Welcome all, to another week of Kemono no Souja Erin! We are safely in the 2nd half now, and speeding towards the end. Only… 4 more weeks left really. Time flies. You know what that means though, soon you’re going to be voting for a new series, so make sure to keep that in mind over the next few weeks! Selling future seasons aside, lets dive into the episodes!
Starting off we have episode 29, “Beast’s Fang”. This one centers around another moment of doubt for Erin, a confrontation with the fact that even with the best of intentions Beast-Lords are still large, wild animals with the power to kill you. On an individual, single episode basis, I found it pretty good. Erin was forced to, once again, recognize how dangerous what she is doing is and the risks associated with that. But that “once again” bit is my primary issue with the episode. Simply put, it feels like we’ve been here before. Like this isn’t the first time Erin has had this exact realization. While nice and affirming of her decision, I can’t help but feel like we’ve beaten this horse a bit to much at this point. Like it wasn’t particularly necessary, you know? Luckily this seems like the last time Erin will have to do it.
Like I get it, don’t get me wrong, I understand why Erin is belaboring this point. Erin is trying all of these new things, like making a brush to care for Lilan and even getting her to purr like a cat. Erin does a great job of selling that these two are family. And yeah sure, even my cat will scratch me if I fuck with her to much or do something she doesn’t like, makes sense. But it feels like the episode could have been just about their relationship rather than once again introducing this “fear” aspect. Maybe Erin wants to set something up for the future here, or it’s more about how the rest of the school/Esal sees it, I don’t know. I’m sure the will Erin had to write will come up later. It just felt… a tad redundant, by this point is all.
On a positive note, on thing I did find interesting was Erin’s use of pack politics, and this continual push that maybe these Beastinarian’s don’t know as much as they think they do. They keep insisting that Beast-Lords only follow the “strongest”, that they rule through fear and strength, that that is why they have to use the whistles. They don’t seem able to accept/believe that Beast-Lords, or any animal really, is capable of love. Of listening to love, of not eating someone out of love. It actually feels a bit odd to me, like they’ve never had a pet or cared for a horse or a dog. If they had they would figure out really quickly that they don’t listen or follow out of fear. At least not ones you raise correctly. It speaks to just how limiting the “Orthodox” methods they have to obey are.
Next up is episode 30, “The Fourth Winter”. This was a rather disappointing episode to be honest. It’s almost nothing but flashbacks, making the entire thing basically a recap. After episode 25, it feels like we just got one of these sorts of “Empty” episodes. One where basically nothing happens and there isn’t much reason to watch it. The only good bit was the timeskip of 4 years. We got to see Erin a bit older, Lilan a majestic adult, and even got word of a new teacher joining soon. All of that was rather nice, and I’m glad we at least got that out of the way before the next episode.
To give Erin a bit of credit though, the introduction/information that a new teacher will be joining us does have some interesting implications. After all, the school basically went into silent rebellion when it refused to report Erin for her unorthodox methods of raising Lilan. So what does that mean for a new teacher joining them? Will they see what Erin is doing and report her, bringing them to the Capital/Sezan’s attention? Is this what’s going to drive Erin out of Kazalm? Or will they be enthralled by what Erin is doing, becoming a new ally? I’d say I’m not sure, but as of writing this I’ve already watched the next 2 episodes so that would be a lie. At the time of viewing though, these were the thoughts going through my mind as I sat through flashbacks and recaps.
That out of the way we now come to episode 31, “Light in the Sky”. This was the best episode of the batch for me, full of payoff and new plot. The episode starts with the new teacher, Kiriku, arriving at Kazalm. Right away this guy is suspicious, clearly being the same person Ial has fought on a few occasions and who has been trying to steal Touda eggs for the insurrection. He also has an affinity for poisons, not only using it to cut ties with the bandits but teaching it in class as well. Basically nothing about him can be trusted. About the only thing I can trust is that he has even less interest in drawing the capital/Sezan’s eyes to Kazalm than Erin does, so hopefully he won’t report them.
That raises the question though, what exactly is he doing here? Why did he come to Kazalm of all places? He mentions in a monologue that he came here prepared to die, but why? Is he giving up on his Saigamaru/revolution plans? Were the Sezan closing in and he couldn’t maintain it anymore, possibly leading them to Erin on accident? I’m not sure, it’s really unclear, and I think thats part of why his introduction works so well. Add on to that the bits of his backstory we see, the troubled childhood, as well as projecting his dead sister onto Erin, and you have a really confusing mess of motivations here. Does he want to protect Erin? Kill her? Report her? Use her? Absolutely no idea, could be any of them. Only time will tell on this one.
