Short Summary:
Sousuke, wandering around, buys a bottle of whisky from a merchant fleeing from the city. At one of the sites on their list, Wu and Yan (the other two guys who came to Hong Kong with Melissa and Sousuke) find a suspicious dead body. The dead man’s shirt has the words “To the son of Bdakshon’s Tiger/Meet Hamidra at Tsim sha Tsui.” On the TDD, Kalinin explains that the tiger of Bdakshon was a commander of some forces in Helmajistan, and ties in Sousuke as an assassin who tried to kill him. When the command team tries to reach Sousuke though, Mao can only tell them that he’s not there. At that time, Sousuke sees a prostitute who looks extraordinarily like Chidori, and she corrals him into going with her. She tries to cheer him up, but Sousuke keeps a sullen face. He starts thinking about Chidori more and more, and when the prostitute gets on him, with her face in the shadows, he literally imposes Chidori’s face on her. After he throws her off, she kicks him out. Back on the TDD, the situation has deteriorated to the point where MITHRIL must act. A reluctant Tessa sends out five of the Wurz squadron, including Cluzot and Kurz, to directly engage the Codarl-class AS the next time it appears. Meanwhile, Sousuke finds himself in a park. After tasting and consequently spitting out the alcohol that he’s been carrying around, he notices a newspaper. On it, he sees the same note to the son of Bdakshon’s Tiger that Tessa and company saw.

This episode felt a bit on the dull side to me. They’re stretching about a fourth of a chapter into an entire episode, adding in all of the prostitute material (which isn’t in the novels). I guess that scene reinforces the fact that Chidori is on Sousuke’s mind, so it’s not really wasted time. However, I am a bit disappointed that they didn’t include a certain heated argument between Tessa and one of her crew, but it’s very possible that they’ll put that in sometime later.
The one amusing thing I found is that at least they are being consistent in calling Afghanistan Helmajistan.
It’s very interesting looking at the next episode preview because it doesn’t show any AS battles. Instead, it shows Sousuke going into a room with his gun drawn, and flashbacks of when Sousuke was young. I hope they don’t throw the pacing off and have another slow episode (albeit one that will have some *gasp*-type revelations) and have the last episode just go full throttle (which may happen anyway). But I’m pretty confident that they’ll do a good job with it.
2 more episodes of FMP! TSR left….

Closing Thought: How come so many people in Hong Kong can speak Cantonese and Japanese?

14 Comments

  1. > Closing Thought: How come so many people in Hong Kong can speak Cantonese and Japanese?

    Cantonese is the native dialect for Hongkongers. Before reunification in 1997, there were many HK people who could speak Cantonese but not Mandarin. About Japanese, that would be more probable in Taiwan which had been a Japanese colony before. But as HK is a business city and Hongkongers are famously pragmatic, it wouldn’t be unusual for business pple to know a smattering of Japanese…

    Great summary and screencaps as always!

    Zyl
  2. I saw this episode. But yes, that’s a bit slow. In the midlle of a 26 episodes’s serie, no problems, but as it was said, only 2 episodes left !!! How can be all matters be dealt before the end ?? It appears quite impossible to me unless the action goes suddenly really faster 😀
    Damn, one week to wait before the next episode ! X(

    Kahn27
  3. I ‘m desappointed by this adaptation. According to the manga, it remains a lot of stuff until the end of this serie… Putting all in only the two remaining episodes (?) means essential data would be reduced or deleted… what a pity

    axephil
  4. >However, I am a bit disappointed that they didn’t include a certain heated argument between Tessa and one of her crew, but it’s very possible that they’ll put that in sometime later.

    I remember this was in the trailer !

    Laurent
  5. Personally, I think that the hooker should have had different eye color or something. Maybe a different haircut? She couldn’t possibly have the same exact haircut as Kaname…

    Magical Poof
  6. Well, the Cantonese in this episode’s not bad at all – at least they got the accent almost correct… if the Chidori-alike was from the mainland and knew only Mandarin before that. Her accent’s rather ‘flat’ and reminiscent of a Northern Chinese who grew up speaking with that almost nasal and level version of Mandarin, so she comes off as very ‘low-class’ here. I’m just surprised they actually taught the seiyuu how to pronounce things so she didn’t sound like a Texan trying to sound Japanese like some dubs I can name (coughADVhack)…

    But given that Chidori-alike here’s a hooker, I’m not going to be at all surprised to learn she can speak English too – she has to know how to communicate with the customers, after all.

    Haesslich

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