Gleipnir – 09

「激突のマーク」 (Gekitotsu no Mark)
“Staked Claims”

This week’s Gleipnir draws attention to one of the fatal flaws of Shuuichi and Clair’s pursuit for the coins; picking the wrong team. Because a majority of the superpowered people on their team have passive powers, they have to rely on the scouting abilities of Ikeuchi to avoid a crew of sexual offenders led by a gorilla man. Luckily, one of the couple people that can fight is their ace-in-the-hole Yota, who makes quick work of a centipede man.

Now Yota appears to be the type of person who is cool and important less because of the powers that mold him and the history that shapes him, but rather because the plot demands it of one of the only fighters on Koyanagi’s team. Yota’s backstory is relatively plain as someone who had to leave school because he brutally fought against a bully who roughed up one of his friends. Even his power so far is just to be agile and strong enough to take on anyone who handles him lightly. He’s passable enough as a character, but I did expect more than just being quick and having a mean punch.

The gorilla man, however, makes a strong impression in this episode as a weirdo ripped straight out of a villainous gang of bandits from Samurai Champloo. He leads his gang much like a pirate king as he tries to make sure that he can spark unity by holding their safety as his highest priority. While his crew champions ideas that involve sacrificing their friends, he’s particular about making sure they don’t get involved in an idea that gets people murdered. He even goes against the grain by reassuring the centipede creeper that he won’t kill him to pay for losing against Yota and takes out his own tooth as an added measure to assure them that he would rather shoulder the burden of his favorite scumbags than swipe them under the rug. If they weren’t a morally heinous group of people that aren’t above sexual assault and wanton murder, you could make the argument that working as a henchman for the gorilla man has far greater benefits than most antagonist squads.

But alas, this isn’t going to be the anime to have someone that ugly and creepy be anything above a psychopath motivated by hedonism and lust. This is apparent in how much he rubs off on his fellow crew who are more than happy to use their abilities to grope Koyanagi or see through their group’s clothes. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re able to face off against the gorilla man’s crew given that they only have a couple fighters in the group, but if there’s something Gleipnir has a ton of fun with, it’s high octane fights with a healthy does of dubstep.