Watching for the opening sequence alone?
What They Say:
Yugao is ordered by Sukui to track down the reanimated Hayate. Still shaken by her lover’s unexpected return as an enemy, Yugao manages to catch up to Hayate and his men.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the side story fillierish arc rolls on here, we’ve gotten past some of the extensive flashback material that highlighted events related to Yugao and Hayate and now keep things more firmly grounded in the present. With the hunt on for Hayate and Sakura involved, it at least draws us in to the main characters a bit moer as the group heads off to seek out Hayate and do what’s needed. It’s a difficult thing to be sure for Yugao considering what happened in the past and having to see him brought back to life like this, but that’s half of what Kabuto’s plan is all about in that he can throw off so many and make them face difficult moral and emotional issues when coming against his troops.
Catching up to Hayate and those that he’s with is fairly quick and easy, though we get some decent bits of minor fighting before it gets more emotional since Hayate isn’t alone. There’s also that sense of sadness and resignation coming from Hayate as he has to fight against the Leaf, unable to break the bonds of control placed on him by Kabuto, but it’s so dead and emotionless at times that it’s more by rote than something that you feel him really straining against. Not that Yugao has a lot of emotion here herself as the two first come across each other and she realizes that she cannot fight him. It’s so weak that you can’t really believe the two have a connection. Of course, you don’t want her wailing in tears and coming across as pathetically weak, but the resonance between the two simply doesn’t exist.
The show does try to play with the emotions a bit, showing the way each of them is reacting to things and we get any number of serious and moody moments along the way, including a few flashback bits as well that goes to the old Orochimaru days, but it’s just so forced and unauthentic that it doesn’t resonate in the slightest, past or present. You do get to see the happy moments in the past, and some tearful moments in the present, which has Yugao in a really difficult position as she knows she has to be the one to do the right thing. But she throws down her sword so much and grapples with taking it up again in a difficult way that even though it’s trying to be all big and important yet personal, it fails to achieve that and just becomes empty instead.
In Summary:
While I completely get where the series is going with this story and why the characters they used were chosen, it’s something that doesn’t have all that much meaning to it. While it does work in that a two episode story is right for it, the characters don’t bring enough heart to it and the scripting is weak and fluffy at best. The idea isn’t a bad one, but we’ve had such a slowdown in this war storyline overall for so many months that each additional moment – no matter how good they may be or could be – is just easily written off as yet another delay. Which is part of what this entire anime series has been about many times in the past. I do like side stories that help to elevate and expand the ongoing work, but an arc like this just doesn’t do much without enough of a connection. And it comes on top of so many other drawn out pieces that it suffers because of that as well.
Grade: C
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.