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「Someday…」
I know I’ve said this series isn’t for the faint of heart, but even I couldn’t help but wince and clutch my right hand when I saw Mario’s get crushed by some inmates in cahoots with Ishihara. The screen capture of that scene pretty much speaks for itself, which was not only difficult to watch for the obvious reasons, but also because his hopes of becoming a boxer like Sakuragi pretty much got crushed as well. It’s even more disheartening given how Mario let himself get beat up in hopes that the four cellmates from Block 1 Cell 8 would lay off of Sakuragi, after Ishihara and the perverted doctor Sasaki (Hashi Takaya) transferred him there for a hellish last month before his expected release from prison. In reality, those tyrants were hoping that Sakuragi would be killed so that he doesn’t speak of the atrocities they’ve committed and continue to commit to the inmates. When the sound of that even shocks the likes of the cellmates that Ishihara has bribed though, it really goes to show have evil those two are. At this point, it’s undeniable that Ishihara and Sasaki deserve nothing less than being put to death, but it’d be much more appropriate if they got a taste of their own medicine.
Seeing as this series has the tendency to invoke feels of anger towards the tyranny depicted, I’ve more or less approached each episode with the expectation that things will be like that so that I don’t get riled up. In spite of that, this episode was still really unsettling when the light at the end of the tunnel seemed visible. With Sakuragi’s pending release and the others still set to serve out their remaining sentences for the next while, I was relieved to see them get a respectable warden named Kumagai (Aoki Tsuyoshi) to replace Ishihara, who was sentenced to house arrest for the fire incident. Things were finally looking up for a change, so it was nice hearing everyone talk about their aspirations upon getting released. Similarly, there was some new-found hope when they decided to engrave those aspirations on a tree, with Mario’s one simply being that he hopes everyone else’s dreams come true.
After learning how Mario will put his friends before himself — a trait he likely picked up from hanging around Sakuragi — the sight of his dreams cruelly snatched away from him was almost too much to bear. As such, I was so relieved to see Sakuragi completely snap once he heard what those guys did to Mario. While he was willing to endure a month long beating and eat food off the floor after it’s been dumped on his head, believing that this level of abuse is better than what he’d get from Ishihara for retaliating, Sakuragi clearly won’t tolerate his friends getting injured in his place. This is unquestionably the best part of his character and why he warrants being looked up to and relied upon. Because of that, I’m eagerly looking forward to the absolute ass-kicking that he’s going to deliver to the remaining three assholes in Block 1 Cell 8, even though I realize things are probably going to get worse once Sakuragi fights back. The preview indicates as much, suggesting that everyone from Block 2 Cell 6 will suffer, and also hints at Sakuragi’s time in prison far from being over.
Preview
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Looks dark, think i’ll give this anime a try.
Oh man, this series upsets me so much! But it’s a great show!
Anchan… *_* Poor him. Geez, it will be great episode, I feel it in my bones xD
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I see a plot device to equalize Sakuragi’s sentence time with everyone else? Wouldn’t be be much of a story left if a protagonist got free and disappeared halfway through the show, after all…
yea it would seem strange if he was released just like that
Just to let you all know..
Don’t know if this is consider a spoiler so read at your own risk
you know the juvenile jail setting is only a small part of the story. and also a small tip. even in juvenile jail, sentences are a bit uneven too. so yeah guess the rest.
I read most of the manga…
To add on something interesting about your thought of Mario taking after Anchan, in the OP sequence it shows Mario in the future with his hair grown out; which makes him look almost exactly like Anchan.
It would be funny to see the K-ON gang teleport into RAINBOW.
This is the only Anime Drama so far that will really Define the word “Drama”
Please no lol, don’t associate this awesome series with the mindless drivel that is K-ON.
Based on the fire episodes and this episode, it seems like
most of the staff at that place is both normal (as in, they DON’T wan’t molest the inmates or let them die in a fire) and reasonably competant. It makes me wonder how things have been run that they’re either kept in the dark or kept quiet.
I don’t think putting others in front of himself is a trait that Mario picked up purely from Sakuragi. If you remember the reason why he is there, it is because he put a teacher into hospital for three month for having gone after a female student. I believe that Mario feels more self-confident about himself from seeing Sakuragi do the same.
I’m truely amazed with this anime. This is by far the show that surprised me the most for this season. Thanks Divine for covering it, chances of me knowing of this anime without your blogging and this site would have been slim. Respect <o/
Glad to hear that Tee.
It’s for people in your shoes that I try to blog an assortment of shows that I feel deserve much more attention than they’re getting. While it’s much easier covering only what’s popular and generates the most traffic, I really want people to take notice of some of the other good and often overlooked series out there, such as RAINBOW.
No doubt one of the best (if not the best) shows this season. I honestly wised more people knew and watched RAINBOW. The characters are in my opinion, “different”, from other anime. The opening is also one of the very very few that I actually watch and rewatch each episode.
Yah, I agree with Tee! Thanks for covering this, definitely one of my faves. I wouldn’t have known about this if it weren’t this blog. I’ve been faithfully coming back to this site for years and I definitely like the new direction Random Curiosity is doing — One Piece and new series that are under represented. Keep up the great blogging!
*FIST BUMPS DIVINE*
You know its a good show, when after every episode you want to be teleported into that timeline, and dive into that hell so you can take a blow for every one of em’. And lets no skim over the fact of getting a shot at Ishihara and the perverted sensei as well.
too many guys on the scene at the same time and it takes place in prison…yeah it looks like some nice action scenes but i have seen three prison themed shows that always manage to work in some homo-eroticism. Not trying to go for a fourth.
lol.. u clearly have some issues… xd…
hehe WOW!!!!
It’s nice to see the people actually watching this series give it much deserved praise etc.
The build-up in the episodes is great, with this episode being the best by far…
Unfortunately, as things are going I can’t shake off the ominous feeling that Anchan
Show Spoiler ▼