KLSymph's review of the Rakudai Kishi anime (episode 8)
KLSymph wrote:The next episode is the last of volume two. The important things there will be whether Ayase and Kurashiki will come across as genuine. My expectations are low, and I look forward to the anime finding some way to get it wrong beneath my lowest expectations, as the series tends to do.
Yeah, basically.
At the surface level, the episode was a series of events describable by the sentence "I can see what you're trying to do, and it's almost good, but it just doesn't quite get there." The flashback about Ayase's past with her dad, with its stylized use of voice-overs on sepia photographs and calligraphy is almost interesting, but because it lasts a minute and a half and because there was a regularly animated flashback sequence in the previous episode, it ultimately can't escape the dark shadow of "you're obviously presenting it this way to save money on animation." The Sword Eater fight was not great. Most of the individual parts were fine, but too much of it seemed to be essentially Kuraudo standing and waving his arms, Ikki standing and blocking, and the girls giving exposition. Overall it just didn't feel quite as dynamic as I was hoping for. Kuraudo's Marginal Counter was primarily represented with the same slap-a-single-color-over-him visualization that I complained about for Ayase (except orange instead of pink), which makes even less sense because what does a flat glow over the body have to do with advanced reflexes?
At the emotional and personal level, it's... pretty much the same as the volume one climax.
Regarding Kuraudo, the big reveal about him in the novel is that he's a bully but he's also a strange sort of idealist. He's a battle-maniac who came in and destroyed Ayase's life, but contrary that simple first impression, he also stayed around for two years hoping that Kaito would recover or Ayase with improve so that they could come back for a rematch, instead of continuing on like the delinquents attached to him might have. He wanted a good fight more than he wanted to just go around hurting people, and his actions were based on a sincere hope that he could get it. As the story points out, he's not so different from Ikki in terms of being an idealistic warrior. Sure, it's a self-serving idealism, and sure, it's not very deep or very original characterization of that character archetype, but as far as antagonists with hidden depth go, it makes Kuraudo "a bully, but also idealistic" Kurashiki quite a big step higher than Shizuya "a bully, but also gutless" Kirihara or Mamoru "a bully, but also greedy" Akaza. So does the anime get this character across? Almost all the details are there, except that in the anime Kuraudo never gave the line about not understanding why his delinquent buddies are satisfied with just being delinquents. Not setting up with that vital contrast between him and the normal delinquents takes the extra spark out of the character for me.
Regarding Ayase, the dramatic climax for her is the realization that she was wrong about her interpretation of the fight between Kuraudo and her father. Instead of Kaito being regretful about not being able to protect his dojo and students, he's actually sorry that he couldn't give Kuraudo a proper match. Ayase, not understanding this, threw away her pride to try and get back the things she thought Kaito was regretting he lost, but her realization of Kaito's true intent gives her a new perspective on her father, and thus gives her hope in becoming stronger in continued emulation of the ideal of swordsmanship she always admired in her father. Kaito regretting not giving Kuraudo a good fight wasn't what she expected, but even so, it was a proud warrior-like sentiment. So does the anime get this reversal across? Ayase's anime response to the revelation is to...
fall to her knees and cry.
What was the point of this climax, Ayase? Was it to show you that you were too dimwitted to understand your own family, and make you so depressed that you think yourself unworthy of carrying on your family style, until Ikki reminds you that you've imitated Kaito's techniques really well? So you're going to become stronger and become worthy of succeeding the family style, based on this reaffirmation that you can imitate Kaito's techniques really well?
Isn't "not being strong except in imitating Kaito's techniques" the exact same problem you had at the beginning of your character arc?
Here's what Ayase looks like when she's changing her perspective instead of wasting everyone's time.
Lastly, at the end of the fight, there's this:
This is apparently original to the anime. It's not in the manga or in the Baka-Tsuki translation, and I haven't found it in the Japanese text either.
This line pretty emblematic of the anime's misunderstanding and/or disregard of how elements in the story work together. First of all, it reemphasizes the idea that this fight is just about getting the dojo back and avenging Kaito, and distracts from the more important part about Ayase regaining her pride as a swordsman. Second, Ikki's whole "with my strongest/weakest" catchphrase has been used to emphasize a specific type of situation, in which a) Ikki is born weak and the opponent is born stronger, and b) the opponent is looking down on Ikki because of the difference in their in-born strength, and c) Ikki is about to apply something he developed in response to his own weakness in order to seize victory despite that difference. That's what the whole "strongest/weakest" thing means, as far as I can tell. In this case, the catchphrase is misused because a) Ikki isn't even speaking to his opponent Kuraudo, and b) Kuraudo isn't looking down on Ikki despite their difference in in-born strength--to say nothing of Ayase who Ikki's actually speaking to, and c) Ikki is going to use Ten'i Muhou, which is not something he developed. This makes the catchprase an ill fit in this situation, as if someone made Ikki say it without considering what it actually means.
In summary, episode eight is about as devoid climactic drama as episode four. But it's not as disappointing as episode four, because I've already lost faith in that aspect of the anime narrative, and also because volume two isn't as important as volume one. So, you know, improvement.
