And so ends the second third of this series. Yes, we still have 13 episodes to wrap everything up in what still is the must unique show of the year. The past ten or so episodes in particular, as they have completely forsaken warfare, in favor of diplomacy and esthetics. In this episode, Sennou Soueki stood out.
I’m still watching this thing raw, and this show still has unforgivingly difficult dialogue, so I didn’t get this perfectly, but my impression of this episode was that Sennou Soueki went a bit too far in promoting his ideals. Because he’s so revered, there are countless of cheap attempts in showing beauty through poverty and simplicity that completely miss the point. People like Sasuke who completely miss the point of art, just for the sake of being ironic. Again, this seems ver much like a satire on postmodernism. Also, I didn’t expect the creators to show his younger version with actual hair.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder was a theme that went throughout this episode as well, when it showed that weird frog painting and the weird expression statue, which elicited very different reactions from everyone.
And then the second half of this episode came with that very vivid nightmare of Hashiba Hideyoshi, in which he was the one cut in half. I swear, something is going to happen to him, but this show just keeps stalling that fact. It’s not necessarily dragging on, because it has enough to do in the meantime, but seriously, seeing this smug guy actually cut up would lead to some really interesting situations.
It’s also great to see that after 26 episodes, this show still is as detailed as it ever was. In particular that fire scene: the props were drawn with a ton of details within them, and you could really see how they were made. In fact, there have been many historical series before, but I can’t recall any that has this part nailed as well as this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Hyouge Mono – 26
