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「剣士殺し III」 (Kenshi Koroshi III)
“Sword Eater III”
Case Closed!
Heart Of A Samurai
With Ayase’s arc coming to a close, let’s just talk about the whole thing for a little. Growing up under the man skilled enough to be called the Last Samurai, it must have been pretty though for Ayase. Not necessarily under the notion that her father pushed her to be a skilled swordsman, but more so the fact that she probably accumulated a ton of stress with how much she respected and loved her father. Fast forward to Kaito (her father) and Kuraudo’s battle and it’s easy to see how Ayase would view her father’s loss as something so mortifying that it’d exponentially increase both the physical and mental damage he took from his duel. With that notion in her heart and her mind stuck on a plan, who can blame her for the dark and deceptive path she went down?
So after Ikki managed to knock some sense into her, she realized what’s important to her but still wanted to reclaim her lost home. So, after all that, am I the only one who felt a little cheated when Ayase felt bad about herself when Stella figured out just what Kaito’s last words before he collapsed meant? I understand the idea that the strong want to fight the strong, and it seems pretty clear that Ikki’s emotions during the fight probably mirrored Kaito’s, but why does Ayase not realizing this have to make her breakdown and cry?! Maybe I’m just being a little insensitive, but it just didn’t seem to resonate with me. It’s not like she didn’t already realize the mistake she’s made and if we’re being truly honest, her father’s behavior was a little selfish all things considered.
I guess in the end though, it’s okay since everyone got what they deserved. Ikki showing off even more of his badass skills, Ayase taking responsibility and admitting what she did, and Kuraudo lost that stupid smirk after getting stabbed by Intetsu. And if nothing else, we had some awesome animation for an epic fight between two skilled swordsman — a nice return to form after a couple derpy looking episodes.
Relationship Woes
Don’t hate me, but I love it whenever Ikki and Stella get a chance to be lovey-dovey with each other. While they didn’t get a chance to get that far with Shizuku and Alice hiding in the shadows, I’ll give it to them for at least making hand contact. Don’t get me wrong though — I’m totally waiting for them to have an epic kiss sometime before the season comes to a close.
Looking Ahead
Man, I wish this show had a preview sequence to give me an idea of what to talk about here. Based solely off of the title of next week’s episode, it looks like the story is going to change gears and focus on Stella (and hopefully her relationship with Ikki). Something that I have zero complaints with c:
See you next week!
End Card
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I think you meant Ikki’s emotions
I haven’t an idea what you’re talking about!
(fixed)
That end card….wow wee. O_O
Anyway, the next arc will likely really piss you off, along with a lot of viewers too. If you didn’t like Your Lie In April and how the mom was…..yeah.
That was my exact reaction when I saw the end card too, LOL.
Oh boy, fun stuff. +__+
It did piss me off IMMENSELY, but the conclusion was great. The shitter the bad guy/situation the more enjoyable it is to see them fall!
As in She has THAT Sort of relationship with her mother?
Yeah, I’d skip country too if that was the case.
“Maybe I’m just being a little insensitive, but it just didn’t seem to resonate with me. It’s not like she didn’t already realize the mistake she’s made and if we’re being truly honest, her father’s behavior was a little selfish all things considered”.
Nope, you are not insensitive. Actually, I found the revelation incredibly stupid. As much as it was good for the father to have a nice fight, there were more important things. Somehow, this setting allows duels to have legal repercusions like giving ownership of his freaking family’s house to that punk!
But at least the anime downplayed the most egregious parts, only hinting at them. You know, like the part when he assaulted the man’s students, breaking them, to force him to accept the duel. Something that should have sent him straight to jail instead of, you know, letting him be a star of swordmanship and continue his rampage for years (so famous that you can consult his crimes on the Internet, it seems).
After reading this arc in the manga, I could only think: “no, Ayase, don’t let them fool you; you were right all along”.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who was like “Wat?”
<3
Anime improve some parts that’s a bit off on the LN, they’re not afraid to alter and cut questionable contents. I also liked that they left out Ayase’s father teasing Ikki and Ayase to marry in the end and opt to show still picture of them on hospital, it made him looks more serious and believable than the cliched doting father on the LN.
For me, the father is not that all selfish or stupid considering he was actually forced to accept the duel in LN/Manga or else his students will be all beaten over and over. And then he might as well enjoy the duel since there was no other way.
