Episode 9
“Hezzu Appu” (決闘)
Now we haven’t really been quiet on how this show has kind of let us down a little in the way it has been presented but we’re back to finish it off and that includes this battle between Kaname and Danjo.
If I’m honest I liked the battle, I like that Danjo saw Kaname’s potential not in that he was stronger then him but that he was smart. His tactics had kept him and his friends alive and he appreciated it, we didn’t get to see Danjo go full on in the battle because it is interrupted just after he agreed to work with Kaname as allies by the number 1 ranked player in the game.
Liu Xuelan.
Now Xuelan is a interesting character in her own right, her unique abilities are otherworldly but we are lead to believe that she just had them to begin with. After all she’s a world famous, master assassin or something like that. It once again added that kind of weird feel to the show where instead of this game making people special they can just have magical powers anyway, I know it isn’t meant to be magical and there might be a explanation to it that I missed or that is to come but it just put a dampener on things.
Remember the first episode?
Remember Kaname in fear running for his life whilst a mascot tried to kill him? All the mystery and intrigue over this app game that had dragged him into a real life killing game?
None of that really matters anymore and instead what we have is basically a look at a clan war type mobile game that just happens to be real.
Thing is a lot of the danger has kind of died.
We did have the Eighth running amok and we even had a death but the amount of battles that just start and stop after one side decides that they respect the other or they use up their powers is getting to make it feel less like a killing game and more like Strictly Come Fight Me (with potential to die.)
Once more I guess my biggest gripe is that I feel that the timing is off.
We never really got to see Kaname slowly dive into this world and instead he seemed to get a grip on it super fast and now he’s the leader of a clan, has some of the games strongest players after his sperm and doesn’t seem phased in the little by just about anything. It feels like the anime jumped a really interesting story of how he came to be in this position and instead just felt like it was good enough to have him in it.
Which I guess isn’t all that bad.
The action in this episode was amazing like it tends to be, Xuelan and Ximing are interesting characters who have now entered Sunset Ravens much to the dismay of just about everyone but it gives us some more leverage in the upcoming fight with the Eighth who if you remember from the previous episode have taken hostage of Kaname’s friend who was fed up of not seeing Kaname and ended up being forced into this world.
I don’t think Xuelan being apart of the clan is going to add anything, I mean Shuka is one of the best players in the game and her presence in the series has been nothing but a hindrance to good story telling. That being said I guess we need the clan to become good enough in a handful of episodes to be able to defeat a clan that is basically the strongest force in the game. Not necessarily because the players are so good but because there are so many they can overwhelm people.
Xuelan is going to be important to that story I guess.
Not so much in the long run for the rest of the clan.
Geek Mind : Believe in Geek 