You know, I’d figure that five straight Fatalities and what's basically a Quintuple Flawless would unlock a secret character or at least some kind of bonus stage. Where are all the points going to go?
To be honest, the portion where Yusuke’s gets jumped in the forest by “Rugby” deflated the enjoyment a little. It dipped into the lamer pits of shonen I’ve run into more these days. Straight up, the random bad guys and their gimmicks were pretty thinly-conceived, even as far as throwaway heavies go. You lunatics have brought that this set so a whole throng of precedents that nearly every subsequent shonen shows followed, and I can’t help thinking that the lamer ones might just focused on this particular portion.
Actually, while we’re talking about what lies after or, at least, ahead for the show, I’m going to stay firm in my guess that the “mysterious” fifth fighter is still actually Genkai. They’re throwing us another red herring here with the gag about her voice to make us turn our theories elsewhere, but I’m going to stick with Occam’s Razor on this one. She’s wearing the same outfit as Genkai, the characters speculate that she might be Genkai and, maybe most importantly, we haven’t been introduced to any other allies who could actually make this a surprise… c’mon, you’ve got to wake up a lot earlier than that to fool me.
While we’re on the subject of how things may play out, I’d love if it Keiko’s troubling realization here that Yusuke might only ever be truly happy while he’s in the fury of a fight actually went somewhere. They wouldn’t even have to make the show that much of downer if they just explored how a dude like him couldn’t be as good combat as he is without enjoying it some instinctual level at the expense, perhaps, of more natural pleasures. However, I doubt the brawling’s ever going to let up for such introspection - - and perhaps that should be enough to get the point across.
Watch this episode, "Animal Attack" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
