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「雨」 (Ame)
“Rain”
And with that Plunderer has officially left behind its introduction. All major questions have been answered, the main objective now revealed. Only thing left to determine is how far the show plans to get in the four weeks it has remaining. Or you know, how many more fan service episodes we can squeeze in.
While Plunderer wasn’t nice enough to give us some further tidbits on Hina’s maternal origins, at least the biggie is out of the way: the daddy is Tokikaze. Pretty sure few saw this one coming, especially considering the manner of his disappearance, but it does explain why Licht never took the girl up on her very blatant offer—even if the previous voyeurism kind of defeats the principle. This origin though does raise another question regarding Hina’s age, because she is definitely not 300 years old, and it’s highly unlikely circumstance caused her to suddenly leap forward in time. Nana’s recent time travel shenanigans could’ve had something to do with it of course (the butterfly effects have been left deliberately ambiguous), but there’s obviously another piece to the puzzle which may (or may not) come up before all is said and done. Licht alone for example is unlikely to have stolen the Ballot that just happened to end up in Tsukina’s hands.
Speaking of Ballots, oh boy is there fun to come from this angle. Ignoring the one who acquired that seventh Ballot, we not only have the remaining six split between Schmerman’s clique and Alcia’s military, but an apparent unanimous vote renewal required to keep that lovely utopia flying high in the sky. Top that off with some institutional turf wars and Licht out to break the system and you pretty well know where this story is headed. While plenty of unknowns remain to be revealed (Schmerman’s switch to evil being high on the list), for once we have a largely conventional showdown on our hands, with the only real question being which side comes out on top and when—because that answer will determine whether Alcia remains a thing. Doubt we’ll get that far before the end of the season mind you, but at least there’ll be plenty of theatrics to help keep matters interesting.
After all, everyone’s favourite bully is now back for more.
Preview
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Either many blind viewers are dropping this series either because of the plot direction or the warnings we got from manga readers about the plot twists happening every 10 mins or so.
I’m shocked in writing the first comment for the 5th time(?); Nevertheless, I feel great being shocked with this episode’s revelations that made me dedicated to sticking this series to the end because the plot twists are great and make sense (unlike Riverdale’s which did the opposite of having a great first season but falls out in the next ones).
At least to me though we really need to know how Hina is just a teenage girl and not a 300+ years old given that she REALLY DON’T KNOW about Alcia’s Origins and the Ballot she’s holding as a MacGuffin which became important suddenly in this episode. I’m guessing the tech the SSU have is way advanced than our real-life tech that anything can happen and somehow…CRYOGENIC TECH seems to fit in this case but oddly enough Tokikaze is dead…unless…guess we’re putting this plot hole ON HOLD.
Anyways, I must warn thee that this might head to an original anime ending because the conversations between those new leaders (whose angry-issued auras I can tell it’s not in top-notch shape but tolerable to look at least twice) didn’t exist in the source material (which I took a peek after watching this episode and also read MRs comments on who they are) and were featured in later chapters.
I love Jail-Bo and his convictions once again except he’s unable to stop Licht’s blindness in seeing that he’ll make the same mistake and become the monstrous Flashing Strike Ace again. Then again, after knowing the teachers’ betrayals and deceits, who doesn’t want to kill them and destroy their plan by bringing Alcia down to earth? Sounds contradicting given the fact it’ll act like a meteor and blast the Earth/Abyss like that Dinosaur Extinction Era and that’s not what Licht would do…well the ideal, old Licht of course.
Scarred, new Licht seems to be the villain in this episode and that’s until Doan kills him… hopefully still alive but it’s heartbreaking when Licht got the wake-up call not from Jail, but from Doan even if it’s a sudden kill. Reminiscing Hina’s crying face and despair somehow shows THE OLD Licht is still there.
Guess we all have to embrace the good and the bad and the worst to come in the last few episodes. Sorry for this lengthy comment for I thought I should write for several blind viewers for some positivity reads about this various emotional rollercoaster series.
I know I personally can’t take Plunderer seriously at all due to all the fanservice. It’s pretty clingy. Too bad because it looks like it might have some interesting ideas. What a great way to alienate any potential female viewers.
With Fanservice I am more: ‘oh! She is showing her panties, again. Ok, next. Where we were with the plot?’
IMO the fan service isn’t the issue as much as how it’s used. There’s ways to insert it such that it feels “natural” in the context of the story (see just about every mecha show with female pilots). Plunderer’s problem is the fan service seemingly becomes the objective and winds up overshadowing the story itself – i.e. using a sledgehammer in place of a scalpel. Admittedly this is the style of the series’ author, but it does lead to many of the problems a lot of viewers have with the show.
I remember how some old shows used to use the fanservice/lewds as a means to gather interest from new fans. Take Burst Angel from Gonzo, they went crazy with Megs chest in the latter half of the season. There were quite a few shows way back when that weren’t really that risque but became so because the studio was probably worried about sales.
I wouldn’t worry about being first RK, the show just isn’t that popular overall and was shafted to niche territory for a lot partway through the first season. Doesn’t mean we still cannot enjoy it for what it is though 😛
Personally I’ll be surprised if we get an anime original ending considering how well the show has followed the source material so far. Bringing in later material now isn’t so much a sign as an indication the writers have a suitable endpoint in mind and are setting it up to make sense. Given how crazy things get now in the story there’s plenty of places to leave off and drive interest in the manga, it’s only a question of what that point will be.
Yeah. Too faithful and too slowly. It seemed as if they were counting with other season…
Sorry to say but I must correct you. They weren’t faithful for the manga as episode 7 was a wholesome filler except the post-credits scene. Also, some sort of clothes ripping exist in the source material that it turns me off that maybe for once, I should be glad the Time Travel Arc is done slightly better in this adaptation though I know the main reason they did so is for the series to be PG-13 despite this story being an ecchi genre airing after midnight in Japan.
Well except Jail being found out by his future dad. After peeking that chapter, I believe manga readers feel cheated for the low budget and the low-level impact it has on them.
Anyways, I guess I can’t complain about the animation effects though I wish and hope another studio takes over if a new season is approved. Still can’t get over the PowerPoint Slide animation happened in ep17, but at least close-ups of characters’ faces are done nicely.
Hate to admit, but yeah and mainly because this is a SHONEN series and it’s written by a man so it’s not surprising to me since the main trouble of the shonen genre is making female characters useless and just a motivation or there for fanservice; e.g. Sakura (Naruto), Lucy (Fairy Tail) or Orihime (Bleach) according to many fans who can’t deny this problematic writing for these female characters. Potential for character development is lost for good and I hope this doesn’t happen to Lynn later on.
As for the fanservice, yes. The first 8 episodes killed the mood and momentum despite the tidbits of high-tech and soldiers on the hunt displayed in plain sight so anyone watching without using the skip button is a badass survivor to me. 👏
I’m glad I survived to see this shocking episode, but I did use the skip button so I’m not a badass survivor unfortunately. 😅