Boy, that was AWESOME! I didn’t understand 25% of the episode, but who cares! The things that I did understand turned this episode into a great one. This definitely was the best episode of Bakumatsu so far!
So many things happened during this episode, I don’t know where to start. Let’s begin with Kanna, as we finally see some of his history as well. He indeed grew up in England, along with some woman (his mother, nanny?). Then, at one point this woman was taken away from him against her will by some selfish guy. If I understood things correctly, he sees this woman’s reflection in Kakunojou. Parkes also introduces four new characters this episode. Code-named Knight, Queen, Luke and Bishop. If I understood things correctly, they’re some kind of elite of the English forces.
Then the play. If I got things right, then the troupe always uses its last performance of a certain play to add something extra. With the previous one, it was the image of Nakaiya Juubei. This time, it’s a bit more extravagant: a plan to catch Nakaiya Juubei. Of course, all is a clever plan of Soutetsu. This is what I understood. He hid the lord’s head at a place near the newly set-up theatre of the troupe. Under some docks, to be exact. He then lures Juubei to that place, right at the same time of the troupe’s performance, and in the middle of the play, Akizuki suddenly comes, destroys the curtain and reveals the threesome of Kanna, Juubei and Soutetsu, who are talking at that time. That’s where the awesomeness started. I have to say that I was as surprised as the crowd when Akizuki suddenly did his thing.
What I didn’t understand was why Soutetsu just let Juubei escape with the Lord’s Head. It may be because he counted on Akizuki and the others to stop him, of was it because of something he said or thought? Another thing I didn’t understand was Parkes’s role in all this. For some reasons, he ordered his minions to fire a cannon at the docs. Where did he hear that things like these were going to happen? Kanna?
Still, it doesn’t matter if I didn’t understand these things, as the things that followed were brilliant. Nakaiya tries to escape, though the cannons are rather bothersome to him. Akizuki and Kakunojou end up in a boat chasing after him, though they’re almost hit by a cannon, and they fall down. Kanna, who happens to be near and sees this suddenly has a flashback from his past, in which he sees Akizuki as the guy who took away the woman he looked up to. This episode didn’t do anything regarding this, though I suspect that the future episodes will. ^_^
Meanwhile, everyone’s chasing after Juubei and fighting each other. Then, Ebisu actually manages to capture him, and god damn it, the English actually manage to hit both of them, killing both Nakaiya and Ebisu off at the same time! I love it when a character is killed off unexpectedly with an impact, and Ebisu’s death truly was memorable.
Akizuki, meanwhile, attempts to slay the Lord’s Head and fails. This causes the lord’s head to escape and take over Emimoto, the one introduced during the previous episode. And with this, I really mean take over, as in it goes inside of Emimoto’s head. He orders the retreat of the English forces, and Soutetsu smiles very suspiciously. I’m not sure what’s behind that, but we’ll probably find out soon.
Overall, if you were wondering whether Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto would turn out to be worthwile, well, so far it has! With the second half of this anime about to begin, I’m expecting some great things from this one. 🙂
Yay. This episode was fun wasn’t it.
Firstly, I’m fairly sure that the woman is is mother. It’s the same woman as the one on his clock, which the official site and stuff say is his mother. Kakunojou reminds him of his mother so Akizuki, who gets to be next to Kakunojou, makes him jealous (esp. since Kakunojou appears scared of Kanna)
From the previous episode we found out that Soutetsu’s finished play wanted to rope in the REAL Eternal Assassin and REAL Nakaiya Juubee in his play. But how? Well, Akizuki got to play *himself* in the play – by cutting the curtain and going towards Nakaiya, who can be considered unofficially taking part in the play. In fact, Soutetsu had this all set up (except the cannons? But I think he foresaw that) as part of his play. So the audience thinks its all entertainment. I think.
Soutetsu let Nakaiya take the Head perhaps because he knew that he wouldn’t keep it for long what with Akizuki trying to cut it. At this rate I get the feeling Soutetsu is not interested in actually using the Head like Nakaiya did, but using it indirectly by manipulating other people around it. That’s what happened in ep 12 too – he never actually went to the point of killing any of the 3, but he brought them together… and of course his ultimate motive is still a big question mark. Perhaps he is somehow intending to improve the future of this country in this way (how, I don’t know).
Parkes fired cannons because he knew that the Head was there and he would ratehr the Head destroyed than it fall into other people’s hands – because if the British Empire acn’t have it, then might as well that nobody has it. And since Kanna is working for him he must have found out that Soutetsu has the head, and Soutetsu generally hangs around on the ships, so the cannons may have been for the ships at first… but seeing that the Head is at the dock they turned ot the dock instead.
P.S. It’s Enomoto not Emimoto.
Happy new year and don’t forget there’s no Iroha next week.
Hey :)! I like reading your reviews especially on Bakumatsu .. I really like animes on ancient Japan n samurai-s, etc.. anyway thanks n I’ll keep reading. I think i’ll check out that A Spirit of the Sun that you wrote about since it does sound kinda interesting
I’m pretty sure the code-name should be knight, queen, ROOK, and bishop; the names of chess pieces…
I enjoy this episode very much too, finally an exciting episode after 3-4 weeks of the slower paced episodes.
Hey, if you were Soutetsu, I’m sure you would hand over the “head” at gunpoint. I’m sure he could get it back easily if he wants to, like he did the last time. I think everything is according to his plan.
You are actually watching Night Head Genesis?? I drop it after the first 10 minutes of ep.1. I’ll go read your posts now…
Happy New Year!!
Rook can indeed be true. I’m not too knowledgeable about the english names of the chess pieces, and Parkes’ Engrish made it sound like the guy was called “Luke”, instead of Rook. ^^;
Night Head Genesis is quite an interesting mystery-show, though I feel that in order to watch it, you mustn’t get bothered by Naoya and Naoto’s endless whining.
“Explosive” is the word that comes to my mind, now that I have finished reading the reviews all in one sitting.
I cant wait to actually start seeing this. As far as I am aware, the subbed ones are out till eoisode 9. I watched the 1st ep and found it interesting…but havent been able to watch more.
Im glad I read your summaries…I think Ill enjoy this series a lot more now ^_^
Woh, glad to find a whole of people out there who like this anime as well! I find this anime very special because of their accent and the way everything is presented in a form of play. I’ve only managed to grab hold of the subbed episode 9. There are so many characters involved that I rewatched the 1st few episodes to get the historical background right, since I ignored them previously. Ha. Interesting anime. Highly recommended.