This series just continues to defy my expectations. Here I thought that for its formula would consist out of mostly four-episode arcs, and here this episode comes and instead of starting a new arc, it gives a ton of extra depth to the previous arc. Most notably, we learn a lot more about Ganbanzel. Seriously, I thought that he was going to be one of the major villains!
One thing I really love about this series is its ability to take any character, and give this character a complete, imaginative and detailed backstory and motivation. The same with Ganbanzel: this episode really showed a different side of his. He originally was a victim of one of the attacks from Hamyuts Meseta (or Hamy, as she’s aptly nicknamed in this episode) of all people.
It’s probably this what inspired him to join the church. We still don’t know why he so interested in Enlike, and even though he’s dead now his book still remains. My guess would be that this gets explained somewhere later in the series. The big mysteries right now are the bearded guy, and the half-invisible guy right now. While the Church is a bit of an obvious enemy, these two don’t seem to belong in any party and are hovering somewhere in the middle, it seems.
I also wonder. It’s now established that one regularly can’t obtain more than one power. And yet we see Hamy with at least three: her sensory threads, the stone slinging and the super-strength. She doesn’t seem to be another book eater, because she isn’t spamming random powers like Zatoh did, but there definitely seems to be more to her than meets the eye.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
(From what’s been explained by someone in the series AS thread) Well… to be sufficiently vague, lets say that there are ways to have an ability that don’t involve going out and obtaining it. It’s pretty obvious, if you think about it. That would make two abilities possible for those people as they could also go and obtain one ability like everyone else. If Hamutz had three separate abilities , that would be a deviation, but perhaps one of these abilities is an extension of the other two, that would work out within the rules. In other words, the ability you initially get doesn’t have to remain static (also per the AS poster). From what I gathered from his explanation, it can work sort of like this. Well, maybe a bit less arbitrarily 🙂 , but the idea is similar.
I think I should have phrased that as “there is a way to have an ability that doesn’t involve going out and obtaining it” to make it simpler..
Actually, she has one magic ability-sensory. She got slinging skill from training. Everyone can have better physical ability as a side effect of getting a magic ability. ANd I wonder that you are not surprised by the relationship between the governor of paradise and Hamyuts. The real secret is started to reveal now.
And here comes the AS poster I mentioned 🙂
I don’t get the dialogue and I’m totally clueless but damn this show is good.
“And yet we see Hamy with at least three: her sensory threads, the stone slinging and the super-strength.”
Since we don’t actually know what the root of her ability is it doesn’t make sense to claim she has multiple abilities. Just because she can create sensory threads doesn’t mean it doesn’t stem from a greater ability which may also be able to increase human skill or strength (or these could just come from intense training…).
This is how you do military interventions! Celestial Being would do well to learn from Hamyuts’ example. Though Ganbanzel wasn’t her victim per se as he was left alive, an act that looks intentional seeing that every one else was killed.
And have you noticed that the new – blue suit dressed – guy has a strange affection for honey, much like the “traitor” Volken. He also seems to have been part of the very same mission in relation to which Volken deserted.
dropped after 1st ep maybe i should pick it up again
Maybe you should. Gauging the merits of a story by the first episode isn’t exactly wise, even more so when this series is easily one of the better shows in the midst of all the moeblob crap. Certainly give it another try, I doubt it will disappoint you.
I haven’t read the novel up to this point yet (so no danger in spoilering) but as far as I understood it was already ‘explained’ why he was that interested in Enlike.
He wanted to create some kind of perfect being to do what the governor of paradise told him to be they way to happiness…that is killing.
So when Enlike told him back then, that what he wanted most was to be happy/to smile once, I think Ganbanzel saw a bit of himself in Enlike.
And after Enlike managed to survive the massacre on the training island till the last moment and was even able to defeath Zatoh, Ganbanzel saw him as his chance to attain happiness. We see that Ganbanzel wasn’t entirely pleased with the decision he was forced to make…in fact I felt so deeply sorry for this broken old man when he was literaly pushed towards his death and his only hope of attaining something in life (after he lost everything ‘fleeting’) was Enlike.
Well I loved how they managed to make Ganbanzel a memorable character, as I feared at first he would turn into the typical ‘maniac scientist geezer’.
Now I’m forced to decide wether I keep on reading and maybe hit the end of this arc before the next episode airs or to wait…well I think I will wait and see how far the anime advances.
I can only hope enlike remains with the main party at this point. Otherwise, i would really miss him
If you don’t know why Ganbanzel wants Enlike, then you didn’t understang anything until now from the “monster” arcs. He wanted to kill people, because he finds it fun. He’s old, so he can’t, so he creates a really powerful monster to kill for him. Enlike is just the best monster he could have so far..
I think the thing about having only one power, refers only to magic powers, and I think that means things like, fire, lightning, you know, elements, this way, strength and stuff like that would apply. But, not sure.
*wouldn’t apply, because they are “normal” abilities. As far as I know, Hamyuts, Noloty, Minth and the others don’t possess any magical abilities, that’s something you train specifically too. They have some other king of ability and physical training.