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「謝るな、謝れ」 (Ayamaruna, ayamare)
“Don’t Apologize, Apologize”
A little late in getting to Plunderer this week, but sometimes a little aging can do wonders and this episode was case in point. Sure it may not be the most stupendously animated or original of stories, but between those quirks aplenty and the increasing hints of more, I do believe the fun and games here haven’t even started.
As suspected with that cliffhanger last week Licht managed to escape unscathed, and—lo and behold—it’s due to him not displaying his full power. No one should be too shocked by this considering Plunderer’s premise and the existence of a made-to-be-abused power up mechanic, but the real surprise is the utter lack of explanation for Licht’s hidden power reserve. Is his previously revealed “real” Count fake like Jail’s? Could Licht be hiding yet another Count somewhere on his person? Or is there a mechanism still missing from this equation? Personally I’m leaning towards the last one as another fake Count would be taking the subterfuge too far while a third Count just screams lazy. After all, we still have that white star and its indicated link to the concept of aces to properly explain.
Outside of obvious plot twists for the future though, I think the one thing enamouring me of Plunderer right now is its comedic side, or rather the PG13 version. While the characters may be derivative archetypes through and through, the series has shown a good knack thus far for nailing lighthearted and funny, letting the likes of Jail and Lynn both be personable while still doing their adversarial duty. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea of course (it can be considered akin to the usual shounen filler material), but I definitely wouldn’t mind more relief in this vein, especially when Lynn and Jail are guaranteed to return in the near future. Now if only Plunderer could rein in its excessive love for all manner of hamfisted perversion and let the allusions shine everything would be peachy, but hey, small steps.
After all it’s been a full week without some masked Licht shenanigans. I think the guy is deserving of a bit of downtime.
Preview
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Thank you, Pancakes for not giving up/dropping this series. As you said, this series may not be everyone’s taste given that I’ve read many of them (whether they’re the manga-first or anime-only viewers) dropping it due to animated scenes not being top-notch or the plot explaining method is too slow/draggy or both of those reasons that it influences newbie viewers to give up this series.
They’ll be missing the BGM which I’m expressing my gladness of hearing trumpets and violins merging smoothly and it’s suitable for surprising revelation scenes. Not to mention the color visuals is nice to look at especially the characters’ eyes that gives you a natural feeling they’re somehow realistic though I can’t say that goes for some of their behavior; Reddit users are giving me a hard time to get through some of their critism on this show~ 😔
So far, as I’ve mentioned my theory on “Hidden Numbers” previous episode, Jail couldn’t subdue Licht in this episode so that’s a confirmed truth that the latter is manipulating his Number. No worries if there’s speculation of having a 3rd Number because that would be way TOO OP for our main man.
Nevertheless, it won’t be fun & games because having a very high number means one has the power to overrule logic. In fact, I suspect it’s not good to have them because higher numbers equals to a destructable power. Now that would give me the shivers if it really is a harsh truth…😨
Haha no worries glad you’re liking it! I never drop a series I commit to picking up, and while I don’t know yet if I’ll be covering the second season (depends on how the summer schedule pans out and my other coverage desires), I certainly am optimistic for Plunderer.
Funnily enough the art is what helps keep me interested. The colour and vibrancy retains that 2010 flair the series oozes and lets you know it’s not to be treated too seriously. Such a thing is important for these types of stories IMO because they have a habit of getting crazy pretty damn fast, and I’m fully expecting that here shortly.
This episode had way too many derpy looking faces, e.g.
https://randomc.net/image/Plunderer/Plunderer%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
And man, hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for some backstory/serious plot development.
Shouldn’t be too long a wait, for two cour shows episodes 6-8 is usually when someone falls out the woodwork, particularly after all the incessant teasing we’ve received thus far.
Always considered the numbers to be akin to rank instead of capabilities. After all, they represent how much effort one has put in his/her particular niche. So I really thought it was more on respect of effort put in. If looking at them as capabilities, they look more like HP than anything else (0 means death).
Looking at that girl forcing her doll on Jail made me smile. At least he’s decent enough to try and fix it when not blindly following his conviction.
But that scene at the end was baffling. What was it about? Why did they put it in?
I’ve no idea why the screenwriter (who wrote Isuca, 7 Mortal Sins & Rail Wars! which are the worst I’ve seen regardless of my gender) put that but I’m figuring it’s for viewers to see how Licht appreciates peace in this country. Though it wasn’t in the source material…
Nevertheless, they could’ve out a little LITTLE TEASE OF A Dark-Figured FRAME right at the end…and we’ll get to see that not everything is peaceful as it seems. Which is why Jail’s initial beliefs are anti-naive for every soldier is said they HAVE TO BE emotionless if they want to be determined in doing what’s right for themselves, their country & most importantly their loved ones.
Hope we get to see these different sets of beliefs played out and whether they changed a person to doubt their own when (ahem!) danger comes from ground below…
Agreed with RK on the end scene, it was likely a way to show Licht as happy and what makes him happy. Could’ve definitely been handled better though, because you usually pair such imagery with something else (e.g. light talk, flashbacks, etc.)
Atleast the fights are still better than One Punch Man Season 2
I guess I can agree this once with you. Just hope his next fight(s) are properly prepared. Trust me fellow comrades~ it’s NOT GOING TO BE FUN ANYMORE…💀
Oh now that’s a scab you don’t wanna scratch at XD
First off, 25% of the air time is split between opening, closing, explaining the world, and repeating past dialogue. In the next 3 minutes after the opening (that’s all I got to before I turned it off), there is a sloppy fight scene. Jail Murdoch (the antagonist of this episode) starts the fight by shooting a seemingly unending bar of metal at the main protagonist Licht Bach. Instead of stepping one foot to the side, Licht presses his sword against the bar and makes grunting noises. Then, Jail knocks Licht’s sword into the air and the sword suddenly doesn’t exist any more. The next two seconds they have a nicely animated fight sequence (the only decent animation so far). Then the fight sequence becomes the same few drawn frames repeated over and over again. This is lazy animation and the anime deserves a trash rating of 5 or below.