Tony’s fight is hugely personal, but the stakes continue to be very high.
What They Say:
Casualties Of War – Tony is wounded and without his armor during his final showdown with Dio.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the take down that Yinsen did on Tony the last time around, getting him out of his armor and establishing his position after the flashbacks explained his anger, Yinsen is now making his next move with the Arc Reactor. To make matters worse, Yinsen’s move here is one that is sending some real waves of fear through Japan as the takeover is made public, the threat of killing the hostages and the reveal about Zodiac and their plans to take over the world. Japan is their first step of it all though as they make some big (and obviously unreasonable) demands through public airwaves. And in the midst of all this, Nanami is doing her best to get out of there only to get caught again herself.
Of course, while Yinsen proclaims that Tony is dead, he’s actually just a bit worse for the wear since he doesn’t have his suit, but he’s not alone. Nagato is in the same boat and the two certainly do play well off of each other in this situation since they are both more alike than they think, they just have different backgrounds that push them in different paths and focuses. What’s welcome during all of this as the large story plays out, the women don’t just sit around. While Nanami is caught, Chika herself gets caught communicating with Tony which lets Yinsen know he’s alive. The two women end up locked up together and quickly start working on a plan to escape and do what they can to stop Yinsen and help Tony themselves. It’s welcome to see them not just sitting around for even a few minutes with any sort of woe is me moment. They do engage in some girl talk during an awkward moment though.
With the help from that pair and Nagato, Tony’s able to go back up against Yinsen and provides for some solid action to unfold here. The prelude to it is kind of corny as the Sagittarius element of Zodiac arrives and that gives us the mechanical horse, but once it gets past that it works rather well. With Yinsen having his convictions but still with glimmers of humanity, it’s a solid fight between the two as Tony has to try and stop him but Yinsen is intent on having his revenge. There’s a fun but not unexpected trick in the middle of it when it comes to Zodiac itself and the ending undercuts things by having Yinsen flip flop so easily, though you could see that coming a mile away.
In Summary:
Iron Man is working its way to the final battle and Yinsen is just one of the cogs in the machinery of it all. His arc here has been decent if a little convoluted in an unnecessary way, I liked the way everything came together well here for the support side for Tony with those like Chika, Nagato and Nanami and the small character material definitely added a lot of good moments to it beyond the action. But the action is strong as well and we got a very good sequence involving Tony against Yinsen with some of the other androids watching along and eventually getting involved. It’s a good episode but it doesn’t feel like it’s as strong as it should be, as though something’s missing.
Grade: B
