Episode 3 Reflection
This time in perfect chronological order, so I am not splitting this up with titles.
Akizuki visits his home town of 高麗 which is pronounced 'Koma', not 'Kourai'. He gets to meet what I presume are his old teachers who do a little sparring and then seem to advise him on what to do after he has cut the Hasha no Kubi. Akizuki sure is respectful enough to his elders... Sideburns are in style there.
Also, the local brothel (of sorts - it's more refined than that, really) features strongly here. Shiranui's quite popular with the ladies... I found that scene really amusing. We also see Katsu taking refuge in there after a short bit of sad singing by him, mourning the loss of Sakamoto Ryoma and Takasugi Shinsaku. He gets entertained by Kotoha, but is interrupted by H. S. Parkes. Who brings along Mr. Kinpatsu, aka Kanna Sakyounosuke, a gunman of mixed parentage with an eyepatch, and says that this is Katsu's bodyguard. Though it seriously sounded more like "You're bodyguard."
When Shiranui is leaving he notices Soutetsu gets escorted out by Kotoha... Soutetsu?! I really want to know what he is doing there and why is Kotoha so attentive to him? Of all things? He later prods Soutetsu about this and gets no reply.
Besides that we also see the troupe rehearsing; I liked this part very much where the cloths were flapping and two people would get wrapped by it symbolizing them being covered in fire. Silly Kakunojou finally realises that it's a story about her past and says that the revenge is over so this sort of thing is not needed; but Soutetsu politely informs here that there is something darker looming behind (and Shiranui remembers that Hario had paused for a while before he died), and that somebody had already noticed this... It really doesn't look like Kakunojou is all that into revenge herself, in my opinion.
Other than that, on Kawai's side, he's getting his gunsman whasisname, who killed Hario, to continue testing out the rifle. The tests go on smoothly; and it all comes to a climax as the Yuyama troupe decides to advertise on a firework-lit night near the "brothel". They mention that they are related to (or something like that) Kotoha, which is of course great because everyone likes Kotoha. This is when Shiranui realises that Soutetsu had gone to see Kotoha in order to arrange this, not to, y'know, be entertained by her. Of course, all this while, Soutetsu is sitting in his room... being mysterious as usual.
Katsu is also waving from upstairs in a slightly drunk state when Kanna notices something flashing from a watchtower, and pushes Katsu down because that's the reflection of the lenses on a sniper rifle. However, the sniper is not aimed at Katsu, but at Kakunojou... and then, of course, in true samurai anime style, Akizuki comes magically to save the day! He throws a whatdoyoucallit at the sniper and they chase each other off the rooftops. This part is kind of cool - you can actually hear the soudns of the tiles sort of nicely. Of course Kakunojou and co. have enough brains to realise something's amiss because they heard some sort of deflected gunshot, so they notice it (and noticed, at least Kakunojou did, Akizuki jumping from roof top to roof top) and they run off in pursuit. Kotoha, meanwhile, asks one of her little servants to keep watch on Kobako and Benimaru.
And of course, the episode had to end, again in traditional samurai - or even just action - style, with said evil sniper being flanked by the Yuyama troupe on one side, and Akizuki on the other. (See, you know what it's really saying? One Akizuki is worth all or more of you bunch! Ha!... Alright, I'll go to sleep already...) <--We know that from the beginning Wao! With a freezeframe, of course.
How did Akizuki suddenly know all of this within such a short time, I don't know... And his hometime Koma must be pretty close by, too. (We later found out it would take him about half a day to get back from there)
The ending credits are still a tad slow but the illustrations of Yuyama, Soutetsu and Akizuki (in that order) are quite lovely. Lots of parasols. Gotta like the colour set of red, green and blue... Akizuki's pose bugs me. It looks so awfully uncomfortable!
This time in perfect chronological order, so I am not splitting this up with titles.
Akizuki visits his home town of 高麗 which is pronounced 'Koma', not 'Kourai'. He gets to meet what I presume are his old teachers who do a little sparring and then seem to advise him on what to do after he has cut the Hasha no Kubi. Akizuki sure is respectful enough to his elders... Sideburns are in style there.
Also, the local brothel (of sorts - it's more refined than that, really) features strongly here. Shiranui's quite popular with the ladies... I found that scene really amusing. We also see Katsu taking refuge in there after a short bit of sad singing by him, mourning the loss of Sakamoto Ryoma and Takasugi Shinsaku. He gets entertained by Kotoha, but is interrupted by H. S. Parkes. Who brings along Mr. Kinpatsu, aka Kanna Sakyounosuke, a gunman of mixed parentage with an eyepatch, and says that this is Katsu's bodyguard. Though it seriously sounded more like "You're bodyguard."
When Shiranui is leaving he notices Soutetsu gets escorted out by Kotoha... Soutetsu?! I really want to know what he is doing there and why is Kotoha so attentive to him? Of all things? He later prods Soutetsu about this and gets no reply.
Besides that we also see the troupe rehearsing; I liked this part very much where the cloths were flapping and two people would get wrapped by it symbolizing them being covered in fire. Silly Kakunojou finally realises that it's a story about her past and says that the revenge is over so this sort of thing is not needed; but Soutetsu politely informs here that there is something darker looming behind (and Shiranui remembers that Hario had paused for a while before he died), and that somebody had already noticed this... It really doesn't look like Kakunojou is all that into revenge herself, in my opinion.
Other than that, on Kawai's side, he's getting his gunsman whasisname, who killed Hario, to continue testing out the rifle. The tests go on smoothly; and it all comes to a climax as the Yuyama troupe decides to advertise on a firework-lit night near the "brothel". They mention that they are related to (or something like that) Kotoha, which is of course great because everyone likes Kotoha. This is when Shiranui realises that Soutetsu had gone to see Kotoha in order to arrange this, not to, y'know, be entertained by her. Of course, all this while, Soutetsu is sitting in his room... being mysterious as usual.
Katsu is also waving from upstairs in a slightly drunk state when Kanna notices something flashing from a watchtower, and pushes Katsu down because that's the reflection of the lenses on a sniper rifle. However, the sniper is not aimed at Katsu, but at Kakunojou... and then, of course, in true samurai anime style, Akizuki comes magically to save the day! He throws a whatdoyoucallit at the sniper and they chase each other off the rooftops. This part is kind of cool - you can actually hear the soudns of the tiles sort of nicely. Of course Kakunojou and co. have enough brains to realise something's amiss because they heard some sort of deflected gunshot, so they notice it (and noticed, at least Kakunojou did, Akizuki jumping from roof top to roof top) and they run off in pursuit. Kotoha, meanwhile, asks one of her little servants to keep watch on Kobako and Benimaru.
And of course, the episode had to end, again in traditional samurai - or even just action - style, with said evil sniper being flanked by the Yuyama troupe on one side, and Akizuki on the other. (See, you know what it's really saying? One Akizuki is worth all or more of you bunch! Ha!... Alright, I'll go to sleep already...) <--We know that from the beginning Wao! With a freezeframe, of course.
How did Akizuki suddenly know all of this within such a short time, I don't know... And his hometime Koma must be pretty close by, too. (We later found out it would take him about half a day to get back from there)
The ending credits are still a tad slow but the illustrations of Yuyama, Soutetsu and Akizuki (in that order) are quite lovely. Lots of parasols. Gotta like the colour set of red, green and blue... Akizuki's pose bugs me. It looks so awfully uncomfortable!
