Darwin’s Game : Aquarium

Episode 5

“Akuariumu” (水葬アクアリウム)

It has been a bit of a wait for this episode and waiting isn’t always the best thing in series like this that try and build drama in them. We were in a middle of a event so a break might just kill a bit of the momentum.

In some ways it did but then the episode kind of twisted. I will admit that I probably am still not as invested in this event as much as I was before the break but at the same time I’m also kind of invested in a different way.

That might sound like a cop out answer but it is true.

Whatever drama had been building up had died because I had pretty much forgotten what was going on. Not only that but they started the episode away from the hotel and with Shuka instead, baring in mind she’s had little to do in the first two episodes focused on this event it was hard to get excited about her randomly walking around.

Also when I say twisted I don’t mean there was a twist, though there also was a twist, but it changed direction quite drastically.

We know the Eighth are coming. That is something that was made clear. Kaname also knows how dangerous they are, another fact made clear in this episode. Yet at the same time with that threat on the horizon as well as learning that maybe, just maybe, they don’t really know what the goal of this event is so are still in trouble Kaname goes out to help Shuka who has got herself in a perilous situation with a random kid that can manipulate water and ice.

Now of course Kaname and Shuka are kind of friends, they kind of have a bond and he kind of cares for her but I can’t remember to what extent I really believed in that relationship going into this event so it was hard to care about it right now.

I cared about this twist in the game rules.

Rain looked at everything and found the wording of the rules as well as the pricing of the rings odd, she also later on found QR codes on the rings that came up with random numbers. All of that is super interesting and I kind of wish that Shuka could have just joined them in the Hotel and there be a big fight before learning what the actual goal of this event is.

As it stands we have Ryuji, the guy that didn’t kill Kaname at the beginning of this event who is now working with them after being unbrainwashed by the Florist, chasing after this kid because he’s aware she’ll have information they need, Kaname has just jumped into a subway totally flooded to save Shuka who for some reason doesn’t seem able to swim or indeed find a way to survive at all whilst Rain and the Florist are keeping watch on the Hotel as well as trying to figure out the actual game they are playing.

I don’t think week breaks work very well anyway but this event isn’t working at this moment either.

It was really cool having the Hotel become a war zone, a fight between these guys and the Eighth looked super cool and even the twist that maybe the game isn’t what they think it is peaks my interest.

This episode really didn’t and the stuff with Shuka kind of killed any little momentum it had managed to keep.