Fukichi starts off strong by assuming Ranpo might be behind the intruder or the seeming intruder he’s dealing with. It doesn’t help that he can’t seem to find her, making him more paranoid about what he saw. A lot of his plan hinges on getting a hold of both Bram and One Order successfully. Meanwhile Ranpo is embracing his inner terrorist. It really is more fun to root for those trying to demolish the standard quo than those trying to defend it. I’m learning the correct lessons from anime for sure. And just like Ranpo predicts, setting off explosions sends the Europeans back the way they came, to make sure the One Order doesn’t get stolen.
In the meantime, Aya has gotten herself from a rock to a hard place. She did indeed go into the coffin as I expected, it made the most sense narratively. Unfortunately for her, the coffin is not empty and she is now face to face – depending on how she’s sitting in the coffin – with an undead sword scourge. Poor woman.
We go from scene to scene rapidly here as Ranpo thinks about the one person capable of outmatching his intellect, who is currently in a European prison. We jump back to the plane where both its pilots are dying from what seems to be poison. Whatever it is, it looks incredibly painful and the plane is about to go crashing into the airport. Fukichi’s remaining lackeys slice the airplane to bits while Kunikida looks on. No regards for the pilots who should still be their allies at this point. The One Order is now in Fukichi’s hands. Ranpo does seem to have a clue into why the box with One Order in it can’t be opened and it seems like Dazai is responsible for it. I’m going to be honest, if there is a character with this kind of power in the story, I have forgotten about them. I am likely buying the manga after this season ends and then I’ll see if there’s stuff I missed throughout the years. It’s been a long time since this anime originally started after all. Anyway, roll the opening credits!
Ango has become so incredibly important throughout this arc. He has now convinced the UN that giving the One Order to Fukichi before the vampire scourge starts its attack is an unnecessary risk. Ango lies for the sake of his old friend Dazai and pretends that chief Taneda is already awake again. That’s a lot of risks he’s willing to take for his friend. Good man. Despite Ango’s amazing save, the box is still in Fukichi’s hands. Speaking of Dazai though, I think we’re finally going to see him released here. Someone is breaking into the prison quite violently and if I were a betting man (which I’m not, I’m vehemently anti-gambling) I would bet all my money on it being Chuuya from the Port Mafia. It’s a good thing I’m not a better man, because it’s not Nakahara Chuuya who shows up, but instead it’s Nikolai and Sigma.
Nikolai is exhausting and the anime director knows this, so after a short dose of high energy sociopaths we go back to the low energy vampire. I said this last week, but Aya really has nerves of steel. She goes from certain death to making friends with an immortal vampiric sword. This is a dangerous game to play as Fukichi is rapidly and angrily making his way back to where Bram is. The look on his face when realizes that Bram has been stolen is worth a fortune. He immediately goes to set out and retrieve his trump card again, I hope Aya has a plan.
Sigma is meanwhile pondering the kind of company he finds himself in. Every other person there is a sociopath and quite frankly could serve as a textbook example of pure insanity. Nikolai brings out the poison that dealt with the European soldiers transporting One Order. This means one of two things to me. One, this scene is happening after Nikolai poisoned the soldiers and fled to Europe. Two, Nikolai has already left the prison with whomever is making it out of this scene, and then used the poison on the European soldiers afterwards. There’s other options, and it could just be a case of weird timelines, but we’ll find out eventually.
Aya is trying to figure out how to get Bram on her side. He seems to just want to sleep and have chill vibes, besides that he doesn’t really care all that much about Fukichi’s plan. Fukichi is the one who turned him into this sorry state to begin with, after all. But for him to help Aya out, he needs her to give him a legendary artifact. It’s… It’s a radio. He just wants to listen to some Backstreet Boys while he’s sleeping, that’s all. And who can really blame him for this. I love how Aya playing a song from her phone sends us into the ending theme. We finally see things shift in a more winnable scenario for the Agency. Aya has unknowingly been the hero of the story so far. But even with all of this, Fukichi still has his extremely powerful body and his time travel abilities. He’s still a force to be reckoned with. I am excited for this to finally turn around and come crashing down on the man, he’s an irredeemable evil man that deserves every bad thing that will happen to him in the second half of this season. At least I’m assuming bad things will happen to him. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 