The Fable is a good old-fashioned anime in a lot of ways. Kind of “analog” in the sense that Boss meant it in last week’s episode. And one way is that it’s a traditional two-cour show – none of this namby-pamby split cour nonsense. Rack up a new OP and ED and get right back on the road – that’s the noughties way. That does leave a series with the decision about whether to have a break in the sense of story – an intermediate conclusion and a new beginning – which doesn’t always fit with the timing if it’s an adaptation. That’s the case here, but all in all it flows pretty naturally. If the pacing was tweaked to make it happen, it wasn’t done clumsily.
In the aftermaths of the warehouse showdown, Misaki-chan is behaving awkwardly around Akira at Octopus. It’s all about the nude drawings he made of her, but of course he’s so lacking in any social awareness that doesn’t even realize that could be a problem. He’s worried that she put two and two together, which to be honest I’m kind of surprised she didn’t. Kainuma promises to cause further problems – he’s still bemoaning Akira forcing him to surrender his hidden camera videos from Misaki’s apartment.
Meanwhile, Sunagawa is emerging as the biggest hot spot in the story. We still don’t know who his second target is (I made my guess last week) but he’s still nosing around about Fable. He seeks out Takouda (the weapons guy) because, Sunagawa notes, he was a “cleaner” 15 years earlier. As such he probably knows something about Fable (the organization) which – clearly – he does. But he’s not telling, and he – as everyone else in the know does – makes it very clear that this is not a garden in which anyone with a shred of self-preservation should be digging. Is that going to stop Sunagawa? From what we know of the guy, that seems very unlikely.
Akira, meanwhile – despite referring to the warehouse affair in which Sunagawa marvelled that he took down his pro and lackeys with a toy gun as a “walk in the park” – is worried that he’s losing his edge. So he decides to take three days in the mountains to try and hone it. He buys himself a new Blackhawk knife – the old one having been lost when the bear he stabbed in the eye with it ran off (yeah, that was 100% not a joke). He takes a call from Ebihara, who gives him a heads up that Fable paid him a visit and read him the riot act. And takes a present from Fable – the very Jimmy Lile Rambo knife he brandished during that dressing down in the hospital.
Now the focus turns to Kuro-san, as the final moments of the first cour suggested it would. I don’t doubt that this subplot could turn dark, but honestly it seems like the whole Kuro arc is mostly going to be about comic relief – which is fine with me. Kuro is a real doof it has to be said, but he’s nothing if not determined. He shows up announced at Youko’s place, announces that he knows the real reason she and her “brother” are in Osaka, and proceeds to beg for advice on how to get Akira to take him as his apprentice. One would have expected Youko to mine this for lulz even more than she does, but she seems genuinely worried that Kuro – who comes off as an okay guy – is going to get himself killed.
If I have any issue with this arc, it’s that Kuro is such a dim bulb it hardly seems likely he’d have advanced as far in Maguro as he has. Ultimately Youko suggests he beg Akira to take him with on his trip, which Kuro immediately does. He even rips his cast off early (which is frankly what I was worrying about for much of the episode). He’s in so far over his head it isn’t funny, but the gap between his idea of what this outing is about and Akira’s is. All the latter can do is keep repeating “Are we going camping?” in disbelief, before finally deciding Kuro has packed for a picnic. I can’t imagine this possibly going well for Kuro, but I suspect Akira will make sure he doesn’t get himself killed at the very least.
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