After two episodes of pretty solid quality I happen to notice this episode took a bit of a downturn in animation. Though to be fair this was the most action focused episode yet which strangely didn’t feature our main trio. Instead we get introduced to the other protagonists and our main antagonists. We also get some clarification on just what is going on here. Basically historical figures called ends have been thrown into this world and have decided to kill everything. In order to combat them a magician’s organization is trying to gather Drifters who also happen to be historical figures. The main difference between the two seems to be that Drifters are taken to the world before their death while ends are transferred after they die. They also seem to have died rather tragic deaths and unlike the Drifters seem to have supernatural powers. We got a lot of new faces here and chances are you don’t know the half of them. On the drifter side we got two cowboys with Butch Cassey, the Sundance Kid and a Japanese fighter Pilot from WWII by the name of Naoshi Kanno.
On the ends side we got Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova who you likely don’t recognize but there was a Don Bluth film called Anastasia which took the cliff notes on her and tried to turn it into a Disney knockoff. Basically she was princess who was killed by the Bolshevik secret police and there were long rumors that she didn’t really die in the attack. Seems to be hints that the man with her is Rasputin. We have Toshizou Hijikata, vice commander for the shinsengumi who died during the boshin War. And we have the most surprising of the bunch with Joan of Arc who seems to have not taken her being burned alive all that well. I certainly remember raising an eyebrow when I saw Joan of Arc acting like a psychopathic pyromaniac but seeing as being betrayed and burned alive would likely be fairly traumatic experiences, I say it might be rather reasonable if she didn’t take it well. Last but certainly not least we have the Black King, a mysterious figure in a white robe whose identity has yet to be revealed. There are theories of course and boy, is there one most interesting. Mainly because of the scars on his hands and the religious nature of his declaring this war a crusade there is speculation that the black King is a certain religious figure. If Hirano decides to go there and make it THAT person, then quite frankly this story will gain a whole new level of amazing. Quite honestly there is a distinct possibility that he just might do it and there are hints I have seen which seem to confirm it but at this moment in time the Black kings identity has not been specifically confirmed.
I honestly felt the pain of the magician commander as the other world soldiers started bragging about how there wall is undefeated and invincible. Yep, and they said the Titanic was unsinkable and look where that got them. These guys were cannon fodder the minute they started laughing off the enemy and I hold no sympathy for them, as any man that laughs at Hannibal deserves such a fate. It was nice to see Scipio defend him as he was his major rival and even if he pissed himself in front of a crowd thanks to old age, the man still rode war elephants over the alps. He deserves massive respect for that. But man I laughed when he reacted to Butch and the kid pulling out a gatling gun and his first words were “Give me that, I am gonna destory rome with it!” because goddamn, Hannibal really would have said the same thing. I think that’s what’s really going to carry this series, just how these characters are going to play off each other and their own history. After all it was a powerful moment when Naoshi Kanno decided to fight off the Dragons because their attacks reminded him of the US bombings of Tokyo. Still I am a simple man and I see dragons fighting WWII airplanes with blood and carnage everywhere. Quite frankly, I don’t know about you but I am having a blast.
