Sakugan – 10

“OH MY TONNY”

This second episode into the third act of Sakugan certainly proved fruitful as finally, Gagumber managed to take the helm and actually act as a father, albeit, Memoro had to play his card for him to actually do something about it, he had to feel jealous of another man for his father gears to kick in. Also, the jealousy might have been formed by Memenpuu as she nonchalantly said ‘I’d wish Meroro had been my dad’ Kinda harsh if you ask me, such a line should not be said without some repercussion on the part of Gagumber over Memenpuu.

Gagumber should have said something, but instead, he just compartmentalized his feelings and went off to get some beers (Woe is me!). It’s a very Gagumber thing to do, once he feels threatened or like his livelihood is endangered. And by livelihood, I mean the life he has built with his daughter. Merooro makes a really good point. Why did Gagumber accompany his daughter if he doesn’t really care for her? If she’s supposed to build confidence on her own, why the chaperone?

This episode was really superb, it managed to bring the action as in the latter half of the episode the terrorist group attacked, which of course I’ve already once again forgotten the name of that party. But one important detail is that the girl was looking for Memenpuu, the whole infiltration cover op was to kidnap Memenpuu, something about the Rainbow Children whatever that means. It really made me think and picked my interest once more, not only did this episode manage to grow Gagumber as a character. (Finally!) But also it allowed for a sort of bromance between Meroro and Gagumber, solidarity of sorts. It’s really interesting. When Merooro saves Memenpuu from imminent doom, Gagumber show’s his appreciation for it, and that must have taken a lot from him. It’s interesting, and I wish Gagumber would grow even more as the series approaches its finale.

It’s kinda bad that the show took 10 whole episodes to finally sit down and start explaining some things(boring, I know!), it had so many opportunities to buckle down on its lore and build a solid story, but instead like I’ve previously said, it was more interested in going around doing shenanigans rather than build a cohesive plot. This episode certainly made me think that ‘What exactly was the whole point of everything that has happened?’ It’s only now that the show is doubling down not only on some really cool animation shots here and there, but its character development and explaining its interesting premise. I’d categorize its worldbuilding as mysterious as even though some cool things happened, like the wind temple, it was never fully fledged out, or explained and communicated to us the viewers. Instead, it tried to hide it for some reason, with subtle ques and scattered thoughts. Here and there you could piece the whole puzzle, but if you’re not actively trying to do that, Sakugan doesn’t provide for a good casual watch.

Of course, I’m referring to the scene with Merooro using a projector and explaining everything to the cast and in verbatim to us. Why now? What was the point of explaining it now? Putting the pieces together for us. It felt like it was going to dive deep into a recap episode, but thankfully it didn’t do that. It felt like a just in case you weren’t paying attention, now here it is all splayed out for you, with nice words and cohesive thought.

Here’s the thing, and it’s something I couldn’t really dive deep in past episodes, but this one has given me the light. Mystery has to be fair, and mystery can only be given out in pieces, through exponential increments. Film and TV can both have their mystery, but at their respective ends, a big revelation needs to happen in order for the viewer to be able to piece together the puzzle. The viewer is one who needs to come to their own conclusions. So in Sakugan’s case, this episode felt weird at the start because of the whole explanation, even though we already knew what everything was, and you could assume the labyrinth was made in order to farm water and other resources, there’s still the mystery of why Kaiju’s are showing up. And why is the terror group is attacking, to which we got some answers this episode into that, with the Rainbow Children. What exactly is that, and why do they want to kill those children. I do not know. Furthermore, they showed Ororop is also involved with the terror group.

So you know, it’s all in the air at this point. Sakugan is still missing some key elements in its writing, but – at least this episode. They were overshadowed by the addition of growth the addition of the Merooro ark (Noah’s Ark), and the group attacking the ship. So it’s not all bad, it’s still dangling its mystery in front of us, tantalizing us like dogs with a sausage on a string. But in my case, I’m afraid I’m a grumpy cat. Who looks at the meat with agonizing and judgmental eyes. “I’ve eaten better meats before, can’t believe you would disgrace my whole families like this” Or something like that.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and look forward to next week!

Preview