Sabikui Bisco – 03

「タッグ」 (Taggu)
“Tag Team”

Sabikui Bisco’s third episode finally gets us past the prologue phase as Bisco and Milo begin their journey to find the Rust Eater mushroom that could potentially cure the plague that’s been ravaging Japan. But with misunderstandings floating about, they have their work cut out for them as they now have targets on their heads.

RUST EATER

Although it’d normally be crazy that we’re finally learning about why Bisco sprouts mushrooms by the end of Episode 03, it’s neat to see that they are able to establish why Mushroom Hunters like Bisco strive to spread more mushrooms in plague-heavy lands.

It is a bit odd that the law of the land dictated mushrooms were toxic purely on speculation rather than studying their effect on Rust. At the same time, I suppose there wasn’t as much of an infrastructure left to investigate anything beyond pure speculation, especially with all the hoops and ladders Milo has to go through to be a back-alley doctor and conduct scientific experiments on mushrooms.

My best guess is that a misinformation campaign on the effect of mushrooms would be crucial to any plans that Kurokawa had in mind for using scientific research for his own gain. With how he was quick to try to recruit Milo, he likely has a purpose for outlawing the rest of the world’s mushroom output if he’s that curious about Milo’s research in spite of the declaration that Mushroom Hunters are to be treated like criminals.

PAWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, 5 – 6 – 7 – 0 – 9

The misunderstanding does add a neat dynamic towards the fight between Bisco and Pawoo though considering that the two would be in agreement if she had any idea that mushrooms were capable of sapping away Rust. I imagine that, unless Milo is able to show her proof, it’d take a lot to change Pawoo’s worldview considering her ties to the government’s officers.

The fight between the two was pretty impressive with how Bisco had to pull out all the stops to shake up Pawoo enough to not be brutally murdered by Episode 03. They make it clear that just about every character in the show would have been unable to take her on in a normal battle of pure skill. Bisco’s methodology of dodging all of her fatal slashes while honing on her reaction to Milo’s involvement with him would have been the only way for him to distract her enough to focus on sprouting mushrooms on her blade.

ON THE RUN TOUR

Although getting Pawoo to side with the Mushroom Hunters will be quite the task, getting Milo gung-ho with doing some mushroom hunting of his own was rather simple. Once he accepted that Rust could be absorbed gradually by mushrooms, he became ecstatic about the possibilities of finding the Rust Eater mushroom that Bisco was pumped up to search for. Bisco is adamant about whether he’ll be a liability on the battlefield, but with Milo’s curiosity and scientific prowess, there was no way he wouldn’t fight to join him and possibly find a cure for Pawoo’s Rust illness.

Milo is such an interesting character too with how he manages to assert himself and have his own autonomy in a world where might makes right. He’s so used to navigating in the shadows and being as polite as possible that he’s taken aback yet delighted that Bisco is inviting him into a space where he can let himself switch to a more casual, laidback way of carrying about. It was adorable to see how excited he got from the freeing experience of switching to a casual speech pattern and addressing Bisco without worrying about formality.

It helps that the two have great chemistry so far. Bisco comes off as grumpy and on-edge with all of the mushrooms he wants to spread across the nation, but Milo helps to get him to let his guard down and be happy that he has some companionship that isn’t just his old mentor Jabi. It might’ve only begun as a pact to get Jabi to recover from both his injuries and his long-term illness. Despite Milo’s politeness, Bisco quickly sees that Milo is too determined to be written off, giving them more time to develop beyond just being merely fun travel companions.

They provide a nice yin/yang dynamic where Bisco’s hard-edged brute strength and Milo’s intelligence and compassion bring out the best in one another. They’ll also have their work cut out for him as they now have to face off against the Nikko War Memorial, which turned out to be a living monument that sprouted from the ground and is here for violence.