Welcome to Anime Rants. It’s been a while since I wrote my usual episode reviews, so I’ve fallen behind several weeks. I’m sorry about that, but I’ll do my best to start catching up. Instead of the usual two episodes, I’m covering three of them in one post.
Note: These episode reviews will be shorter than usual, as I need to move through them quickly. Normally, I include a few paragraphs of recap with each episode; but this time, there will only be my responses and reactions rather than recaps of events.
Episode 6: At the Port in the Sky (Part 2)
I was surprised that Fukuchi got a hold of the One Order so easily, but at least there is a temporary stopgap measure in place to prevent its immediate use. I’m very interested in the One Order and excited to see how it works in detail. My favorite thing about this episode was probably how much it included the little girl, Aya. She’s very brave and determined. I like how Bungo Stray Dogs uses characters of many age groups.
Bram’s wish was extremely amusing. He wanted nothing more than a radio, which would have been the height of technology when he was last around in the world, I suppose. Ironically, it’s slightly hard to get a radio these days, other than the ones installed in cars. Rather than trying to provide a real radio, Aya has the excellent idea to show Bram a music-streaming app on her smartphone (it’s probably something similar to Spotify.) And Bram was immediately enamored. It’s funny how a dark lord of war and vampires can change sides over something like that.
This episode reintroduces viewers to Nikolai, who pulls Dazai and Fyodor out of their cells. I like Nikolai a lot, and I’m always impressed with the work of the voice actor behind him, Takehito Koyasu. The interactions between and among Nikolai, Fyodor, Dazai, and Sigma are funny and interesting. It was especially amusing when Sigma wonders “Am I the only sane person in this room?” With entertaining moments like that, this episode was memorable as well as eventful.
Episode 7: At the Port in the Sky (Part 3)
Nikolai challenges Dazai and Fyodor to escape the high-security prison. The winner will receive the antidote to the poison and become the survivor. Strangely, when offered a small selection of useful tools for the escape, Dazai “picks” Sigma. He demands that Sigma comes with him. Nikolai allows it, and the deadly contest begins.
Episode 7 also shows Aya and Bram being rescued from vampires by Kenji, who was sent to help. Kenji ends up locked in battle with Tetchou of the Hunting Dogs. While that’s happening, Atsushi is racing through the airport, looking for Teruko. After finding her, Atsushi tries to make peace and convince Teruko to support the Armed Detectives, but she isn’t fully cooperative. She still has a trick up her sleeve, I expect.
I decided to simply give the above short recap for episode 7, since I don’t really have many specific thoughts to add at this time. I’m enjoying the high-action content as usual, and it was great to see Kenji again. I also love Teruko, in spite of her extremely sadistic nature. Sigma continues to be an interesting character, and I hope Dazai can get him out alive. That’s it for episode 7.
Episode 8: Land of Inhuman Demons (Part 1)
The adventures in the airport continue as the Armed Detectives go up against the Hunting Dogs and vampires. Elsewhere, Dazai and Sigma are in a deadly contest to see if they can survive and defeat Fyodor. Chuuya (in his vampire state) is brought in to help Fyodor. Dazai’s plan is pretty far-fetched, but I’ve come to expect that from Bungo Stray Dogs. By manipulating the time-freezing powers of a Gifted colleague, he successfully trapped Fyodor and Vampire-Chuuya in a locked cell, which is rapidly filling with water. It seems like checkmate.
I thought it was interesting and amusing that Dazai went through with the plan even though it meant killing Chuuya, too. He did hesitate, but only for a brief minute. Apparently, Dazai has no attachment to Chuuya. This isn’t really surprising, but it did catch me off guard slightly, as I sometimes slip into fangirl mode and start shipping Dazai x Chuuya. But sadly, there’s no secret love story here.
At the airport, Atsushi got overwhelmed by Teruko, who started attacking him again. She had only been pretending to negotiate with him. I’m rather worried about Atsushi at the hands of the insane little girl. Bungo Stray Dogs as a series seems to love to torture Atsushi both literally and figuratively as much as possible. It’s looking like he’s about to go through some major pain once again. I’m not looking forward to it.
On a closing note, my favorite part of this episode was when Kenji went berserk to defeat Tetchou. Kenji is a great character and seeing his full power unlocked was amazing. Great episode as usual. I will write and post episode responses for episodes 9 and 10 as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading~
Anime Rants 