What They Say:
“The Rebellious Limb”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We jump right into the action as Kaoruko is still fighting Laetitia and damn, is Kaoruko amazing or what? Even though Laetitia is the one who attacked first and even though Kaoruko is handling Entei on her own, it’s clear to see team England never stood a chance. Epimew finally breaks down but the fight is not over given that Epimew’s limbs are still willing to defend their princess. I mean their heart.
To be honest, Laetitia and Moses’ back-story left me with a sour taste in my mouth. In part, because I don’t think they delved into it as they should have, in part because we still don’t know anything about the other limbs and last but not least, because it stinks of slavery. In an effort to make his sick daughter’s life more pleasant, Laetitia’s dad brought her the strongest Bubuki users money could buy. Now, because they don’t go into detail, I’m not sure if the others were just hired (they didn’t seem too angry about it), but Moses clearly does not want to be there or even be a Bubuki user. And what do you call paying money to force someone to serve you?
The segment is clearly intended to endear you to the relationship this two share but it just didn´t work for me. Laetitia apologizes to Moses for her father’s behavior and then proceeds to ask him to “cater to my selfish whims” as she puts it. He says no, but she keeps apologizing, explaining and asking him to do it anyway until he tells her she’s a strange girl. Eventually, he will come to protect her with his life and care deeply for her as we’ve seen in past episodes, but the flashback didn’t really work for me as I don’t see why he would acquiesce. It’s literally like telling someone “hey it sucks you’re a slave and everything but since it’s like this why don’t you do as I say anyway?” She keeps saying she’s selfish, they keep calling her a princess and the more I see, the more inclined I am to agree with this two statements.
On the brighter side of things (well, they are shining), the rest of the kids are still fighting with Justin’s Buranki Batolov. We do know the kids on his team are not happy participants and it is Angus who first grows a spine and decides to just stop assisting him. No worries for Justin though, because apparently he has received some new power from Guy and is now able to control his limbs’ bodies and force them to fight. As we already learned from team Russia, this does not make a Buranki stronger, but weaker, especially now that Azuma’s team has learned how to really make use of their Bubuki’s potential.
To make things even worse for himself, he then makes the biggest mistake any villain can make, the one that tells you: yeah, it’s not going to happen. He proceeds to tell everyone his plans to betray Guy and become the king of the world, because no one is going to tell Guy or anything like that, right? What I really liked about this part was seeing the kids and adults band together. Also, Righty-chan’s new battle form was a perfect mirror to Kogane’s intensity when angered.
Guy’s plan is also clearer now but not much better. He is, however, very aware of what is going on. He invites Epizo and his team, who are expecting to be punished for not continuing to fight, to a meal. I don’t know about you but if a guy who has every reason to be angry at me and who has killed others before, invites me to a meal, and then sits across the table eating nothing himself, I wouldn´t eat it. They were lucky, though, no poison in the food, but there was plenty of poison in his words. He basically manipulates Epizo into admitting he is in love with Laetitia and would do anything for her only to get him to agree to kill Azuma. Frankly, it was kind of boring, maybe it went on for too long, but the main problem is I don’t really care about Laetitia. She seems to me like a typical frail heroine were supposed to like just because she can´t walk, and the back-story we were shown did not do much to help her case. Epizo did not come out of this looking good either.
The bright spot in the episode though is the final confrontation. Just as they’re all getting reunited, Justin shows up again and this time is Oubu who comes to the rescue. Spurred by Angus’ previous rebel action and by that “king of the world” speech Justin gave before (it seems that was the final straw), team Taiwan stages a coup, rendering Justin powerless and dissolving Batolov’s union. I love how Lakshmi is the one to tell Justin he’s been rejected as their heart and they’re not afraid to go against Guy. It’s almost like she’s making good on her promise to Hiiragi to fight for herself one day.
One more detail I found fantastic. You know how Matobai married and had a kid off camera? Well, you’re not the only one who’s a little curious, to say the least. Turns out not one of his comrades knew and they’re pissed about it. Also, Kogane still answers to everything he tells her with “I’m going to kill you!”. It never gets old.
In Summary:
This episode had its ups and downs for sure. Half the episode did not work for me because of the slavery subplot, which actually made me dislike Laetitia, but then it turns around and it ends with what seems to be in direct contrast with all of this. A group of kids breaking their chains and taking control by deciding not to live in fear anymore. Honestly, it’s left me confused, I don’t really think this was done on purpose, I think we’re supposed to understand Moses entered Laetitia’s service under duress but then came to care for her. Sadly, it failed to sway me, I feel this was done much better in Blood+. I still enjoyed the episode for the most part . The issue I have with grading BBK/BRNK is that even when parts of ti fail, the rest carries enough weight to lift it up.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll