「サリーと岐路」 (Sarii to Kiro)
“Sally and a Crossroads”

Episode 03 of Peach Boy Riverside kicks things off into high gear as Sumeragi appears from behind the shadows to orchestrate his plans to have the humans and ogres in the palms of his hands. But with Sally and her friends scrounging around for money after Rimdarl was wiped off the map, Sumeragi’s measures might not be enough to not make them suspicious of his intentions.

This episode begs to question exactly how much good faith can you have on someone that has a twisted smile and duplicitous intentions. Sumeragi is terrible at lying and speaks in vague enough terms about his intentions to both the Hundred Ogre Gathering and Sally. There is no reason for anyone to trust Sumeragi when his smile widens a little too much whenever he talks about wanting to unite humans and ogres in perfect harmony.

The same can be said for Juselino, who uses her real name to pass herself off to Hawthorn as a normal girl who just so happens to want to lead him into the woods to unite with Sumeragi. She gives a diabolical grin to Hawthorn, and he just passes it off like it’s an odd quirk. When Sumeragi pops in to introduce himself as a totally normal pastor who instructs Juselino to cheer for Hawthorn, how are red flags not going off in this dude’s head that these guys are suspicious?

Sumeragi’s elevator pitch to Sally was also crazy because he just comes out the gate directly asking her for support from her peach eye as if she’d have any interest in aiding his plan for ogre/human relations after 15 seconds of knowing her. He gives her the same cryptic spiel he says to the rest of the girls and is immediately exposed by Mikoto. And still, Sumeragi acts like Sally will agree to go with him if he admits to being the same villain Mikoto is hunting under the assumption that his honesty will win her over.

It makes it all the more baffling when she is confused about whether she should join him or Mikoto. I understand that Mikoto has unhinged, genocidal tendencies. I also understand that it would be awful to date him considering that he gave Sally a cup of water and passed it off like a drink he paid for (I’m sure you shelled out the big bucks on the bread at Cheesecake Factory, my dude).

But Sumeragi made no qualms about being like “Yeah, I admit it. Evil as evil can get. Just join me, it’ll be a cool way to use your eye.” It’s ridiculous that such a ballsy and ridiculous tactic is enough to get Sally to question whether she should go against her “ride-or-die” because he’s looking more unhinged in the conversation.

Aside from these story beats, it is nice to catch up with some of the characters after Rimdarl’s destruction. The Barquend Martial Arts Tournament was a reasonable enough way to get most of the cast together, especially since everyone’s so strapped for cash that they’d be more than happy to take part in it.

There are some interesting developments with Meki as well with how she is starting to understand humans more after years of wanton human murder. It might’ve come as quickly as Hawthorn’s racism being cured after seeing Frau in action. Then again, time is of the essence and Meki being comfier around humans adds to the emotional weight that will come from her potentially coming face-to-face with Todoroki.

In true Cool-kyoushinja fashion, Todoroki is a very young-looking high ogre who had a major crush on Meki, who can go from looking like a young girl to an older woman when she dips into her powers. But Sumeragi putting him on the path of vengeance should prove to be interesting considering how Meki’s symbolic “demise” might cause Todoroki to reconsider whether she could really be dead to him or not.

If you think the time jump here was a little confusing since it jumped right to the point where Sally and Mikoto reunited, you might want to prepare for more chaos once Episode 04 airs since it’ll be a prequel episode focusing on how Mikoto met Sally. I suppose it’s done this way to make it feel like Sally needs to reflect on this as she reaches the crossroads of whether to side with Mikoto or Sumeragi.

It makes for an anime experience where you’ll need to roll with the punches and fill in the blanks for what might’ve happened between episodes, or else you’ll tear your hair out. It’s still relatively entertaining, but mostly for some of the ridiculous twists and turns that happen throughout each episode.

9 Comments

  1. I really dont understand what they was thinking to shuffle the episodes this way…

    Well, I don’t think that there is any ridiculous in the situation.

    Last time that Sally saw Mikoto (spoiler). She hasn’t seen him enjoying killing onis, and I am pretty sure that Sumeragi’s evil smiles are directed to the audience, not the characters.

    If there is a thing that I like of this serie is the twist they have given to the typical revenge story. In one of that Mikoto would be the hero. This is a lot more realistic. Someone that is going to spend his life getting revenge, has to be a lil unhinged.

    Kinai
  2. When people and characters like Sumeragi says harmony between Humans and Ogre, talk is cheep. I wanna see action. I want Sumeragi to show me how two cultures at odds with each other can coexist. Otherwise, Sumeragi is just blowing hot air..

    RenaSayers
  3. Thing is, these characters (as in their character traits) are pretty bland and unoriginal. I keep getting the feeling that I’ve seen all this before.
    The world here though is interesting enough that keeps me coming back each episode.

    hjerry
  4. I mean, ultimately the choice probably should be that she chooses her own side.

    She wouldn’t go with Mikoto as Sally doesn’t believe in kill-all-ogres and not to mention she just befriended one. Also with Frau, by words alone Sumeragi is more aligned with Sally’s interests than Mikoto is. Now, we’ve seen the bad side of Sumeragi, but the only thing Sally knows is that he’s a high ranking ogre. Considering she quickly forgave the ogre that killed hundreds of people including children, it isn’t that far of a stretch to think she is very relaxed around Sumeragi and is probably indifferent (outside of Peach-Boy state).

    On the other hand, you have Mikoto who is just, “let’s genocide a whole race of creatures for my own revenge”. No one should be surprised that she doesn’t jump at his offer. But Sally doesn’t know that Mikoto will settle for simply depriving an ogre of what makes them an ogre. In saying that, he did that to Meki more out of wanting her to suffer than for any altruistic reasoning even if we assume she may have caught him in a bit of emotional weakness.

    All things considered, Sumeragi has the most tempting offer. Only thing against it is Mikoto’s own words. We the viewer knows that Sumeragi is up to no good, but Sally hasn’t seen what the viewer has.

    Goodwill
  5. Since the chonological 1st episode already aired (available as fansub), I might finally start this show now, being able to watch the first 4 episodes in chronological order.

    boingman
  6. Sumeragi is sus like hell.
    He plays good guy but definitelyt has some hidden agenda.
    (as the mid-hierarchy Ogre noticed) He may be acting towards good neither to humans nor ogres.

    ewok40k

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