I’m feeling out of it at the moment, so I’m just going to cover this week’s episode in bullet points. Hell, maybe I’ll do it for the rest of the season. Oh, just a reminder: these bullet points aren’t supposed to be comprehensive. They just cover anything that stands out to me. So you can say “You didn’t mention this?” all you want, but that’s probably because I didn’t want to mention whatever it is that you might have wanted me to mention.
Stray observations:
– The investigators are standing there, going on and on about how they can’t keep Miss Black Fist detained as a suspect. After all, there’s absolutely no evidence that points to her being the culprit other than Kyotoro’s word. Hey, that’s what I said last week! So what does Miss Black Fist do? She regains consciousness and immediately beats the investigators up. Alright, alright, maybe she didn’t hear what they had just said, but if you have the ability to go invisible, shouldn’t you… I don’t know… play it cool and see how things shake up before you start throwing punches?
– But it’s okay, because there’s an organization of evil-doers ready and willing to recruit her!
They just happen to be around the corner too. They’re just standing there in that dark hallway, waiting for the girl to pass by.
A: Psst, is she awake yet? I’m getting bored!
B: No, no she’s not. Just be patient. She’s going to wake up and go down this exact corridor. Just trust me!
– I swear, it sure feels like Kyotaro is stalking our heroine. He’s always initiating every interaction between them. Not only that, he pops up when she least expects it too.
– Whereas Rinka’s dad is afraid the world might see espers as nothing more than monsters, Kyotaro really wants to be a hero. Unfortunately, Rinka just wants to be a normal girl again. But dude, you can walk through walls whenever you so choose. Why be normal? Why not hold onto the power but keep it a secret?
– What’s with the Ghostbusters lookalikes?
– Man, what is this?
A WB cartoon?
– We meet some new girl who can’t take care of the mysterious, flying penguin because her dad won’t allow her to have pets. As a result, Rinka offers to take the penguin into her own home instead. Every time I’ve gone to a zoo, the penguins are kept away in a temperature-controlled environment that’s full of water for them to swim around in. This reminds me of the sad story about the depressed polar bear. But hey, this is a magical penguin in our anime, so I’m sure it’ll do just fine in a suburban Japanese home. No, really, I’m not even being sarcastic.
– Kyotaro tells us he comes from a town with no order or hope. We suddenly see smouldering ruins as men are just being killed left and right in broad daylight:
Christ, what is this? This is worse than Ciudad Juarez! Well, maybe not… but it does give the guy a convenient motivation to desire becoming a hero. If I was in Rinka’s shoes, I’d keep the powers, but at the same time, I wouldn’t exactly trust Kyotaro either. But this is anime, so good guys are always honest. Therefore, there’s nothing fishy about Kyotaro’s story whatsoever.
– Oh hey, the overprotective dad who destroyed a block of the city because he couldn’t control his emotions is now flipping out about the fact that his girl is being mentioned on the news. What a surprise…
Kyotaro: “Well, of course your man would worry. You don’t wear a mask or anything, Rinka-san.”
Rinka: “It’s fine. My hair color changes.”
Superman: “That’s my girl.” *puts on a pair of glasses* “Look at me! I’m a nerd!”
– Pizza and sushi are all part of a balanced Japanese diet:
– At the same exact time, however, the organization of evil-doers shows up to kidnap Murasaki. As a result, Rinka runs into the Black Fist again and discovers that she can’t phase through people. Why not? Oh, just because…
– How nice of the masked samurai-looking dude to not, y’know, use the sharp side of his knives and kill both Peggi and Kyotaro. Why does he even bother sparing their lives? He’s a kidnapper with compassion, I guess.
– It looks like the bad guys win this time. And not only that, the Black Fist lady had to burn down the apartment complex that Rinka and her dad live in too. That’s just what evil-doers do, y’know? But who do we blame? The bad guys? Naw, let’s blame Kyotaro!
He didn’t make Rinka follow him to the museum that night, though. That’s right, she followed him on her own accord. If she hadn’t, she never would’ve met Black Fist, and Black Fist never would’ve needed to retaliate. But oh well, I’ve always found overprotective dads to be creepy in any context.
– For some reason, the other masked individual, the guy who somehow knows Kyotaro’s name, has a ready supply of those magical, flying fishes at his disposal. As a result, he can sell supernatural powers to people at an exorbitant price. I’m more interested, however, in how that thing in his hand can keep the fishes in one place.
– Apparently, Kyotaro won’t stop at anything to save Murasaki. I didn’t quite expect our hero of justice to shoot a bad guy in the leg so calmly, but then again, he does have a reason to hate the yakuza…
– This guy looks like he’s got a pair of fire pom-poms:
– Rinka still nevertheless feels the need to tell Kyotaro that it isn’t like him to use a handgun. Well, uh, do you intend to just punch your way through the bad guys? Especially if they have firearms?
– Murasaki complains that she is the child who can never seem to do anything, so a fish shows up and gives her powers. That’s kinda tacky.
– Amusingly, Rinka’s dad does that thing where he tries to knock her out with a punch to the stomach, but it doesn’t work. Instead, she knees him and thus knocks him out. Alright then. Kyotaro is concerned that she’s in no state to fight evil espers, but she says they now have a duty to save Murasaki. He’s right, though. One of her eyes is swollen shut, and she can hardly stand up straight. Meanwhile, she just knocked her dad out, and as overprotective as he can be, he could’ve been of some help… Ah well, I’m sure the kids will do fine in next week’s episode!
To wrap this post up, I still just think the show’s okay, but nothing to write home about. Nothing about it grabs me.
Filed under: Anime, Series, Tokyo ESP Tagged: Anime, Tokyo ESP
