© 松木いっか/小学館 / 日本三國製作委員会
“The Kanazawa Night Raid”
What They Say:
When Seii invades Kuzuryu Castle, tensions between Seii and Yamato come to a head. Sensing something strange about the situation, the Yamato army led by Ryumon decide to halt their advance. Meanwhile, having gone ahead, Tonotsugu’s men enter Seii without knowing that war has broken out, and are given a warm welcome by Muuton Nagao.
Review: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The war is officially on. Yamato is standing strong as best they can, but Seii has launched a clever play of force and deception to give themselves every advantage, and so far it seems to be working out quite well. It doesn’t help Yamato that their commanders in charge are so brazenly incompetent and punish anyone who actually tries to do something for the better of the nation. Taira’s snot-nosed kid Tonotsugu is prancing right into Muuton’s traps without a care in the world while his only intelligent advisor with integrity, Sugoh, sits tied up and forced to watch his idiot of a “leader” disregard his every warning and put them all in danger. Ryumon and Kaku watch from the sidelines for their opportunities to salvage this mess without being shut down, but with Seii in full unity, it’s a very difficult situation for Yamato.
As such, the inevitable happens, and at least we finally get to see someone from the Taira family face consequences for their actions. What’s interesting about this development is that Tonotsugu is neither as cold as his father, as foolhardy as he was set up to be, nor as stubborn in his arrogance as he appeared until now. He actually responds to the situation exactly as you’d hope for a character with the potential for growth. His father is so cartoonishly evil and he appeared at every moment until now to be just a younger, dumber version of that. But we see that his familial relations and twisted upbringing wasn’t enough to fully remove the humanity that we see start to blossom when he’s faced with danger, tragedy, and the call to action. Taira’s role is probably essential to this story, but sometimes the series seems to give us more caricatures than characters, and this is a nice break from that. Fortunately, Sugoh is endlessly forgiving and allows Tonotsugu the redemption that a less selfless person would never grant.
It’s an eventful episode, though it does repeat its twists in such quick succession that it becomes a little silly. What’s that, someone from Seii shot at Sugoh and we panned away when we heard the gunshots but then later we came back to realize that someone from Yamato suddenly appeared and shot the guy from Seii just before they could actually shoot Sugoh, saving his life? What’s that, the exact same cliffhanger and twist occurred minutes later? No way! Yeah, it’s a bit overplayed. But I’ll still take the overall effect despite some of the specifics not being the most elegant.
And yes, our alleged protagonists Aoteru and Tsune do make their contractually obligated appearance to offer some commentary. It continues to be very curious that the whole series was set up to revolve around them, especially Aoteru, yet they’ve been completely removed from this major plot that has consumed the series. Surely they’ll be folded in significantly by the end of the season, but it’s definitely feeling more like an ensemble cast than the first episode or two would’ve led us to believe.
© 松木いっか/小学館 / 日本三國製作委員会
In Summary:
Nippon Sangoku uses its war, and Seii’s overwhelming advantage, to find opportunities to surprise us in a few ways. Most significant is the humanization of a previously one-dimensional brat who we could only wish for the worst fate, but ends up showing a sense of honor and bravery when the cards are down. This comes as the war reaches characters we’ve been following for several episodes, and several close calls are countered by almost divine intervention that would be a bit more exciting if it didn’t repeat the same trick back to back. Overall, it’s a very intriguing time for the series, and it’ll be interesting to see when our original major characters get to participate in any real way.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Prime Video
Kestrel Swift
A lover of media obsessed with superlatives and rankings, Kestrel Swift has found his home niche in anime since being exposed to it in the late 90s. As with all media, he’s constantly seeking the best of the best. To further deepen his connection with his passions, he has written thousands of reviews for the Fandom Post and is the only person to appear on every episode of the podcast Fandom Post Radio (available everywhere you find podcasts), which he cofounded and named.
