Okay, that’s it. You can pretty much consider me a fan of this series. This series isn’t among my favourites this spring season, but the past episodes have brought it pretty damn close. It really took some time and hiccups to get going, but after last week, I’m completely hooked to this series. It follows the classic “first half episodic second half continuous” format, and now that we’ve gotten to the continuous format I’m really enjoying this series up to the point at which I don’t really care about the Engrish (which actually was reasonably good with the native English people, and actually pretty bad with the Japanese and Chinese, like it actually should be).
However, at this point I was also very fond of Sora no Oto, but that was mostly because I was expecting a strong climax to come any minute, though it never really did, making a lot of its build-up pointless. Night Raid is different, though. While I can’t see into the future, I somehow feel like the creators know very well how to pace this show and what to build up for. The first six episodes were really meant to establish the characters and the setting: the episodic stories were also just meant for that, and to introduce the villains. Episode seven then dropped the bomb, and started off the real story of this show. It’s all signs that the creators spent a lot of time thinking about the series’ structure. At this point, I’m confident enough to say that if this show manages to indeed pull of that ending, I’ll call it superior to its Anime no Chikara predecessor.
Anyway, about this episode. It’s here where the series goes back to its roots as historical fiction. The previous episode did a wonderful job of establishing the historical roots behind the series, but this episode also made sure to remind us that we’re dealing with fiction when it goes back to the government-spanning plan of the villains. He really seems to be going for the intimidation element, detonating things that look like atom-bombs in front of a bunch of big-wigs. There’s no way that that could have happened in real life, however it does add an interesting twist to the whole story.
Criticism can sometimes be a weird thing. I just know that if it wasn’t for the previous episodes, I would have gone on about how the characters here weren’t careful enough like real spies, or indeed how overblown the villain is. This isn’t just a matter of development, but overall the series has really made up for these flaws for me. I think that it was the elegant build-up that did it for me, along with its risky but well fleshed out setting and the subtle bonds between the characters who take themselves and each other seriously. I really was expecting some cheesy back-story about Aoi’s girlfriend. But heck, the ending of this episode was a very powerful cliff-hanger when the two of them recognized each other.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I found it really interesting how Izao acted in this episode.
I don’t know if you know it, but the Lytton Report was an actual event that took place after the Mukden incident, where the League of Nations sent delegates (led by Lord Lytton) to decide in a report what was to happen and if Japan could rightfully assume control over Manchuria.
Many things were apparently executed pretty sloppy and it took way too much time for the report to be released, so Japan could already strengthen their control over Manchuria and actually left the League of Nations.
It is interesting how in Senkou no Nightraid it seems like Lytton and his comrades did that on purpose because they were afraid of what Izao showed them.
And I’m interested if he was just mindcontrolling them or if he actually has powers equal to an atom bomb and if that means that they will actually advance until Showa 20 and the atomic bombing of Japan.
She’s just his girlfriend? I thought they were married because their pic in the ED looked like a wedding picture >_
Guh… why was my comment cut: (addition) Waaahh… I’m so excited for this episode~ Finally to the main story!!!! =D
I was wondering if the girlfriend’s name is Shizume because when Aoi saw her, he said, “Shizume” twice.