The random guard reporting everything to the mainland and making Akutagawa and Atsushi look worse to the general public really is a kick in the balls to Atsushi after he really didn’t want the man to be killed. Of course, it makes sense for him to be against the terrorists even if they did spare his life, but from a viewer’s perspective it feels like a bad move in hindsight. With Akutagawa bleeding out on the deck of the ship, Atsushi is at least able to get away from certain death. Things could be worse. Not much worse, but there’s still room for it. The overlapping of the guard talking to the mainland and Atsushi escaping does make it difficult for Fukichi to go back in time. The guard apologizes to the dying (or dead) Akutagawa for not being able to do more for sparing him earlier. Perhaps there’s more to it than there seems.
Let’s take a proper look at the opening this week. We see a lot of silhouettes of the important cast for this season, which are a lot of people. I will always be reminded of Kuroko no Basket when I hear Granrodeo, even though they’ve done many more openings since. Seeing people reflected in Fukichi’s sword is a nice touch. The clock is also represented here, like it was on the ship, to hint at the time cutting mechanic that Fukichi has. The song is a banger, although it probably isn’t going to be amongst my favorites. It’s a bit too heavy for what I listen to on a daily basis, but it gets you amped to watch some detective mind games nonetheless.
Moving on, Atsushi makes it to shore safely and reunites with Ango. After that we finally get the final member of the Decay of Angels. Bram-kun, the undead king. This has to be Bram Stoker, famous for writing dracula. We now know every single member of the terrorist group.
Fukichi is their leader with the other members being Fyodor, Nicolai (seemingly now a former member), Sigma and Bram. So theories I had – and I’ve seen from others – that there was one more Decay of Angels member amongst the hunting dogs were false. These hunting dogs are going to feel really stupid when all is said and done. Oh, and Bram is voiced by the massively talented and instantly recognizable Kenjiro Tsuda (Kento Nanami from Jujutsu Kaisen, Leroro from Tower of God, Yonji from One Piece and many more roles).
Bram seems opposed to helping Fukichi which pisses the man off. This is the most emotional we’ve seen him so far. And thus, Akutagawa is turned into a vampire. I wonder if the plan is to create a vampire scourge through Akutagawa. And sure enough, all of the executives we know and love, barring Tachihara, have been turned into mindless vampires. Remember how earlier I said things could be worse. They just got worse. But knowing this show, I’m sure most of these characters will come out on the other side alive. Meanwhile the utterly incompetent hunting dogs still think the Armed Detective Agency is responsible. Fukichi not allowing Tachihara to search for an alternative villain shows that he’s getting a bit more careful. But Tachihara is annoyingly good at being in the way. This is forcing Fukichi to talk to Bram, who is kind of out in the open. I wonder if this will end up coming back to bite him somehow. And sure enough, Tachihara was on Fukichi’s trail already. Mori-san isn’t the leader of the mafia for no reason. He’s ruthless when he needs to be, but he treats his people well because he values the results they can bring him.
And then it turns out that Mori gave Tachihara some intel on how to defeat Fukichi. He already knows about this ability and sword. Tachihara’s metal manipulation comes in clutch here. It’s a good thing for Fukichi that he still has his superhuman strength and agility, but things are lookin dire. It would be one hell of a plot twist for a double agent to be the one to take out the villain’’s leader. But I doubt that’s going to happen. Either something is about to go horribly wrong for Tachihara, or Fukichi will be presumed dead and then return later. And just as I’m typing this out, Tachihara gets stabbed by Ame no Gozen. There’s a T carved in the stone, which he left in the past to be aware of Tachihara’s appearance. This man gets more and more frightening every time we see him. He then blinds Tachihara, making him more or less useless as a fighter. Tachihara trying to kill himself to avoid becoming a vampire and a danger to the people around him is hadcore. I don’t think things have ever looked this dire on such a large scale in the history of this story. The vampiric disease is spreading worldwide at a high rate. Fukichi’s goal of eliminating the world’s rich and powerful looks all but certain now.
I’ve been reading through the comments on this episode and although they seem to be mainly positive, people are asking how the T warning and stabbing through time makes sense. In short, I don’t think it’s a watertight thing. It’s just a cool story with cool powers that mostly make sense. I personally watch this show for the spectacle and the plot twists. Powers this wacky don’t always make perfect sense and get a bit ridiculous. I did think Bram being a weapon and thus being 100 times more powerful when Fukichi is involved was a fun moment. All in all, I can’t wait for next week’s episode.
Opal Kaharis 