While the previous episode was all about the characters, this episode is all about the story, and its beauty lied in the different plot twists that we saw in it. While the episode was less touching than the previous ones, the plot twists were both wacky and shocking enough to make this episode worthwhile.
In chronological order. Kinjiro can’t do anything in the open, due to his position, but he leaves a message on an on-line forum, telling about a secret doorway inside the prison (yes, an on-line forum). Kagaya and the others help him to get there.
We learn that O-Ise wields a strange Yo-yo, Tenhou carries throwing knifes and Tenten uses a construction of strange pens as weapon. If I recall correctly, it was around that time that only Samurai were allowed to wield swords, and I must say that they’ve found creative ways to avoid this rule. In any case, they use this to save Ginjiro from Torii, after he officially abandoned them in favour of Sora.
This is a strange one. The third blue monster of the sky runs into Tetsuju, and the two make friends due to his strange personality and affinity with gunpowder. I seriously have no idea what’s going to happen with the two of them, but I’m really glad to see that Tetsuju will be appearing more frequently. ^_^
Hiraga can walk! He appears to be ore eccentric than I already thought, by letting himself get carried around by his “concubines”. He sure gave both me and Ginjiro quite a scare when he revealed this. He also seems to be an acquaintance of Mizuno. Why this is useful, we’ll learn in the next episode.
Tenhou, Tenten and O-Ise spy around in Akai’s house, and find out that he’s affiliated with the blue monster of the sky, and they recieve clues that he might be the one after the serial killings. While he’s been on fire for the past few episodes, this twist should make it more difficult for him in the next episode.
The episode ends with quite a nasty cliff-hanger. Sora seems to have accepted that she doesn’t belong with Seikichi, but she eventually agrees to escape from prison along with him. Akai then shows up, and then pretends to help the two of them escape, only to aim a freakin’ gun at Seikichi when he doesn’t look! The question is obviously not whether Seikichi will survive or not, due to one of the golden rules of anime, which says that main characters don’t die, unless it’s the final episode, but how he’ll survive. That gun had enough time to be properly aimed at Seikichi, Sora wasn’t near enough to protect him. What I suspect what happened was that Akai probably didn’t aim well enough, and only managed to hit Seikichi’s arm, leg, or any other body-part that isn’t fatal.
I also loved the small parodies with Tenhou and Tenten, sitting in the internet-cafe. It’s nice to see that Madhouse actually put more of a meaning behind its Death Note reference than Lucky Star is currently doing. That line “Shinigami only eat apples” was meant to confuse L, which is exactly what it does in the context in which Ooedo Rocket uses it. ^^;
On a side-note: gg has suddenly released episodes 1 to 4 on Tokyo Toshokan. If you’re not following the raws, then go and check them out, and I’m glad that this series is being handled by such a quality-fansub group.]]>
Ooedo Rocket – 18
