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「忍はシノビの勘がはたらくようです！」 (Nin wa shinobi no kan ga hataraku youdesu!)
“It Seems Shinobu Has a Shinobi’s Intuition!”
The ubiquitous adage of the ages is that if you’re in a hole you should stop digging, yet Choyoyu is apparently throwing caution to the wind when it comes to that idea. After going all out in terms of crazy premise and crazier execution (mayonnaise and million dollar smile say hello), now we’re going for broke in the realm of enemies and their reasons for being, well, enemies. I’d like to think we’ve seen the full breadth of Choyoyu’s imagination, but deep down I know the shenanigans are only just getting started.
Considering how early on we got the attempted rape and assorted fan service scenes it was always a question just what Choyoyu would bring to the table next, but colour me surprised when the next great leap is towards underage drinking and kisses of sobriety. Well, and forced cannibalism too, but hey, this is Japan we’re talking about. While easy to laugh this entire situation off as just another heavy handed and ridiculous way to show how utterly evil our opponents here are, the ironic thing is there’s a kernel of truth to Choyoyu’s recent display. Many landed lords (especially pre-Enlightenment) held some, shall we say, unique concepts of right and proper, and depending on how ingratiated they were with their rulership, the results could be disastrous for the local inhabitants. Not to the same degree as our Duke of course, but enough to really make one happy knowing the likes of John Locke succeeded in their philosophical argument. Choyoyu may be running the idea a little too hard to make it anything more than glorified background noise (after all, it’s up against bloody Patriot missile systems), but at least the show knows how to keep its antagonists undeniably evil.
As for those antagonists, well, no denying that crazy knows no bounds in this series. Duke Fastidious (great name by the way) has done everything up to physical penance for failure to revere his emperor enough—and considering the results of wintertime layover and VA Nakata Jouji waiting for the chance to go wild, I imagine that action is not far off either. Choyoyu may not be winning isekai awards anytime soon, but the sheer audacity to take absurdity and crazy of the highest forms (literally) and throw it at the canvas never fails to leave a smile on face. Plus the fact we’ve got a new girl waiting for further introduction and some needed explanation on the seven heroes front leaves plenty of room to start fleshing out this simplistic story. Well, as much as possible.
Choyoyu may ultimately wind up cutting off just as the going gets good, but it sure isn’t intending on leaving any tricks up its sleeve.
Full-length images: 19.
A bit of extra darkness from the manga/LN:
– The little byuma girl was whipped until she was bleeding profusely. Jeanne admits to Shinobu she had to do it to maintain her cover of loyalty to Gustave. (Also, she’s part of an opposition group dedicated to ending Gustave’s madness.)
– The little girl’s late father, the ex-village chief, was the one who suggested robbing and killing travellers to support themselves. He even hangs himself so they can cannibalise his corpse and ease them into future acts.
– Elk and Shinobu were served horsemeat, which came from the slain mounts of killed travellers.
– The missile scene goes a bit differently in the LN/manga. Instead of the fire spear dodging the missile, the missile launcher failed to work. One of Dortmund’s young nobles, bitter at Tsukasa’s takeover of the city and their authority, had spitefully short-circuited the launcher with some wine in their
https://randomc.net/image/Choyoyu/Choyoyu%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
Honestly thought this girl was akame ga kill’s reincarnated seryu ubiquitous
Manga covers more detail on how Gustave views his subjects and the gold for the statue:
“The gold (collected as tax) signifies the sacrifice of the commoners for the Emperor (as embodied by this great statue.”
So yes, he is barking mad and extremely dangerous.
Having read the manga, the whipping scene is far more brutal… but also makes less sense.
In the manga they use a much more powerful whip on the little girls ass. It’s quite bloody, and they don’t stop when she passes out either. But here’s the thing: the soldier doing the whipping notes when she passes out, but it’s Jeanne who tells him to keep going. Which would make sense if Jeanne was evil, but she’s not. I understand wanting to keep up an image, but the soldiers in the manga aren’t depicted as insanely evil as they are in the anime, just standard “just doing my job” type. So why?
Personally I got a kick out of the whipping sound. It was so unrealistic that the whole thing became unintentionally funny lol.
And as for Jeanne I think her actions still make sense. The goal (at face value) is to inculcate obedience towards the desires outcome; stopping the whipping at the point of passing out makes sense from the girl’s perspective, but Jeanne likely was thinking in terms of everyone else. You want to show that failure to obey will carry over into other aspects, and there’s no better way than by overreacting in terms of punishment. Pretty much similar to the concept of meting out posthumous justice on dead individuals.
It makes sense in the anime world, where every soldier is depicted as an insanely evil lunatic. But not in the manga.
I do kinda’ like the anime & it has established that its better watched with your brain turned off, but it just keeps making/showing stuff that keeps forcing the Brain Circuit Breaker on that can’t help make you go “Wait, hold up…”, “What!?”, “Huh?”, “Pardon!?”, etc.