Watchman
June 23rd, 2008 - 07:48

This ep does get the props for explaining what all the drama between the Shimizu brats and Gau is really all about.

Too bad it hit the wall something hard in the process. As if it wasn’t enough that Being Bloody Terminally Stupid is apparently a hereditary Shimizu family problem, and nobody (like the bereaved families and surviving kin or, say, the other major clans and families of Nabari) apparently ever bothered looking into why what basically amounted to the de facto law-enforcement force in Nabari suddenly rather bloodily imploded, the repeat use of the grossly hackneyed and very poorly thought out Jumping Into The Way Of Sword Blow gig for cheap drama seems to be downright selling the viewer short.

I mean, jeez. Uncle Plotdevice was between Kourin and Raikou. How the Hell did she suddenly teleport around him, and more to the point why didn’t she just tackle him down instead…? -_-
(And I’m not even going to get started on how unlikely either of the “interrupted cuts” would actually be to deliver fatal damage to either interruptee, given how sword cuts actually work…)

Gets a big “gah” in my books. Personally I’d rather pretend this episode never happened, and fervently hope there won’t be too many similar extended brain farts in the future to mar a perfectly good series.

On another note, Raikou seems to be batshit crazy and suffering from some kind of bipolar disorder to boot. You’d think Raimei had clued on to that by now. Then again, stupidity does seem to be a common Shimizu family trait…