Welcome all, to week 5 of Erin! Apologies for the lateness of this, it’s been a really rough week for me and I just didn’t have the drive to get this prepped ahead of time. Hopefully next week will be better. Regardless, what do you say we put that bullshit behind us and just jump right into it huh?
First up we have episode 17, “The Targeted Queen”. This episode doesn’t really involve, or concern, Jone and Erin that much. Instead it primarily serves to educate us on the current state of the countries politics after the 4 year time skip. Teaching us about the Saigamaru, people who believe the Duke should be King and rule both parts of the country, other dissident elements within the country. How much of the nation is trending towards inaction, not taking them seriously as a threat. All the while Shunan is trying to change the country and Ngan is falling right into their trap. It’s all pretty interesting stuff. Erin is setting up its late-game narrative well, and I like how early/consistently it’s been doing it. My big question at the moment though is how it’s going to fit Erin into everything.
Diving into the details, the big concern of the episode for me is Damiya. Not in a “This is a bad character” way, more of a “How deep is he” way. Personally? He seems up to his neck in it. He clearly knew about the assassination attempt, possibly even set it up himself. Otherwise why would he show up with 5 caged Beast-Lords, one shorter then the others to allow for a clear shot, and put on this whole show? And with the way he’s talked to Ngan, setting him up and sending secret messages, interrupting Shunan and putting him down in front of the Princess, he just seems to blatantly evil. But what keeps holding me up is what does he have to gain from it? He can’t be King, he is neither the Duke nor the Next In Line. So what’s in it for him?
On the flip side you have Shunan, who also seems to be trying to change the country. But where Damiya wants to rule, Shunan is trying to unite it in a way it never has been before. He wants to marry the Princess, unite their houses and their halves of the country, simultaneously satisfying the Saigamaru by putting him on the throne and preventing a civil war. It’s a smart plan, and clearly something Damiya wouldn’t be a fan of. The concern here though is whether or not he actually cares for the Princess or not. Just he truly love her? Or does he just want to marry her for the country? And if it’s the former, and not the latter, what would she think of the whole thing? I suspect nothing good. She seems like a bit of a hopeless romantic.
Finally lets talk about Ial, the MVP of the episode. The guy was an absolute chad, taking an arrow for the Queen and firing his own. Hitting a guy hiding in a tree across an entire square. The man is earning his Sezan title that’s for sure. What’s interesting here is that, assuming he survived, he’s probably going to be promoted. Moved into a higher position, closer to the Queen or the Princess perhaps, and thus more personally involved in whatever political arc is coming our way. And of course his friend will probably come along, the only little light of joy in his life left who keeps trying to perk him up. I’ll be honest, that guy has a few death flags on him and I can see a world where his death is what sets Ial off, either positively or negatively.
Politics out of the way we come to episode 18, “Teacher, Esal”, and the next step of Erin’s journey. As the title implies, we finally reach Kazalm and meet Esal, and you know what? She’s less of a hard ass then I was expecting. In fact she’s really rather… calm and understanding. She knows the true names of the Mist People, Arryo, as well as a few other cultures I’m not aware of like Wayjaku and Holon. Maybe it’s just because she’s learned, but to me it felt like just loves the act of learning. Much like Jone, she seems like a teacher for the sake of teaching rather than for political aspirations. After all like she says, the position of Reverend in Kazalm is for life. If that’s the case, I can see her being really good for Erin.
Speaking of Erin, Jone seems to have prepared her quite well for the school. Enough to impress Esal with her exam, one she finished in half the time I might add. But it wasn’t how she answered every question with only a single calculation error that impressed her, no. It was the maturity of her essay. “Why do you want to be a Beastinarian”, the sort of thing you would write to a college admissions board. Erin doesn’t want to do it for prestige, money, or even just to care for animals. Rather it came off as a “Meaning of Life” sort of answer. She wants to know why things, people/Touda/Beast-Lords, are the way they are and our whole sort of… ecosystem. It’s a very meta answer, but clearly one that impressed Esal. Erin is thinking far above her age, even allowing her to skip a few grades.
As for Erin’s actual life at the school, we don’t get to see all that much yet. This episode is mostly introducing it to us. What we do get though is to meet Erin’s roommate, Yuuyan! This is a cute girl, and I honestly think she will be good for Erin. She hasn’t really gotten to spend time with other kids like her I don’t think. There definitely weren’t other kids her age when she was living with Jone. And even early on in Erin, back at the Touda village, those kids didn’t have the same drive for knowledge/intelligence she did. I suspect this will be the first time she will really be surrounded by likeminded peers, and I think it will be really good for her. Assuming she can adapt. School living is going to be very different after all.
All in all I found this to be a really good episode filled with emotional scenes like Jone’s goodbye or Esal’s reveal… Or at least they would be if Jone’s farts didn’t ruin them. It’s really a shame to be honest. For the longest time Erin convinces you it’s this rich, deep political fantasy drama in a nation on the verge of civil war. And then you’re suddenly reminded that it aired in a children’s show time slot by bad humor. Sure, some of it has actually worked out well, like the Egg Thieves. They have integrated into the story decently if you ask me. Comic relief characters that largely stay out of the way in serious moments. But others, like the fart jokes, are just kind of… well infuriating. I was really upset when their goodbye was ruined, it was a deeply emotional moment. And it got… Farted on.
