What They Say:
No episode information given.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As we saw a new level of destruction take place in the series in the previous episode with the main village and what was going on there, everything felt like the small attempt at a simplistic utopia was falling apart quickly. With the Monster Rats on the move and a karmic demon on the loose, a full on rebellion is coming across as being the main thrust of events for the common citizen. This is shocking to them in general, but only at first as they’re quickly rallied by one with real Power who sets them on the path to eliminate the Monster Rats. It’s a powerful shift in the approach of your average citizen there but one that is powered by a lot of fear.
And justifiably so as we see how the Monster Rats have organized to deal with the village, creating a situation in which many die just from a more natural based attack. Their use of weapons has been a big part of what’s given them an advantage for awhile, but they haven’t forgotten their roots. But as bad of a threat as they are, it’s the arrival of an apparent Ogre in the village that just pushes them over the edge as the heavily cloaked female figure stalks through, burning all those she comes across with ease. To discover that it’s almost like Maria isn’t a surprise as there was always a good chance that she’d return in some way, but she brings a great sense of rage to things even while there’s a sense of utter innocence and purity about her. Her face off against the village guardian in Shisei provides some comfort, but there are limits to what he can do.
While the events unfold in the daylight, Saki and Satoru escape into the lower levels and encounter a Monster Rat there that helps to explain some of what’s going on. While they call him out for the Ogre that it’s brought into the midst, he returns that they view all the humans as Ogres and they must be destroyed. The two sides of the equation have been unequal for so long that now that the Monster Rats have power, they’re going to change the balance in their favor forcefully and as quickly as they can. With this particular village in such disarray, with so many dead, it’s little surprise that the general idea is to just wipe the slate clean. And considering the number of deaths there, it’s hard to imagine many would want to go back and try and rebuild and live there knowing what they lost.
Things don’t get much better for Saki and Satoru, particularly for Saki as the return to the temple has her learning that her parents went with others to the village in order to release the Impure Cats. The loss of another person in their escape from the village weighs on both of them as well. The surreal nature of going from such a difficult situation and place to the calmness of the temple is certainly profound as you expect there to be more activity and movement to… do something. But we do get some good background as Inui reveals the secret mission he was on to the pair about how they went to eliminate the Robber Fly colony only to find that they had already moved on in secret. Events were already moving out of control there and seeing the danger through his eyes only heightens just how unbalanced things have become in this otherwise peaceful world.
In Summary:
As the series has gone and explored the evolution of the Monster Rats with how Saki and Satoru have interacted with them and studied them, the full goals are now revealed with what the mysterious Yakomaru is up to. While it’s relegated to the final minute of the episode here, it’s a profound piece that shakes Saki to her core with the scale of what’s possible. This episode takes us in a slight circular route to get us to the point of understanding, bringing in a few more characters to fill in some of the blanks and getting the two leads up to speed, but it has a sense of being natural about it because of how the council and elders have worked for so long, almost compartmentalizing things. It becomes impressive in seeing what Yakomaru has come up with and what he intends to do and there’s that part of you that wants to see him succeed and change the world in such a significant way. To see what a real, new world would be like and how it could evolve and change, even down the line by hundreds of years.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: FUNimation
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.
