Busou Renkin - 21: Gone Into Flame

Title:Busou Renkin
Episode:21: Gone Into Flame
Synopsis
"Kazuki, now considered Victor III, came up against Captain Bravo, the first to attempt to re-kill him. Both engaged in a fierce deathmatch. Even when Tokiko and Gouta came to his aid, Kazuki insisted on continuing the fight in his own way. Kazuki was the winner and Bravo decided to entrust all hope for the future to him. But then, Commander Hiwatari, the leader of Team Re-kill, made his appearance".

Hiwatari orders Bravo to stand aside while he deals with Kazuki, Tokiko and Gouta. Bravo, however, steps forward to defend them. As they argue, the topic turns to a failed operation which they both took part in seven years ago, in which an entire school was annihilated, except for a single survivor--Tokiko. Hiwatari is unmoved and threatens to kill Bravo if he doesn't stand aside--but first he strikes at the three teenagers with his "Napalm, Blaze of Glory" technique. "Those kids you would protect" Hiwatari says, "went up in smoke right now"...
Comments
Eh, this show was much better in it's early days. The comedy--what there still is--seems laboured and the action tends to be either predictable and unexciting or so farfetched that it's hard to take seriously (for instance, the fight between Victor and an Alchemic Regiment submarine--was it all supposed to be a joke?). I don't really know what to make of this episode; one major battle is literally called off, another is indecisive, a third leaves me scratching my head. If Hiwatari's fire alchemy is so awesome, why did it barely scratch the three kids the first time around? And how, exactly, did they pull the trick which enabled them to survive it this time? How did Bravo defend himself? And why was he feeling so guilty? The renegades seem to be pardoned all of a sudden, without a convincing explanation why. This is just a guess, but maybe the strategy that will be adopted will be along the lines of "It takes a Victor to catch a Victor". "Loss of focus" is the term that comes to mind; in the early episodes you knew what was going on, why it was going on, and it was funny, too. I was surprised to see Hiwatari suddenly depicted as not such a bad guy all of a sudden; realistic, well-rounded characters are always nice, but that kind of came out of left field. Still, I'm eager to see where things go from here. What will be found at Newton Apple? And most important, what will become of my favorite character, Papillon?

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