Right again!
My batting average with these predictions is improving nicely. I can spot a pregnancy from a mile away in EUREKA SEVEN and I called the identity of the “mysterious masked fighter” on Yusuke’s team despite the multiple red herrings they’ve tried to throw me off with. Oh, so it’s a young, short woman with pink hair behind the wraps? Well, considering how we’ve been seeing Koenma switch between young and old forms like he’s taking a jacket on and off, it isn’t any kind of stretch to assume that spirit mistress Genkai can pull off the same trick just as easily. Don’t expect these knuckleheads to figure that out on their own, of course, but you've got to work a little harder to pull off a fast one like this with me.
To push the whole extended metaphor about this arc of the show being so pleasingly like pro wrestling, I couldn’t help but feel like our evil doctor here is basically just an old school manager. A hideously deformed, sexually perverted Mr. Fuji as it were. You think about it, and his robot attacking Hiei and Kurama in the forest so they stay out of this round is exactly the same as Bobby the Brain having some goons in the Heenan Family assault Bret Hart and the Ultimate Warrior in the locker room so they can’t participate in the Survivor Series.
And that’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Getting back to what I was saying earlier, Yusuke’s rough and tumble delinquency might mean he isn’t sharp enough to notice what’s going on with his secret tag partner, but I appreciate how it’s made him so mean. Watch enough of these sort of shows and you’ll start having a particular annoyance with the stock plot where some of the good guys are mind-controlled into being bad guys. Most times, it gets your leads acting like chumps (as Kuwabara does here) and getting trounced because they don't have the sense to take the kiddy gloves off when the threat dictates. So much credit to Yusuke for keeping his eye on the ball and keeping the rage on these guys. That’s the kind of guts that wins championships.
Look up this episode, "Glimpse Beneath the Mask" 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