Not saying some details weren’t cringe worthy though, well this arc and the upcoming next arc were kinda like that for me when i read em from the source. Especially the upcoming arc.
It’s true that the anime omits several parts, so a viewer may think “sensei, you should have refused the duel”. And it’s also true that the LN/manga showed that he actually refused the duel the first time, and didn’t accept until that vandal attacked his students, sending them to hospital.
And yet, it was still stupid and selfish. Why? Because there was another way. No, he wasn’t forced to do anything. Ayase at that time clearly and loudly proposed to call the police, because, you know, assaulting people is a crime. Yet he accepted the challenge, ruined his family and the criminal remained (and still remains) scott-free for two years.
@Mistic: First, the police probably wouldn’t touch a blazer, particularly when the victims are all just ordinary people, due to Show Spoiler ▼
believing that people without magic are inferior beings and that magic knights are the only people with the right to be anything in the world.
Secondly, this series leans very heavily upon the whole “honor of a warrior” and “honor of a samurai” concepts, where calling the police to haul away someone who had challenged him to battle would disgrace him. If he did something like that, if he was so “cowardly” (in the eyes of how “true” warrios in the series would view him, and how he’d view himself, not my perspective) as to refuse to fight this person who had attacked his own students and to have someone else come up and haul the criminal away, he would never be able to consider himself worthy of touching a sword again.
Yes, the consequences of a loss were really bad. However, the consequences of refusing to fight would have destroyed everything that mattered in his life.
@Wanderer
I guessed it could be that about the police. That’s why in a previous episode I was hinting at this moment and said that the manga made the police look “useless at best, corrupt at worst”.
As for the other thing, I agree, it’s a case of different values clashing. But since my values lie much more on the other side of the scale (your ego hurting is not a good excuse to ruin your family), I just can’t agree with the intended moral of the story.
Aye; it came off as “Well, I’m doing this whether I like it or not, might as well enjoy it.”
https://randomc.net/image/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
Ikki….
https://randomc.net/image/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
Let’s play Japanese thumb wrestling!
You’re such an incredibly funny tsundere XD
I love how Ikki’s face is so confused, he can’t even make a face to match the situation.
(But hey, they’re still holding hands, amiright?)
Goddamn bro-con sister and the transginger faggot (South Park reference) for ruining such moment with the “Underdog” and the “Red-haired Holstein”!!!!
I agree, even if I don’t really approve of the language, South Park reference or not (south park gets a pass BECAUSE IT’S SOUTH PARK).
The existence of the other two characters for no purpose other than being living obstacles does not make them likable.
Normally this kind of situation warrants the “get in a room together already, you two” comment.
………then I realized / remembered they already did.
The fight was awesome and badass. Can’t complain about that.
The stuff with Ayase….I’m not sure I like it. it’s like the show feels like the only thing to do here is drag her character through the mud. So basically….the show is saying she’s utterly incompetent but that’s fine for her to inherit the dojo? Sounds like she’s the last person to do that. Apparently never understood her father, swords, pride, battles, or really anything.
Of course not entirely her fault since her father was the guy insanely selfish to risk his health in a fight that could cost his family everything and used potentially his last words not to his daughter but to the guy who just kicked his rear end…
In the end…I’m with her. If that’s what the main cast is considering important…she should shut down this dojo and turn it into a small store or something. Why should she feel bad about not getting her father there? The man was an idiot. He was suffering rusting away? Oh god the horrors of having a solid livelihood with a loving daughter, how terrible for him. Thank god someone came by to beat him into a coma and put his family through hell.
Thank god there are more people who see the morality bankruptcy of this episode’s message.
By watching this arc, one may think cheating in a school duel to get a chance to punish a karma-houdini criminal is a far worse sin than being a vandal who sends people to hospital or risking your family’s house and livelihood for a quick shot of adrenalin.
I both agree and disagree. I think, in a better show (and I’m not insulting the show it’s just not meant to be philosophically deep), this would have been an interesting case of people not being simple packets of ‘good’ morals and ‘bad’ morals. Because, yeah, for sports and combat legends the slow decline into old age and weakness can be even more distressing than it is for normal people.
