The truth about those surrounding Tamaki and Takuma slowly begins reveal itself.
What They Say:
On the run, Tamaki runs into Ryo and Kiyono who provides them with information to aid their escape.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the season continues, Hiiro no Kakera grows in a way that leaves me feeling that it’ll play better in a marathon session rather than weekly as the connective tissue of the episodes just isn’t clear. With Takuma and Tamaki on the run now and trying to evade what’s in store for them, we’ve seen some pretty interesting material as the two dealt with some of the gods and other creatures of the forest that were sent to stop them. But in the end, it just cemented their need to get away from it all and forge their own path, especially now that they’re ever so close to really understanding each other and themselves.
While continuing their journey, they end up coming across quite the pair as Ryo and Kiyono are there, but they’re not what they seem. Kiyono does a decent little info dump as we learn that she’s not a high school student but is rather twenty-three and working for the Bureau. Ryo’s similar though he’s just helping out when it comes to what Ashiya is after. But the two of them have shifted allegiances just a bit by not reporting everything and wanting to help the two of them find some other way to do what’s needed that doesn’t involve sacrifice. With the time spent between them since Tamaki came to the school, she’s made them friends though her personality and charm and that’s worked against their job and their mission, but in Tamaki’s favor.
Help keeps coming to the pair as well beyond that as, when holed up in the school to recover some, Shinji and the others show up on Baba’s orders. But the truth of the relationship between Tamaki and Takuma’s past comes to light and it helps to solidify the bond of the Guardian’s rather well, if all too easily. And as a group, they also know what they have to do separately from the pair, though they get a little help from Ryo. Making an attack on the Logos mansion may seen odd, but the place is in a state of flux itself as Aria doesn’t have everything under control. What is there though continues to be the hard to read Ohmi, who seems all too easily swayed to doing what’s right. It’s certainly not a surprise based on what the show has done so far but it’s just too easy when you get down to it.
In Summary:
With a fair number of forces aligned here in different ways, some of which are just now coming to light as more reveals of true intent are made, Hiiro no Kakera is at the stage where it’s all starting to finally come together. The series is one that’s definitely taking a fairly predictable path, something that worked well from the start because it did it with some good style and some nice twists, but it’s also meant that you can see it hitting its marks so much more plainly. With just a few more episodes to go, everything is coming together quickly and the reveals here, while not big old infodumps, definitely puts a lot of that information into play so that people can reveal who they are. For better or worse, it gets us all on the right footing here with who is who and what their agendas are. And there are things to like with it overall, though it may play better in marathon form.
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.