Speaking of Erin, this episode has a fair amount of focus on her as well. I mentioned it when talking about episode 30, but she’s 18 now! She’s grown up, looks taller, has more hair, and is a fully fledged college student. Apparently she’s been doing well since Jone’s death! On top of that, it looks like Tomura still clearly likes her. I honestly don’t know if Erin is actually going to go anywhere with this, if their romance will matter at all, but it’s dropping so many freaking hints about it. How they interact, their little study/catchup date as Tomura gets back from Lazal, how protective he is of her from Kiriku. I’m honestly expecting either a happy ending or an incredibly tragic one for him, because Erin isn’t really setting him up for anything in between.
Small stuff aside, the big thing for Erin and Lilan was flight. I really liked this. Erin did a great job of hinting at it throughout the episode. All the shots of Lilan looking longingly into the sky, observing birds, etc. A lot of focus was put on her being ready but unsure of how to do it. The fall off the cliff was a bit cliché, I find it silly Lilan would jump down somewhere she couldn’t get back up, but you know it happens and it worked fine as a way to get her into the air. And oh man the flight itself, this was all really pretty. Lilan finally glowing like a true Beast-Lord, Erin on her back soaring through the air. It was a very freeing moment, like no matter what happens now we know this is an option.
One has to wonder about the consequences of this though. To be blunt, Erin has accomplished what no one else has for centuries: Riding a Beast-Lord. This is something that, per legend at least, only the Queen is supposed to be able to even attempt. Yet here she is, doing it. How is the school going to react? Esal? Tomura? The Capital?! Will she be punished, executed maybe, for breaking the rules or committing sacrilege? At what point do they have to tell Erin to stop, just for their own safety? And even if she isn’t punished, what will this mean for war? Surely some people will want to use her, to use Beast-Lords, for battle if it can be replicated. And that’s obviously not something Erin will support. There’s just so many things that have to happen now, and I’m looking forward to them all.
This brings me to episode 32, “A Crime”. This is an expository episode, giving us a big-ass lore dump on the world, but it’s a great one and it answers questions I hadn’t even considered to ask after the previous episode. It’s setup for what is to come, explaining to us just how momentous, and dangerous, Erin’s discovery is. Showing us why, even if her reasons for it are just and harmless, it cannot be allowed to spread. And does this for more then just the Beast-Lords or the reasons for the orthodox rules, which now make more sense, but for the Mist People as well. Because the source of the information is Nason, the man who has apparently been watching Erin all this time.
Getting into the details, we learn the history of a different nation, Ophalon, and how they to once raised and commanded Touda. How they used them to conquer their neighbors and grow in strength, before exiling their tyrannical king, who then returned with an army of Beast-Lords at his back. We learn how, despite being natural enemies, Beast-Lords and Touda were never meant to come to conflict on such a large scale. The blood, the fire, the war, it drives them into a frenzy, resulting in them attacking and eating not just each other but all of those around them. It brought the kingdom of Ophalon to ruin, crushed under the heel of the very creatures responsible for their rise. It’s all pretty dark, and it makes a lot of sense why the Mist People wouldn’t want it repeated here.
Speaking of the Mist People, this also acts as an explanation for both their powers and their culture. They are the remnants, the ones who originally taught Ophalon how to control Touda, arguably the root of the entire conflict. By refusing to teach others their level of control, they believe they can prevent the same bloodshed from occurring. By becoming Nomadic, they also prevent themselves from settling in any one place long enough for outsiders to find them/learn the truth themselves. Effectively their entire culture is centered around preventing the tragedy of Ophalon from repeating. So it makes sense why they would take Erin’s discovery so seriously. As despite it being a new skill, as Nason says, it’s one with the same effect the old skills would have: The taming and control of Beast-Lords. Which would, inevitably, lead to war.
As far as lore-dump episodes go, I thought this was a really good one. Erin managed to not only introduce a new moral conflict for Erin regarding Lilan, one centered around something other then her fear of the Beast-Lord, it did so while telling another complete story and the history of the nation all of this takes place in. It set the stage for the entire 2nd half of the show in what I found to be a really effective way. Couple this with the growing civil unrest that’s probably happened over the last 4 years, as well as Kiriku being witness to the flight itself, and Erin has some actual relevant drama for the first time in… well ages. It feels like Erin has really kicked up the pace with this, and I’m really looking forward to what it does with this, and the flight at large.
So yeah, all in all I quite enjoyed this week. One episode was a bust, which is a shame. But when you watch 4 episodes a week it’s probably a given that not all of them are going to be fantastic. Especially with a long-running show like Erin. My hope after these episodes however is that Erin will start kicking things up a notch. It’s already started to do that with the whole “End of the world if you tell people” shtick, as well as forcing Erin to once again choose between what is best for Lilan and what is best for herself/the country. Personally I expect Erin to say “Fuck it” and let her fly again, running off into the wilderness. But you never know, maybe she will find a middle-ground and save the day. Only time will tell I suppose.
