the peg-legged man. Apparently, now, she serves some Shogun. It was not often we see her getting beaten by someone, and her face and reactions afterwards of fear of being thrown away by her people was quite a drastic change.

Two changes here: first one was that she's going to prove her strength by rejecting the safer plan to unblock the rails. The second one, deeper down, was when she commented on a dog that was "able to die before [the owners] threw him aside."

While the first one presented an even tougher and foolhardy outside, deep down, she seriously feared that if she can't be strong, then she'll be thrown away, like a dog. Not the most subtle thing, but this could turn out to be some nice character development.

Foolhardy? Yes. Awesome? Definitely. When she outright ignored Ikoma's orders not to attack the nest of kabane, eating away hordes of kabanes is no simple task, and this scene itself was simply a show-off.

And here, we return to the cliches, of agitating zombies by killing a horde--and this time, they could climb walls. Just great.

And her nervous face tells us all about her conflict of trying to prove herself and being at fault, among other feelings.

While Ikoma volunteered himself to operate the crane so Takumi and Sukari could return to the train (a side note, this proves his willingness never to abandon anyne again), once more we see the exhausted and battered Mumei trying to prove herself against a kabane which could do karate (or whatever self-defense art).

That was new. Also, her being defeated was new:

At this point, Ikoma abandoned the crane (which, for some reason, must have its lever pushed by someone to work... not the most effective) and rushed to save Mumei.

I guess I need to comment on his voice acting. No doubt his emotions show up in each scene. However, I guess, sometimes his panicked yells, such as this one here, may be a little bit strange and forced. Or perhaps that is just my own ears.

And thus, a new challenge showed up, in the form of a massive shadow of kabanes. Reminds me of the Secret Saturdays here somehow, not Attack on Titan.

So, we end with a cliffhanger. Just what did and shall happen to Mumei are two big questions here, and how shall the train escape is another. That is all for this week.

Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 6: A Murderous Plan

It seems we are forging with this theme of "half-laughs, half-serious" with Bungou, after last time we solved a murder. This episode six, The Azure Messenger, we shall deal with a great conspiracy, and putting the Port Mafia in the mix as well. But most importantly, we shall know our idealistic man, Kunikida, better. So, spoilers, intentional or otherwise.

This thing opened very seriously, with Kunikida presenting his Ideals. Knowing that, I really do like him better. Finally, someone with a semblance of ideals in this crazy series.

Speaking of crazy...

That magic-mushroom-induced-craze made me laugh. For very long indeed.

The craze averted, they went on a job to meet an informant. Really nothing too much to comment here, but the presence of the Azure Messenger, that the informant there mentioned. That mysterios name must mean that there's something interesting, perhaps a conspiracy or such.

Oh, we also learn more about Kunikida's Ideals: about women. Well, actually the more interesting thing was that when Dazai noticed that he came all the way just to meet the informant, rather than ringing him.

This may very well be something taken from Sherlock, with the suspicious taxi driver taking them to suspicious places. I dunno, that's just how stuff usually works. Nice job on trying to cover up its tracks, though... as we shall see later on.

Dazai could still squeeze a laugh by being intentionally annoying as usual to Kunikida. Nothing too new there.

And see, they turn to abandoned hospitals. The allusion to horror/detective movies are quite obvious for this one.

But shame again, that they put some unnecessary fanservice here and there, when they saved the woman.

Actually, the scene that hit quite to some extent was when several people were being suffocated in the glass chamber.

On one side, the impact: Kunikida, the man of ideals, was forced to retreat from the gas for his own life.

On the other side... well, couldn't they try a bit more on saving those people? And to make it worst, it seems that had no impact whatsoever the following day:

Knowing Kunikida's ideal woman was... well, a good comic relief.

This one scene was... a little off, somehow. Certainly I liked the deduction that the taxi driver was the culprit (and yes, that part was confirmed) and how his plans worked. However, I still did not get what Kunikida thought in the first place, with the very limited information from the woman, to take them to the driver. 

Oh, it turned out to be an organ-dealing organization, by the way. This really is going to be a big crime story.

The driver forgotten altogether when Akutagawa arrived at the scene, this time with only Kunikida at the scene. Extremely interesting action, as usual, though not long.

We also see his inventiveness here, when he used his stun gun to electrocute Akutagawa. But as all main villains must be, he didn't fall, and retreated.

They then got a whiff of the Azure Messenger at an abandoned building, and delved into the backstory of the Azure King, who blew himself up there. From here, with the repeated use of the word "Azure," I do think this organization will be something fascinating for us and them to encounter.

Here, one of the detectives that was killed was actually the informant's father, which Dazai pointed out. There's also a pattern here, too, where it seems Dazai is always the one to read people. Anyway, once more we see Kunikida's sense of duty, by trying to be there for the kid as a father figure.

And the episode ended when they were told to defuse a bomb by the Azure Messenger. Just great, a cliffhanger. Ah well, on to next week.

___

I also would like to say what a darned busy week this has been. Excuse the lack of content on the blog.

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri - Episode 4: Contract

The last time we saw Ikoma, he was out of his mind, and was pinning down Ayame. Now, in this fourth episode of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Flowing Blood, we are treated once more with another episode full with action, after last week's rather peaceful one. So, spoiler alert as usual, intentional or otherwise.

No big surprise when Kurusu appears once more to knock Ikoma off, and now once more kabanes are on their tail.

