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「Vocation」
After twenty weeks of K-ON and RAINBOW on Tuesdays, the two series are having an identity crisis all of a sudden. K-ON brought the emotion-filled tears with its take on the school festival, while RAINBOW brought the laughs with Kyabetsu’s search for a job that suits him. What the heck!? More specifically, it was all about Baremoto coming up with scams where Kyabetsu sells shoddy products, which backfired due to either the latter’s stupidity or his inability to control his strength. Comedy-wise, those failures were complete with timely pauses and goofy expressions. Amazingly, the jokes weren’t the only surprise this episode, as I thought Kyabetsu would be in way over his head for joining the yakuza, yet he somehow wins them over with his innocent kindhearted personality. What the heck number two!
Granted, the only reason Kyabetsu was in the Shonan reform institute to begin with was because of assault charges linked to drinking, which for all we know could have just been an inadvertent backhand with that superhuman strength of his behind it. Still, we’re talking about real Japanese gangsters who generally don’t let you waltz in and mess up without any consequences. If the intention here was to emphasize that Aritou truly is a chivalrous yakuza though, I’d say that it worked wonders in that department. His calm and composed demeanor as the young head of the Fukumoto Gang already commanded respect when he entered the room last time, whereas him lending Mario and the others one of their cars made him seem much better than Naoko compassion-wise. His decision to assign Tanaka (Furuya Tooru!!) to look over Kyabetsu turned out to be another kind act as well, since his subordinate isn’t nearly as bad as he looks.
Right from the get-go, it was pretty apparent that Aritou opposed the idea of having Mario, Suppon, and Kaybetsu join their gang since they didn’t seem suited for organized crime work. As such, I suspect he instructed Tanaka to get Kyabetsu to do miscellaneous cleaning chores around the residence to determine exactly what kind of person he is. I’d even go so far as saying Aritou intended to eventually tell Kyabetsu that he’s not suited to be a yakuza and get him to leave for his own good, had things not been suddenly thrown out of whack by a random attack from some deranged guy with a vendetta against the Fukumoto Gang. However, it was at that point that things started feeling like RAINBOW again, particularly with the way Mario was out to avenge Kyabetsu had he actually died in a gang war. Incidentally, Mario showed that he was probably the most suited to become a yakuza, by not flinching in the face of his own knife that Tanaka drew on him and exuding a willingness to throw everything away to avenge his friend.
In any case, I gather Tanaka only told Mario that Kyabetsu is working as a professional wrestler after seeing what kind of friend he is, since he and Aritou are probably the only ones in the gang who know Kyabetsu wasn’t killed off for calling an ambulance and the police to the Fukumoto residence. It wasn’t said specifically, but Aritou hinted at the very end that he reported Kyabetsu was killed for his act of stupidity, when he actually spared his life for helping save Tanaka’s and hooked him up with job in a manly line of work where he can eat all he wants. In short, we have a surprise happy ending all in one episode involving yakuza. If someone had told me that’s what I’d be in store for here, I would’ve called bullshit on them right away. I won’t lie and say I didn’t appreciate a swift turn for the better though. It’ll be interesting to see if we’ll see something wrap up as quickly next arc, as Baremoto’s one about a woman he’s fallen blindly in love with is coming our way.
Preview
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Wow, this episode is not what I thought it would be. It looks good, but I was expecting something a little better.
Next episode looks pretty good though.
Oooh I’m looking forward to the next episode! Ever since I read the manga I was interested to see how it would be animated, since Show Spoiler ▼
“the two series are having an identity crisis”
Understatement of the year!!! Like I said in my K-on post I had both series queued for watching and I thought: first rainbow to get depress and cry. Next K-on to end the night in a good cheering way…. Geesh I should have read my own post under this series last episode. I felt cabbage story will be on soft side (compared to what we had so far) even with yakuza involved. It turned out to be a refreshing episode were finally we saw some happiness for one our guys. When the credits roll I had a smile in my face and felt relieved. (yes made the mistake to watch k-on after this and spend 2 hrs crying).
Can’t wait for Baremoto arc, is not the first time I’ll see friendships shatter by one of the guys falling for the wrong woman. I have seen it in flesh and blood. So this could really turnout to be really bad and ugly.
I enjoyed this episode of Rainbow. It was slightly comedic compared to the rest of the series but it was still very dark. You really don’t get the impression that Cabbage’s life is in danger from this episode, but I can’t help wonder if he’s really free from the Yakuza especially since he’s blatantly showing his face on television. I guess the Yakuza boss must not be a wrestling fan or watch television for that matter haha.
I don’t mean to be snide but I can’t fathom why anyone would ever cry from watching K-On. Was there some kind of tragic story element recently? It certainly would be unexpected…
K-on threw a curve ball on the fans in episode 20. Go read Divine’s post. Moe blobs aren’t for everyone but when Mio and Mugi break down in tears and Yui and Ritsu in “sweat” they dragged everyone in the flow. It was indeed totally unexpected.
Decent episode. The humour failed a bit, but things improved as they turned more serious. I miss the intensity and emotional storms the show evoked within me in the earlier episodes, though. Not saying that the past episodes haven’t been emotional, or that they’ve been bad. There’s been some pretty good drama going on, with Mario’s prison sentence, Setsuko’s marriage, and Joe’s struggle to make it as a singer.
But there was something very special about the first couple of episodes. Everything was so dark, gruesome. Gritty. And touching. The feeling of despair was almost suffocating at times, which made the moments displaying unrelenting courage and friendship incredibly strong and all the more heartbreaking/warming.
It’s still a very gripping show. But it’s not quite what it used to be. I believe there are several reasons for why I feel like I do, but I’m not sure I want to rant about it here.
I agree. I went off on a tangent about that in my previous post.
Things will get very dark soon, don’t you worry. 😉
The acting bothers me less in these lighter episodes -__-
I liked the “middle” episodes best. From about episode 5-12 where it wasn’t what seemed like pointlessly gruesome (excluding Joe’s episode), but still quite dark.
not much to say about this one.. Cabbage seems so 2D as a character.. i thought this “arc” would flesh him out more. but no they have never really went into his background.. just the stereotypical fat dumb guy. i kinda predicted the wrestling thing back when they carved the dreams in the tree.. i thought sumo.. but close enough.. haha
also how many eps is this slated for?
Funny how Amuro Ray is a Yakuza now. Aritou-san was quite a nice guy the narrator did said that back then Yakuzas had a bit more chivalrous aspect than now.
I knew Baremoto would get in trouble because of a woman someday.
lol.. give the guys a break please.. do u really want to see them in suffering every damn episode? aftter all they have been through? .. i think 1 episode when they laugh like in that bar is a good thing…
i really wanted to know a little more about cabbage´s background though…
next episode looks good
Too bad the anime cut out the part on Cabbage’s past and the reason why he ended up in the institute in the first place. There’s nothing much, but the incident could explain his character very well.
In the manga, he was sent to the Shonan institute because…
Show Spoiler ▼
I can’t help but think how Cabbage could be so innocent (to the point of being naive) like this. Not that I don’t like him, but he seems kinda flat compared to the other guys. As if he never had any dark recesses in his mind.