Short Synopsis: Akizuki recovers, while Hijikata and Enomoto conquer Hakodate.
Good: Nice battles, I liked how focused the episode was.
Bad: The timing of that husband was a bit too convenient. Akizuki acted really predictable.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Dammit, no online-summaries have appeared for this episode yet. Ah well, luckily, it wasn’t as hard to understand as usual. We’ve got a pretty focused episode this time, featuring only a select amount of characters. Heck, Soutetsu, the troupe and the Englishmen didn’t even appear, while Kakunojou only appeared for one minute or something.
I had one major problem with this episode. It was great as usual, but Akizuki was just way to predictable. Heck, how many anime have we seen up till now where a main character gets mortally wounded, separated from everyone else, saved by a bunch of random people, get involved with some of their problems and then becoming a better character? Probably too many to count. It’s not really bad or anything, but when anime keep and keep using this, things become a bit predictable.
Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the kid nearly drowning. Akizuki gets saved by a mother and her daughter. The father left to be a soldier a long time ago. Akizuki obviously doesn’t speak much, and he keeps having visions of an evil (and rather funny) Kakunojou. Then, during a rather nasty storm, the child went playing outside, and fell into the ocean. This scene really was meant for Akizuki to realize one of his major flaws: the fact that he always tries to do everything on his own, and that he keeps blaming himself for things that happened. But seriously, Akizuki is about to leave, and the husband suddenly shows up again? I thought the creators knew better than this.
The second focus of the episode featured Hijikata, attacking Hakodate with his army. After the last episode, I said that this episode would probably feature another climax, due to the pattern of this series. It’s surprising to see that this was the first climax in Bakumatsu to not feature Akizuki. Hakodate seems to be a major city in terms of trade with Russia, it even has a European design. I can imagine that it would be heavily guarded, and that it would hold a great strategic value to Enomoto.]]>
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto – 20
Eh, well they never mentioned it explicitly, but Akizuki stayed with that family for about half a month at least, I think. Considering he probably washed up at most a day after episode 18, and at the end the father returns – and we do see the father fighting among Hijikata’s troops, which was described as “half a month ago” – so I don’t suppose it was a sudden change of heart or something.
I’d rather they had Akizuki develop somehow, like this, than have him not develop at all.
True, development always is appreciated. I just wish they did it not so predictably. It’s a minor detail, though. I have a feeling that Akizuki is going to be great in the future episodes. 🙂