One interesting part was that Ayame relented her master key to the the anti-kabane men in the Koutetsujou quite willingly. I suppose this could have made for a better political conflict, but perhaps that was the best a woman could do back in those days.

And with the anti-kabanes in control, Ikoma's friends were also confined to the back.

Once more, this could have evolved into a more bitter political story with the anti-kabane sentiment, but from where the story shall go, it seems that they won't press on that for too long, for this may just be a usual action-oriented story. It seems that Takumi and friends were just sent there to give Ikoma's gun (and glasses), and a rather tickling scene when Mumei was still asking for blood.

As expected, just before the anti-kabane people succeeded in decoupling the last car where Ikoma and the others were at, they were surprised by the kabane. The interesting thing? Those seemingly mindless zombies leaped from above the tunnel entrance. 

And one of them was carrying a pair of swords. Now that's new.

And thus, the action starts from here on out. After the cars were barricaded, the soldiers engaged. Here, for the first time, we see Ayame bring out her bow and arrow: an interesting steam contraption. 

Let's just pause for a second here, just why did the soldier that committed suicide blast a hole on the side of the car? The last time the little explosives pack was used, there were just enough sparks to destroy the heart.

Anyway, Kurusu was apparently amazing with a katana, with those leaps and slashes.

And then, the sword kabane appeared. Apparently, even Kurusu could not penetrate the iron frame of the kabane, and in the confusion, got stabbed by the stomach.

Well, to be fair, this one fight was a little bit choppy. For example, when Kurusu tried to slash sword against skull, the transition and lack of reaction made it a little bit strange.

However, the scene going at the same time was perfect:

Yes, they used the scene from the preview. What was even better, though, was that in addition, there were even more kabane being defeated above the train.

This sequence just did it right. No more comments needed.

With Kurusu out of the picture, Ayame braved herself to get into the top of the train to meet Ikoma.

And here, the most symbolic scene so far, the blood contract, the real start of the humans and kabaneri working together. And with her blood, Ikoma defeated the kabane, no problem.

Thus, the conclusion was all to predictable. As Ayame vowed to supply blood to the kabaneri in exchange for helping them, the others joined in as well. Here, I think that the anti-kabane overthrow at the beginning was actually unneeded except for giving a gun to Ikoma. They will continue to live in peace after all, and no one should overrule the blood contract. At least I think so.

The ending was relaxed, unlike the other episodes. Finally, they could work together--for whatever is to come next episode.

And beautiful art.

Speaking of art, there was another form of art on display: the ending song. They played the second stanza of ninelie. It was also beautiful. Again, no comment needed.

Bungou Stray Dogs - Episode 5: Sherlock Has Come

When last time we see Bungou, we see the Detectives easily destroying the Port Mafia hitmen, and Atsushi settling in. And now, for the first time we shall see the enigmatically eccentric Edogawa Ranpo in action, in the fifth episode of Bungou Stray Dogs: Murder on D Street. Spoiler alert, for both intentional spoilers and otherwise.

Right after last episode, the headquarters was still in ruins, and yet Ranpo was just chilling around and playing around with with a marble. Without looking at the explanation at the end of the episode, it could already be understood that he holds quite some influence, as a respected member of the Detectives.

And here we see Atsushi being sidelined for once, to help the comically clueless Ranpo. Stereotypical genius that has no idea how to do usual day-to-day stuff.

Yes, we shall go along with the classic storyline. The tried and proven private eye was shoved from the case by a new investigator. Although, in this case, Ranpo took that relaxedly.

On another note, the case seems to also be just another classic murder. Bungou's first fray into mystery could perhaps be just that: a collection of used plotlines.

Well, mixed with Bungou's running joke, that is. The moment they caught a man in the net, I already guessed it'll be him.

Oh, it's been quite a while since last hearing Dazai going on and on about ladies and double suicide, since that one time last episode. However, they never really told us about why he ended up in the river, other than "going for a swim." Perhaps it's just that we were seeing the story from Atsushi's perspective, after all.

On to more laughs, when Ranpo challenged the sergeant to solve the case in sixty seconds.

It was quite a miracle that he didn't outright panic and thought about the murderer's MO: the same as a Port Mafia execution. However, once more this turned out to be the same recipe as a usual crime story: a red herring.

But when Ranpo used the ability, to my surprise, they threw all usual means of making a good murder story by outright telling us who the killer was.

To my surprise, the sergeant.

The moment he hesitated to pull out the gun for examination, the investigator pleaded that his subordinate can't be wrong. Now that was some tense moment, but I thought that he relented too quickly. His ego seemed big enough at the start of the episode.

The deduction was finished, and all it was left is to hear from the perpetrator how it went to be. It was a classic tale, once again, not really much to be commented; the usual corruption and evidence that he needed to retrieve, then the accident where the victim was killed.

But Bungou flipped the pattern of deduction. Ranpo never told anyone how he did it. On the other hand, Dazai did explain the case like Sherlock. But he not being a master of deduction, it seems not all strings were tied; not all questions answered. I thought they just couldn't find a way to connect the clues.

And the last reveal, the most shocking one of all, it turned out that Ranpo wasn't Gifted after all, just a super talented person who could deduce in under a minute: Sherlock on a different level.

But the most striking thing was that Ranpo was, according to Dazai, just convincing himself that he was Gifted. Such was the childish personality of this eccentric man.

That's about it, actually. Until next week, where I do hope they return to chasing the Port Mafias.