Inuyashiki – 10 [People of Tokyo]

This was a momentous week for Inuyashiki, with lots of highs and single glaring low. We had terrible CGI, an emotional confrontation between our leads and a fantastic payoff for Inuyashiki. Lets jump in!

To start, lets get the big issue out of the way immediately, the PS2 era CGI. To quote reddit, the budget for this fight might as well have been “30 yen and a box of paperclips”. Everything before and after our two leads fight was great. Most of the fight itself however was disappointing. A lot of the scenes looked unfinished, the buildings had terrible resolutions and there was no impact between our characters and the world. It’s like they were flying through the old Superman game. The only part of the fight I thought was done well was the ending, with the satellite. The satellite not only up the ante and make for a great spectacle, it showed the difference of ours leads. Hiro used brute force, while Inuyashiki hid using the debris to get a meaningful strike in. It was a satisfying end to a mostly disappointing fight.

Outside the fight, Hiro and Inuyashiki were both phenomenal this episode. First, the escalation of Hiro’s terror attack was great, revealing it was multiple planes. It gave Inuyashiki people to save while still letting Hiro partially succeed. It also finally brought our two leads into conflict, meeting for the only the second time this whole season, giving us some of the best  dialogue so far. Hiro’s realization as he sees Inuyashiki saving these people, his look of anguish as he asks “Am I the villain?”, was magnificent. His internal conflict, how he and Inuyashiki are the same in that they both do what they do for selfish reasons, was poignant yet ignorant. I loved it all. The resolution to this fit Hiro as well, as he lashes out like a child, punching Inuyashiki instead of using any of his grand weapons.

Hiro and Inuyashiki’s fist-fight, and everything up to the CGI flight, is even better than the satellite scene but for different reasons. Absurdity permeates this fight, as these two god-like cyborgs are in a fist-fight. The small details like metal clangs whenever they hit each other adding to this. Eventually Inuyashiki fires in with his own air-gun, surprising me and Hiro, and what follows is one of the weirdest, funniest scenes I have seen this season. Hiro and Inuyashiki, air-gunning, “dadadadadadada” like children playing a game, fully on model and completely serious, was perfect. Made better because we, as the audience, know exactly how deadly those things truly are. Every issue I have with the air guns are forgiven, because they made this scene possible. It hurts that the following aerial fight is disappointing, but Mari’s subplot happening behind it makes at least gives it some tension.

Speaking of Mari, lets talk about her, Inuyashiki, and how MAPPA made what should have been a rote, unsurprising scene, novel and interesting. Turns out, Mari was in fact in a building hit by a plane, but instead of dying instantly she is stuck in a burning building with no way out. Pretty terrible way to die, and Inuyashiki got to hear every second of it. The best part, for me, is when he arrives she’s dead, beyond even his robotic healing abilities. At least we get bait and switched and she coughs back to life. This would be disappointing normally, but it was handled well enough that I think this is just as good as if she had died. The flashbacks of her growing up and Inuyashiki’s emotions. It was beautiful and it paved the way for the rest of the episode and Inuyashiki’s time in the spotlight.

After rescuing Mari, we finally get to see the aftermath of Hiro’s attack and his fight with Inuyashiki. The city is in smoke and it is our hero’s time to shine. Watching Inuyashiki save people all night, the faces of those he saved, the doctors and firemen who regard him as the 2nd coming, was phenomenal. The reporter who covers the camera, so as to not show his face. They were all nice touches and I can not wait to the results of this in the final episode. Inuyashiki has deserved some recognition this whole season and he is finally going to get it. Sadly, aside from Inuyashiki, I am not optimistic for this ending. The Asteroid is still in play, as well as Hiro coming back because of some passing bystanders. I just don’t see how it can be done sadly, short of a double length episode.

All in all, the best episode of Inuyashiki yet. Aside from a few minutes of CGI, everything in this episode had a purpose and was done well. Even the episode title, “People of Tokyo”, was relevant to both our heroes and how they are seen by them. Had this been the last episode, with maybe a few small changes to clean it up more, I would be happy. Scarily, there is still one more to go and ~15 chapters of manga left to adapt, and I don’t expect it to finish well. Regardless, even if the last episode is terrible, I will remember “People of Tokyo” fondly for a good while.

See you next week for the finale of Inuyashiki! Make sure to tell me what you think down below, I have already had some interesting discussions about it. And make sure to check out Mario’s posts on Juuni Taisen, another standout of the season. Bye!