Moving on to episode 19, we come to “Friends at Kazalm”. This is all about Erin settling in to school, and all the teething problems that come along with it. As I suspected, Erin is having some trouble fitting in. Not because she isn’t smart or personable enough, she is. More because she’s never really had to live communally, nor share a teacher. She’s always had her own space, been on her own schedule, been privately tutored… She doesn’t really understanding having to adjust to everyone else’s schedule, nor why she can’t just go off on tangents during lectures. It’s kind of nice to see, and it makes a lot of sense. Plus it acts as a nice excuse for Erin to have some light conflict with her fellow students without resorting to stupid drama like “I’m racist against Mist People” and such.
Take Urari for example. This kid seems a bit miffed at her at first, annoyed at how inquisitive and smart she is. It felt almost like jealousy, jealousy that this girl got to skip ahead and enter classes late, that she’s this god damn smart while he had to work at it. In fact I really expected him and her to have some kind of budding rivalry. Instead it seems he was just annoyed at having lessons interrupted and shit. And once she got the hang of it, and was able to demonstrate that she does in fact deserve her place here and is actually way above their level, he chilled out. They even had a nice get together at the end to celebrate their understanding of each other, a proper welcome for her to make her feel like she belongs. It was sweet!
Beyond just the school stuff though, Erin also shows us another example of how human care isn’t necessarily better care for the animals. In this case, we see how Beast-Lords in captivity are pitiful shells of their former selves. Unable to fly, grey and lacking the luster and strength of their wild counterparts. Something about being bred in captivity… breaks them. And Erin seems to have noticed this. Noticed how her chosen profession, hell how society at large, isn’t really all that healthy for them. Because when you think about it, humans don’t actually care about the animals. Not for their sake and safety at least. We only care insofar as we can use them, and how we can make them better for those uses. It’s the rare person, like Erin, who actually wants animals to be their best selves. It’s probably a bit disheartening for her.
This of course once again raises the question of: What will Erin do about it? Is she going to push for institutional change? Something across the entire nation? Or maybe she’s going to go full PETA and start breaking them out/freeing them? I really don’t know. And with this coup plot in the background, either could work. I could see her say… siding and helping Shunan and Ial save the country in exchange for no longer using Touda in war/capturing Beast-Lords for instance. Erin has a lot of options here that could work. So long as it picks one and commits to it, actually tackling the subject and not just using it as a small character trait for Erin, I think it will pay off.
Finally we come to episode 20, “The Beast-Lord Named Lilam”. This sort of the… School in earnest bit. Here Erin really starts to show us around and starts letting Erin do stuff. Taking part in classes, scooping up dung, generally proving herself to those around. And unsurprisingly, she impresses them! Whether it be knowing how to examine dung for an animals health or being able to read a storm and knowing that the cages need to be prepared faster. Erin shows she has a head on her shoulders, one at least equal to her senior, Tomura. So it’s not totally unexpected when she starts to receive responsibilities to match that. Responsibilities that have to be taken from someone else, or that others might not appreciate being given to one her age. I am of course talking about the baby Beast-Lord.
Turns out, Erin impressed Esal so much that she wants her to take over Tomura’s job healing/raising a baby Beast-Lord named Lilam. Naturally Tomura isn’t to happy about this, nor at being told that he “isn’t ready” while a child a few years his junior apparently is. Through no fault of her own, Erin appears to have made an enemy. I’m actually really curious how far this might reverberate through the school. Everyone else seems to greatly respect Tomura, we’ve seen the younger students talk about him a lot. So if she gets on his bad side, and everyone else hears that she was given his job? I can see some of her classmates resenting her for it. Both for disrespecting a senior and for sprinting ahead of them in their education. Plus it doesn’t help that Erin demanded to be able to do it “her own way”.
Unsurprisingly “her own way” is probably not going to include benetrophic water, or many of the other standard poultices and medicines given to Touda/Beast-Lords. I doubt she’s going to want to use a whistle either, knowing her distaste of it. Naturally her goal with all of this is to raise Lilam without breaking its spirit, without turning it into the lusterless, lazy Beast-Lords seen throughout Kazalm. Obviously she’s going to succeed, she’s the MC and the show is named after her. So our time is better spent asking what her succeeding means. A wild Beast-Lord will look beautiful and healthy true, but it won’t be tamed or usable. Will the school/country accept that? Is this how she’s going to split/be kicked out? Or will she find a niche in this society, convince them of her way and start slowly making changes? I’m curious honestly.
So yeah, all in all I think these were a pretty good set of episodes. A few disappointing things, like the childlike humor returning, but not nearly enough to overshadow the good. Good like Erin finally getting a chance to make her mark, the further exploration of who exactly a Beastinarian is loyal to, the expansion of politics, etc. Erin continues it’s solid, if a little unexciting, march forward. And that’s kind of how I would describe the show as a whole at the moment. It’s not some bombastic action piece where every episode is going to have you go “wow”. It’s a much slower burn, relying on you to pay attention and be invested. All so that it can, hopefully, pay off at the end for some big narrative finales. Well so far it has my investment. I’m in. Now all Erin has to do is fulfill its end of the bargain. And it has about 30 more episodes to do that. I think it can pull it off.
