Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「世界ランカー」 (Sekai Rankaa)
“World Ranked”
Everyone probably knows by now that this series is not a pretty one and its characters aren’t very likable. Every week, I prepare myself to face some sort of insanity so I won’t have to cringe while watching the show, but I still do it. Even though the anime is quite censored compared to the manga, just thinking about what’s going on is enough to make me feel uncomfortable. That doesn’t mean this show isn’t enjoyable. BTOOOM! tackles issues that we have in our society, so it’s not as if the characteristics of the people in this survival game make the series intolerable or surprising. In fact, I find this show quite refreshing because most of the characters are villains. The vulgarity we’ve seen, while being quite repugnant, has also been very exciting to watch.
Last week we saw Kousuke standing next to a dead body – which turned out to be his own father, Kira Yoshihisa (Egawa Hisao). The reason why the father was in the game is quite clear. The man abused his own son in different ways which lead to Kousuke becoming a psychopath. Unfortunately, this happens too often in our society. While inflicting fear may motivate someone to perform better, it will most likely, if not absolutely, damage the victim. In Kousuke’s case, the damage was severe. Being forced to obey his father because he feeds him might’ve been the reason why Kousuke started pick pocketing. Realizing that he had money now (and some sort of financial authority) turned him into the monster he once feared, except, Kousuke took the abusing to a whole new level by killing his victims and then raping their corpses. Kousuke’s crudeness is sick and twisted, but it’s a perfect example of what child abuse can do to a person. Even though he is liberated from his father, Kousuke is damaged for life and will probably not change, but having such a blood thirsty personality will be an advantage for him in this game, unless his opponent is Ryouta.
Kousuke who is a BTOOOM! player seems to have been underestimating the others on this island. Little did he know that he’d face the best ranked Japanese player. It was interesting to see how both of them made use of their gaming experience on the battle field. They seemed to have similar thoughts, but Ryouta is clever while Kousuke is simply offensive. I’m not sure how you observe things as if you were standing behind your own back in real life, but that strategy proved to be handy and now, Ryouta has earned him and Taira a case filled with food, and he also has taken all Kousuke’s BIM bags. So now, Ryouta has crackers, timers, and implosions. In the flashback, we saw Kousuke’s lawyer Natsume Soichi (Futamata Issei), trying to figure out how others’ BIMs worked. He said that players can’t use others’ BIMs which makes no sense. There aren’t enough BIMs in the bags, so obviously, players must use their victim’s weapons. Natsume probably couldn’t figure out how to use the implosion BIM. Hopefully, Ryouta will find it handy.
As the pacifist Ryouta is, he was kind enough to leave a snack for Kousuke. It’s a naïve thing to do on an island where kindness will get you nowhere, but at least, Ryouta, unlike many others on this island, has a heart. If he ever returns home, I hope he can show his mother some of his better sides. But that might be impossible to do because she is probably the one who nominated him for this game. Next week, Taira and Ryouta will run into Himiko. She knows how people end up here so hopefully, she will fill in all the gaps for Ryouta and perhaps team up with him and Taira. But let’s not forget that she hates males… Trouble ahoy!
Random thoughts:
- Taira, while dragging Ryouta down, proved to be useful by taking a chip!
- If you use your sonar too much, people will notice where you are, but mastering other players’ sonar techniques can make you invisible. Ryouta is a ninja!
- Are the frogs edible? We saw some people fishing earlier in the show… Hmm, so technically, you don’t have to fight for the fancy food.
- Hungry? Have a Snackies!
- One of the crime investigators who appeared earlier in this episode, was voiced by Sugiyama Noriaki.
- I think Sawashiro Miyuki did a flawless job voicing Kousuke.
- Full-length shots: 11, 14, 24, 25, 33, 36
Note: Special thanks to my glomp victim Moomba who did all the caps and full-lengths for this post. He is the best!
Preview
 |
 |
 |
A really good episode. Though, I still dont see how the kid could survive what seemed like a head-on explosion from the bomb. Did the bomb hit something else?
Sickening and sad, how a child pays for his parents sins.
> He said that players can’t use others’ BIMs which makes no sense.
