Lotta arrows to the head this week.
Impressions:
Once again, I feel like the real story of the episode is wondering what’s going on with CloverWorks. You made little stuffed dolls for a short little five second exposition scene? Or did a producer’s wife already have those dolls and you were forced to put them in? And why are we using footage of a physical shogi board with someone’s actual hand? You use CGI for random troops, but put a dude in a costume and haul out a shogi board. You overanimate this dumb palanquin tank exploding out of the woods and doing a power slide, and then end on about 45 seconds of shocked faces and stills.
The battle in the episode hasn’t gotten any more interesting though. It’s still a lot of announcing logistics and as soon as anything happens, it un-happens. Oh no, my father’s dead. Actually, I’m right here. Oh no, we’re ambushed. Actually, we’re counter-ambushed. Oh no, there’s a dude in a box. Oops, the episode’s over before we realized we can just shoot it or the dudes carrying it with arrows. The characters exist in the battle, but they’re not doing much of anything, and if one, or all of them, just didn’t appear for the rest of this arc, who would be able to tell the difference? It’s not even clear who it’s meant to be focused on, if anybody. Characters drive stories, and this is only involving them for gags. It’s a stark contrast to the village fight in the previous season.
Next Episode:
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