天下制覇

Oh, we’re back to Pokemon fights now. Thank god.

Impressions:

I’d be more mad at the show for continuing to have no idea what it’s doing if this episode hadn’t actually been one of the most focused ones in a long time and gotten back to what the show actually did right… which is to say to just forget trying to make the economic stuff make any sense overall and just use it as a very light framework while letting the characters actually interact with each other. Sure, they had to invent a magical widget that gives Mikuni his amazing powers, ignore all the daddy stuff, and Hanabi… and decided to introduce random betrayal within Mikuni’s guild by a character I’m not even sure ever had a name… but hey, Pokemon fights. Over a magical card! It sure beats the grand plan to continue pulling out money and rain it down onto the streets.

Yeah, it wasn’t exactly that thrilling in the end, thanks in large part to both battles being plagued by the Assets spontaneously collapsing due to the strain Mikuni’s putting on them. Jennifer versus Mikuni wasn’t bad, mostly because it was short, visceral, and to the point. Also that it was not interrupted by a lengthy monologue, dramatic music, and "Micromacromezzoflation OVERHEATED ECONOMY." It hurts just to write that. It’s like Freezing where they just keep tacking on random extra words and add a few extra flame effects. I would have liked to see Mikuni taking other people’s Assets and then having her devour them to win the whole time instead of introduced just now. It would have… you know… helped actually show his ruthless attitude the whole time instead of blathering on about god only knows what… especially when it’s all apparently coming down to who holds the heart of the credit cards.

Of course, the big dramatic stretched out death scene for Jennifer does run into the issue of coming right after Kimimaro nuked an entire city block… as well as multiple instances of people going on with their lives in some form after being ‘killed’ in these battles beforehand, making Jennifer’s ‘death’ ring pretty hollow. Oh yeah, and that the entire point at the moment is to wreck the Financial Distract so that it stops screwing with people futures. So I guess if Kimimaro fails, then her ‘death’ will be touching instead of corny and drawn out.