Lil’ spoiler, but…
Players can’t use others’ BIMs if their owner is alive.
Don’t worry it’s not a spoiler, I figured that out midway through this ep.
So the MC is pretty screwed…since he didnt kill the kid?….Well the kid haz no weapon to use nao so I think his not gonna survive for long (not a manga reader)
Only now i noticed Kousuke ties his shoe lases to his ankles 😀
Also, i wouldn’t be surprised if Ryouta dies from brain hemorrhage by the end of the series (be it manga or anime original ending), it’s so likely, considering everything up until now..
Implosion bombs :O
you can detonate implosion bombs around cracker bombs to multiply the effect of the explosion
Are you sure the implosion doesn’t just take care of the explosion altogether, practically neutralizing them?
I hated Kira in the manga but Sawashiro really did an outstanding job in voicing him, so I’ll tolerate him in the anime.
Best episode so far. I actually like Kousuke – let’s say it’s because he’s voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki and I look forward to see him again.
>Taira, while dragging Ryouta down, proved to be useful by taking a chip!
I don’t trust him – I wouldn’t be surprised if he betrayed Ryouta later in the series…
well give now another story is told give kira life was sorta messed-up cause of bully father & etc.
so cause of all it boiling point cue boom your own dad with lawyer i’m out of here run away & ryouta with taira meet kira.
ryouta vs kira give ryouta don’t want kill but seeing own blood cue killer gamer side & beat kira after what have i done spare him leave a snickers candy & mention your name cue kira finally this is what i want.
next ep oh found blonde boob-bombers.
i want THat Chocolat Bar!!
Damn that crotch grabbing was hard to watch…That kid is messed up but so is his father(i was even wondering if it wasn’t the father who killed those girls and made his son the scape goat but i was wrong…)and so is the Lawyer for going along with it in the name of some pseudo-humanism.
Ryouta should have killed him,(i know he is going to spare him) i don’t think there is any chance of redemption for this piece of shit.This decision is going to bite him in the ass later.
the manga is definitely more graphic in terms of showing what Kosuke did (with the victim’s bodies at least)…
and yes, you can’t use someone else’s BIM unless the original owner is dead (possibly has something to do with the BIM ID with the chip in their hand)… but there is exceptions to this rule.
I love how Sakamoto turns into god mode, then snap out of it (too bad he didn’t kill off the kid before hand)… and more Himiko next week is always welcomed xD
thanks for the post, Stereoman and Moomba xD
Top 10 in the world ! Number 1 in Japan! Damn Sakamoto was a badass in this episode. xD
All I could think was, “Inaban what happened to you?!”
I know, right? Sawashiro sama does a perfect job here…
ah how I miss KC now…
Can’t help but to feel the same here. It’s like a virus xD. Psychopathic laughter is a definite plus.
He had a gundam seed moment at the end lol
I find the BIMs’ impact rather inconsistent. That cracker in the first episode died from timer in not so different range than Kyosuke, yet the kid survived. I wish there will be an explanation about the effectiveness of each bomb.
And that implosion BIM is awesomely practical.
There are two nuances:
a) No, killing animals is not ok whether it is for fun or food.. it seems to me the lawyer himself doesn’t know what’s right..
b) I don’t think its realistic that the sonars cancelled each other out at the exact same time… Ryouta is good, but I don’t think he could predict 3 or more successive sonars with such accuracy.
well, considering the lawyer is nominated to be in this game, he must have done something “wrong” or pissed off someone (could be that he doesn’t have moral standards)
as to Sakamoto’s skill… don’t forget, he is elite after all, and as he said, he see the pattern as to how Kousuke uses his sonar (a strong pattern at that), so he could just predict the move…
No offense but killing an animal for sustenance is fully justified.Animals do it in nature, i don’t see why when it comes down to human it should be any different.If we weren’t meant to eat meat i think our digestive tract would have evolved accordingly.
Just because a digestive act evolved a certain way doesn’t really mean anything. When you kill an animal, whether for fun or food, you’re inflicting suffering. The digestive system can just as easily accommodate human mean. Does that mean we should kill humans for food?
