What They Say:
“Insect!? Man!? A Mysterious Enemy Attacks!”
A new half insect half man has appeared in Edo looking for a certain young samurai. As conventional weapons fail to stop him it is up to Jinbei to test his new skills.
Content: (please note that the content portion of a review may contain spoilers)
Episode 14 begins with the new opening song by __. There are the generic shots of main characters’ faces and the hero running across the screen, but the slightly more dramatic-sounding than the last opening, shots of Edo overrun by Insects and on fire this animation implies that the arc we’re moving into is done with the introductory stuff and is moving on to more serious storylines. Mushibugyo is, of course, not looking like it’s done introducing new characters to the plot, as shots of not only characters that were hinted at in earlier episodes, but also people that haven’t even been mentioned before, get a prime spot in the opening, ensuring that this cast is going to get even more bloated.
The episode itself begins on a creepy note, as what appears to be a man asks for the location of the Magistrate’s office. When he doesn’t get the answer he wants a strange, puckery, toothy mouth shoots out from under the clothes and, on screen, bites off the head of the man in front of him. He then proceeds to massacre everyone in sight, leaving a swath of desiccated, bloody corpses by the time help arrives. With the entire City Patrol on leave (if Jinbei gets a training mission, they get a training mission) so it’s up to the Magistrate’s other two patrols to take on this enemy. But obviously it’s not that easy, as this new enemy — half man, half insect — is impervious to both samurai swords and cannon assaults, and seems unstoppable in his mission to find Jinbei specifically, and kill him.
Having found out about this assault on his way home, Jinbei rushes to everyone’s aide, of course arriving just in the nick of time. Now, suddenly awesome after three days of training, Jinbei takes on the insect-man and manages to defeat it…for a moment. Using “Insect Ninjutsu”, the insect-man is able to split himself in two each time he’s defeated. Even knowing this, Jinbei of course continues to fight the monsters until there are dozens of them flying around. Hibachi, Koikawa, and Tenma make their own sudden, dramatic appearance, having also gotten stronger during training (Tenma now sports a giant paper crane he flies around on, which is fantastic). But they also make it worse, not knowing that their attacks effectively double their enemies. Lucky for them, the insect-men stop attacking and simply float in front of them long enough for someone to figure out that when the head is destroyed, they can’t regenerate, granting Jinbei the opportunity to show off his new technique, the Fuji Hammer, and defeat them all at once. Again of course, the reasons why he did not just do this to begin with are not addressed, but everyone is duly impressed.
On top of the gore and battle, some more dynamics do come to light in this episode. Kotori, despite his leadership, does not actually hold much sway over his own troops, as they all insist on leaving, but with the leaders of the other Mushibugyo groups. Shirasagaki of the Shrine and Temple Patrol chastises Kotori for letting his group just leave, and takes the time to show off his new cannons, stating that they won’t need the City Patrol. And the leader of the Samurai House Patrol, along with Shirasagaki, outright reject Kotori’s help against the insect-man, telling him to just tend to the wounded. Considering that I keep waiting for Kotori to be secretly amazing, seeing him constantly talked down to is pretty disappointing.
In Summary
A whole new story arc is underway with this episode, and already things look like they have a slight improvement over the series’ beginning. Jinbei is actually a real focus, and manages to be the deciding force in a battle (if you don’t count when he went all weird and berserk) just like a real main character would. Though there were instances of gore right from the beginning of the series, this episode does take a very slight tonal shift towards something more serious (though fanservice and goofy overreactions abound). The show still falls into so many generic story turns and character interactions, and I doubt it will ever turn out of that, but an imminent overarching villain, and the promise of a secret, important past for the main character, at least promises to make the story more entertaining.
Grade: B-
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 13″ Apple Macbook set to 720p
