What They Say:
Roman is broken and spends his days drinking; a man from his past attempts to snap him out of his runts. Meanwhile, Magoichi might have found what he has been looking for…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Roman has hit rock bottom drowning his sorrows in one bar after another, while skipping out on the tab at each one. The locals rough him up and leave him in an alley, where his father’s former partner Seibei finds him. Seibei drags him home and allows his adopted children to tend after Roman. While most of them are unwilling to help and Roman unwilling to accept help, Akane refuses to give up and dedicates herself to finding a way to heal Roman.
What follows is a predictable story with all the requisite beats. Seibei relates the high hopes Roman’s father had for him; Roman flashes back to his father explaining why he endures his injuries. And inevitably, Akane’s life is in jeopardy with only Roman around to save her. Yet, these points manage to work well enough to keep you invested in Roman’s plight. After the incident that was his biggest regret, he managed to continue in his father’s footsteps.
However, he lost sight of why he was doing so; the motions were there, but they lacked the passion that drove his father. It took Akane’s simple acts of kindness to reconnect Roman with the spark of that passion and put him back on the path of a true Helper. The side plot for the episode featured Magoichi finding the chopsticks tied to the Spring Cherry Blossom. Unlike the investment we have now in Roman’s character, they still have yet to develop this mystery enough to have me care. Whatever this MacGuffin is, its only purpose seems to be to provide excuses for action sequences.
In Summary:
As expected, Roman takes only one episode to have its hero climb out of his personal hell and find a reason to fight again. However, it was a fairly effective, if not predictable, story to do so. We have our hero back on the path of righteousness; what the series needs to do now is flesh out the Spring Cherry Blossom plot line into something more than an excuse for some action sequences along that path.
Grade: B-
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
24” Early 2009 iMac, Firefox 17.0.1