A follow up to your answer about your “killing for food=killing for pleasure”.
Eating human meat is mostly wrong because it most of the time involves murder.And I’m sorry but in my book killing someone of my own specie doesn’t equate killing a member from another species(If that was the case me or you would have lost sleep over all the bugs that we ate/stepped on by mistake or by intent).And that’s not a behavior accepted in a social specie such as ours because our survival depends on how we interact with each other and cannibalism,like murder doesn’t exactly promote trust/reciprocal good behaviors.I’m pretty sure if you fall head to head on a pride of Lions(a societal animal like us) in the middle of a savanna i don’t think they will do you the same courtesy of thinking of how killing you for their sustenance is going to inflict you pain….Killing for pleasure is messed up because it serves no survival/sustenance purpose unlike doing it uniquely for food.
And i also find amusing that most vegan/vegetarian still use vitamins/minerals complements as support for their diet even though they claim that meat is irrelevant to achieve a balanced diet or sustenance.if it was so irrelevant you wouldn’t need those…
Oh look, another one of them vegans that think eating meat is wrong. Take your treehugging ways elsewhere. Humans are meant to eat meat like any other carnivour and omnivour. If you want to get us to stop eating meat then you might as well try to stop every other animal as well. You buggerfly huggers are all the same hypocritical crap.
Im I the only one who sees resemblance between Ryouta and Kei Kurono from Gantz?
I’m just impressed that Ryouta doesn’t have a concussion by now! Not only was he majorly tasered in the head, but now he smashed it into a boulder! He’s a serious badass if head injuries actually end up making him MORE skilled at fighting lol. And even though Kousuke freaks me out half the time, I was on board for him killing his father. I found him to be the most unlikable character out of all of them. Can’t wait for some RyoutaxHimiko in the next episode!
For the whole time watching the episode, i was seeing Kousuke but hearing Inaba…
PS: Another rapist? What is wrong with the author?
Sawashiro Miyuki as psychopathic kid was aural delight… Though persona itself was quite terrifying.
I will leave the social sciences part and observe that the game-trained players seem to be ost dangerous ones here. Techniques like cancelling sonar will make them extremely dangerous. Unless they run into someone who desnt need even to use sonar like that Rambo-style Musashi…
I am more and more suspicious of Taira… he gathers chips of the other players victims and possibly faked injury to draw Ryouta into a fight.
Overall, solid entertainment with some unnerving real life observations. Were the cops the ones that nominated Kousuke, his dad and the lawyer into the game? Lawyer might seem all the idealistic, but in the end he was not able to stand up to own ideals. Another character that goes off as very unlikeable.
I knew it was Sugiyama Noriaki! He needs more important roles, he’s kind of missing lately, isn’t he?
Sawashiro Miyuki never failed to impress me with her voice acting <3
Now that you mentioned it, yeah he did. It reminds me of my days back when I’m a middle schooler…
Flawless episode. I’m curious to see the blondie in action, I wonder what she’ll bring to the table. I hope they feature her more in the next episode.
KANBARU, SURUGA! My specialty is the B-dash.
After her last role as Y in Jinrui I’ve found it almost impossible to disassociate her voice with anything other than *that one crazed yaoi fangirl.
About that lawyer, I remember reading that part in the manga where (spoilers just in case) Show Spoiler ▼
With that said, I guess it’s not so surprising that someone would hate that lawyer and condemn him to the game, despite him acting out of compassion for Kira.
Ever since hearing her as Kanbaru in the Monogatari series, I knew Sawashiro Miyuki had it in her to do some really batshit insane characters like Kira, and I was not disappointed.
Unfortunately for Kira, while he may be a psychopathic expert gamer, he just had to meet his match in THE Sakamoto, the best Japanese gamer of BTOOOM.
Now if only Sakamoto would do his badass God-mode more often.
That would involve him killing people without remorse and that would disqualify him from the position of main character.
Fatty from episode 2 is bad but nothing compare to shota-raper-psycho-killer from this episode.
Now Sakamoto is show his skill in BTOOOM! He wasn’t top 10 of the world for nothing.