I wasn't sure how I felt about this series but I'm glad I stuck it out. I would have dropped episode one normally and stuck with episode two out of curiosity. This time it made it all worth it. That culminated in an awesome ending of an arc! I thought the whole series would be about closing off this manticore business, but it seems we'll get a bunch of smaller arcs told non chronologically! Cool.
To be fair the characters and story weren't amazing by any means. But, we had all loose ends cut off and the story makes sense, I found myself actually rooting for the characters this time and I sympathized a little with Saotome. On my rating scale I would give this arc a 6/10, it was very awesome aesthetically, it had a phenomenal soundtrack and some really cool directing, and it came together with a lot of interesting even if unexplored ideas to end with a fast paced and gripping episode that made my eyes water a bit at the end.
I honestly would have made this episode 1 but after seeing it I understand why its not. It beautifully implemented the dead bodies we saw flashed at us in the first episodes and those earlier episodes tied together the story lines like Takeda and Boogie's relationship, established Boogie, and gave us a very satisfying ending by having the Kirima greeting of Miyashita that ended episode one be the end of this arc, presumably at least. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a Saotome perspective episode since he had some untapped depth!
So we had a little cat and mouse game where Tanaka the baby boy who off screen met with Boogie and was rallied up by her was trying to find the kind, and dead Naoko as he dated her, we had Saotome who was using the kind hearted students as a bait and presumably cleared out the teacher on watch with the man-eater, and Kei who seems to have just been a girl who in the end was a great person and cared about a missing student. I wish we saw more of Tanaka growing and agreeing to fight back after he ran and possibly met up with Boogie but I was still very excited when he popped the manticore's face off while she dangled in Boogie's web. I also really liked Kei and how strong willed she was, she was moved by Echoe's kindness and tried to help him as he was tossed off the building. Echoe himself was adorable as he started to use words and made a judgement that some humans are good and he should fight for them, sacrificing and risking his own life to do so. He saw Naoko and Kei and Kirima all fighting for good and that was enough! Saotome showed that he was happy to die, he was sick of being normal, and finally he was able to become special, his inferiority complex and grudge against Kirima came to an end as he had a sense of eccentricity and power. He even started to love killing others for how it made him feel it seems. He was a man at rock bottom with nothing to lose and something to gain, some sense of superiority or some sense of being someone I think. The manticore didn't go much deeper than what we knew but I love how she was characterized anyways, her rage over what happened to Saotome felt justified, she even wanted to be in Kirima's form for him as he was jealous over his feeling for Kirima.
Kirima attacked and went in on a trap that she understood to take them hostage and lure out the manticore but was taken by their overwhelming power and killed, her body flashed to use in episode 1. She thought that if the only way to lure it out is to risk her life then she'd gladly do it. From the moment she turned off the breakers I was on the edge of my seat. Saotome getting a thirst for blood even if cheesy made for an excellent intense split between the Devilman-esque animation of Echoes vs the manticore and Saotome chasing after Kei who fought against him regardless with her strong will. And it ended so cool with Echoe's making a clear judgement on humanity and going through a character arc of sorts. The music was always on point, I particularly loved how it cut when the manticore was sniped, it signified it was all over.
I ALSO LOVE HOW BOOGIE FINALLY MADE IT CLEAR WHAT SHE IS. She is the dormant strength humans harbour subconsciously, maybe their will embodied. It's not clear why Miyashita is her host, but what is clear is that, that is why she's able to inspire the way she does. She is literally the embodied willpower of a human in a powerful form and perhaps that's why she let Kirima, and Kei do the fighting and why she inspired Tanaka, because their willpower and strength is almost enough on its own. They were able to grow from this. I hope we get to know even more about her.
Overall, episode 1 and 2 were nothing amazing, they had some interesting ideas and cool directing but that's as far as I would go. And I think episode 3 used those interesting ideas in a shallow but very fun and satisfying way and I'm excited for the suicide that was shown at the end hinting towards the next arc. Maybe ep 1 should have used more clips from this one other than the bodies. |