The arrival of Athena sets into motion some big problems for Kusunagi.
What They Say:
Athena has come to Japan looking for Medusa and for that Godou will have to die, again.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Erica now in the same school as Kusanagi, the show has a good bit of fun with it since she’s quite the hot ticket there. Boys and girls alike are into her because of how she carries herself and her foreign beauty that’s quite striking. Of course, they also don’t care much for Kusanagi as they start to think the two of them are an item and that’s just so not what they want when the imagine Erica. For her part, Erica kind of enjoys it and deals with it well, not really giving into to it all but certainly flattered by the attention and taking it all in. It’s a cute way of handling things and it avoids things like wild, flailing protestations on either of their parts over what’s being said about them. It keeps it a bit more mellow, which feels right since the flip side is that Kusanagi is someone that’s killed a god.
With this episode, things take an interesting turn as it progresses as it delves into another event that Erica claims will be a global sized disaster. And it requires finding out information about the Gorgoneion, i.e. the Medusa of the present day world. What complicates matters is that Athene has come to Japan to search herself and that should she find Medusa, it will lead to the disaster that Erica has forseen. That puts the two of them on track to work together again to deal with a god, one that we know has had some contact with Kusanagi before. She’s not intent on letting Kusanagi get in the way of what it is she wants to do with the Gorgoneion though, which leads into a pretty good bit of action and magic.
While Kusanagi is taken out of the picture early on, we get some very good material here showing off how Erica will stand for him as his knight. Going against Athena certainly isn’t easy, but the way it’s presented works well and helps to show that as good as she is, she has her limits as well. While there’s a kind of sleight of hand of sorts that shifts the story here and sets Athena off elsewhere, it does lead to an interesting situation in which Erica simply lays out the choices they have to Kusanagi. It’s a quiet scene, a bit too intentionally atmospheric with the setting sun and colors, but it’s one that deals with the situation through dialogue. Even Athena had this option earlier in the episode, though noted that it would be quicker to just kill him rather than spend time coming to a peaceful conclusion.
In Summary:
Campione continues to be a series that I have some amount of hope for as it progresses, to find itself and really make a stand with what it can do. I like the characters and I like the general premise, especially since they haven’t made Kusanagi a wimp or anything, and the whole aspect of dealing with dying or rogue gods gives it a neat feeling. Of course, we get some usual anime stuff here as Athena appears and looks pretty loli like in a lot of ways and has that mature aspect about her that provides some disconnect that people like, but for the most part it doesn’t play into all of the usual cliches with the rest of the characters. The main thing I want to continue to see is how Erica and Kusunagi’s relationship grows and changes and to see Kusanagi stepping up to the play more. There’s a lot of potential here and it’s not faltering yet, but I can see it erring in that way if it’s not careful.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
