Is there more to life than just revenge? For Tetsunosuke, a trip to Shimabara, the Red
Light District, will provide an interesting answer to that question. Love and friendship seem to be blossoming for
Tetsu, Saya and Suzu. But they’re not
the only ones going through a change.
Aiyu, the Shinsengumi’s beautiful cook, decides to take her brothers place
as Hijikata’s spy and Yoshida imparts a dreadful warning to Suzu about Tetsunosuke. For the first time since his parents death,
Tetsunosuke looks into the eyes of the man who took them away from him and his
brother. Will he find resolve or will
fear overtake him?
If there were two things I definitely took away from
Peacemaker this week: 1. This show is awfully short on action for a Samurai
themed show and 2. Everyone in this series kind of sucks at being a spy. Now there was quite a bit I liked about the
episodes this week and I’ll get to that, but first the bad.
Yeah, Susumu isn’t the greatest spy in the world. When your target literally opens the window
you’re sitting next to and glares right at you, I can only face palm. There had to be a better position to do some
easvesdroping. And now his sister Aiyu
has to step in for him. If anything
happens to her, you can bet a lot of blame might be on Susumu for not doing a
better job. Even more embarrassing,
however, is the young girl who crushed on Okita who was sent in to retrive
information on the Shinsengumi. At first
I thought her gulibuleness was going to be an act…nope. That was all her and it makes me wonder what
Masuya was thinking sending her in at all.
Okita and Aiyu both saw through her instantly. Are there no good spies in this time period
where spying was everything? The answer
is yes. Akesato continues to be a bad
ass kunoichi but also WOW she’s Commander Yamanami’s Courtesan mistress? If that shoe drops I wonder how the poor guy
will take the news.
Speaking of Courtesans, the hands of fate drew Tetsu to
Shimabara, the Red Light District. It
was kind of cute seeing Tetsu so nervous, to the point of tears even, being
surrounded by so many teasing women. Of
course, the main plot was Tetsu figuring out that Saya is a Courtesan in
training here. It’s so sweet to see he
doesn’t think less of her despite this revelation. Still, it’s kind of sad to hear Akesato sadly
mention that Saya will eventually take on clients at a young age, such are the
times. Even so, it’s clear Saya’s bond
with Tetsu is stronger than ever with this secret revealed. Things were made even better when Suzu joined
the group. There’s a good, playful
dynamic between this intertwined trio.
And thennnnnnn Yoshida arrived. Here’s where things get both good and
bad. The good is, Tetsu has seen Yoshida
and is certain he is the man who killed his parents. Naturally, this brings up flashbacks of the
murders he saw and actually scares him a bit, so much that it was Aiyu, being
the good natured big sister figure, and not his brother Tatsunosuke, who broke
Tetsu out of his funk. It’s hard not to
sympathize a little with Tatsu. Tetsu is
all he has left so I get he wants to protect him. But selfishly wanting Tetsu to stay a
frightened kid is just wrong to me.
Tetsu needs to grow, as a person and as a character, and I feel he’s
getting that growth through the Shinsengumi, Saya and Suzu. Tatsu should be more supportive of that
rather than cursing everything that seems to be giving Tetsu direction.
And the bad? Well
Yoshida’s reaction to seeing Tetsu and Tatsu was strange. The look on his face was scary but it looked
like he was freaking out himself. He
calls Tetsu “tainted” and immedietly saw Tetsu’s dad in Tatsu (who looks just
like him minus the goatee). Here’s where
I feel eliminating certain plots from the show (mostly the stupid supernatural
stuff) and replacing it with some backstory for Tetsu’s father would come in
handy. Clearly, Tetsu’s old man had an
impact on several people, from Yoshida to the nearly pointless Ryoma Sakamoto
(the gun wielding samurai from last week).
Yoshida fears him (to the point where he might have killed him) and
Sakamoto admires him (using the term “Peacemaker” as Tetsu’s father did). What the heck was the elder Ichimura’s deal? What made him so dangerous yet reveared? This is where something I said in the first
week of reviewing this series comes in.
Studio Gonzo has a record of making decent look to spectacular looking
shows but cant really craft a fully rounded tale (Hellsing and Samurai 7 are
both examples of this). As a minor
spoiler, while Peacemaker Kurogane has a manga continuation, the Anime has no
second season. So, I don’t expect a lot of
questions to be answered and can already see the plot holes getting deeper.
We did end the week on a surprisingly needed shot of
humor after such dark developments.
Seeing an unhinged Hijikata terrorize Tetsu and his men in search of his
missing book of terrible Haiku’s was absolutely hilarious. He certainly lived up to his name of “Demon
Vice Commander” with the way his eyes glowed and the flames erupted around
him. In the grand scheme of the show,
it’s a silly diversion but I was entertained enough to forgive it, and it’s
rare a filler episode like this can do that for me. The episode also offered one more big
bombshell of plot: Yoshida wants Suzu to kill Tetsunosuke….yep I knew this
wasn’t going to end well once Tetsu found out Suzu was Yoshida’s page.
I’m glad we got some laughter to close out the week. Cause with Suzu and Aiyu’s new missions
sending them down dark paths, I think it’s the last time we’ll be laughing on
this show for a bit.
But seriously, we need some more action on this
show. There’s freaking samurai all over
the place, draw some swords dammit.
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