The idea that he would seek out one last fight in order relive his youth/feel his power again makes sense. It’s very HUMAN. And the blood knight but not necessarily truly villainous sword-eater is also potentially an interesting package. That said, both ideas are not simple, so in an action/romance show like this to just sort of toss them in off the cuff does lead to the weird moral bankruptcy you describe where these two guys pretty much selfishly destroyed this girl and then we’re expected to believe that SHE’S in the wrong for not getting why they did it.
@KaleRyan
You’re right, they are not bad themes per se for a story, if done well. But they are not done well here.
Personally I was glad they answered one of my questions about Kuraudo. If he’s been knocking down dojo after dojo and goes to a different school, why is he hanging around this neighbour all the time? Surely he has other dojo’s to hang out in.
So it was nice to see that in Ayase’s flashback her dad all but won the original duel, losing only due to his health. Kuraudo got to make some subtle hints about how he’d been ‘waiting’ and I thought his desire for someone (presumably a grown up Ayase?) to return and finish showing him the technique that beat him gave him motivation if not quite depth of character.
I was a bit tired and it slipped my mind during the post, but yeah, I agree that the episode managed to put Kuraudo in a somewhat better light than when we first met him.
In a awkward, he’s honorable as a swordsman-sorta-kinda-maybe-not, still a dirtbag overall, kind of way.
Kuraudo will reappear in Vol 6, for the 7-Star Games arc
Show Spoiler ▼
Extra novel content:
– At the end, Ikki gets a phone call from Kaito asking him to marry his daughter and inherit the dojo. Ayase quickly shuts Kaito up though :p
-Kuraudo had suspicions of Ikki’s strength ever since the restaurant, and they were confirmed after one of his gang showed him a video of Ikki’s selection matches.
https://randomc.net/image/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry%20-%2008%20-%2025.jpg
Kuraudo passes out after going outside, showing how tough the match had been. His gang had to take him to hospital.
https://randomc.net/image/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry%20-%2008%20-%2032.jpg
These 2 jokers hardly appeared in the original story. Shizuku should be happier with her added screentime for this arc!
I was expecting something like that happening to Kuraudo. There is no way he wouldn’t have experienced heavy damage after that fight.
At this point I feel like the creators don’t know how to deal with a show that has little to no ongoing supporting cast. At first I thought it was the desire to insert more lolicon BS, but the last couple times it has barely been that, they’ve just been THERE. And I feel like maybe it’s just due to wanting to justify seiyuu salaries/marketing.
Personally, I’m quite conflicted on how they’re keep on inserting those 2 in the story. Maybe try to add some mojos to keep the show from being cheesy.
https://randomc.net/image/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry/Rakudai%20Kishi%20no%20Cavalry%20-%2008%20-%2031.jpg
JAPANESE thumb wrestling for Tokyo 2020?
I find the ending cards to this show weird. Not that they offend or anything, but the fanservice isn’t THAT heavy in this show, then suddenly you get the porn ending cards each time. I’d expect them on something like Shinmai Maou no Testament (I believe that’s the name). On this show they always seem weirdly out of place.
Like having an incredibly raunchy pic of Lacus at the end of each Gundam Seed episode or something.
Renji called, he wants his Zabimaru back.
Not much to say since Mistic and KaleRyan beat me to what I was about to say about this episode(apart from the REALLY unsettling image of Ikki’s Slasher Smile, given how he was portrayed so far), so I’ll leave it at that.
is it me or Ikki has managed to get some good even out of Kuraudo?
he seems almost respectful of Ayase’s father as an opponent when he is asked about whether he had fun fighting his last battle…
Next Episode’s Title: Princess’ Vacation
Show Spoiler ▼
My take on Ayase’s reaction was simply working hard as she did and cutting corners and causing turmoil, getting no where, and still not understanding her fathers actions. I just saw it as a massive release of frustration. Like she’s saying “I did all that and I still don’t understand why this is happening”. I’d imagine she’d also feel guilt over Ikki taking the helm and her stepping aside letting that take place. She seems to be independant so that’s all new territory for her to take a backseat to someone outside her fathers leadership. She’s seeing here that she didn’t get to enjoy the role of swordsman as much as using it as a tool of vengeance. Ikki loves it. Even Kuraudo shows it. So she can see they are closer to understanding a big part of who her father is. Risking the dojo isn’t so strange in a world where they feel if you’re not good enough to defend the place you don’t deserve to lead it. That’s the way it was done in the times of the Samurai.