天下制覇

Using the actual title for once because the show maybe finally deserves it.

Impressions:

The first episode where I feel like the show’s finally come together as a real superhero show. After some criminals are killed in prison, Kotetsu’s attacked by the bomber from a couple episodes ago in a mecha, who happens to have the same Ouroboros tattoo as the man that killed Barny’s parents… and is then killed by the same guy (the evil judge assumably) that roasted all the other criminals. The show finally has a little bit of direction and a plot that doesn’t depend on Kotetsu being saaaaaaaaaaad. There’s some kind of criminal organization with a vigilante judge out killing people. Two actual antagonists in one go. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the judge was part of Ouroboros too.

It’s certainly not the most original plot, and there were still plenty of silly/stupid things. On the forefront was the bomber leaving the prison after the fourth victim and his mech having the same blue flame, giving the weird impression that he had somehow snuck a 15 foot tall mecha into a prison multiple times. Red herrings like that only work if you have established that your writing does not go off the deep end all the same. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if they did hide the mech in… I don’t know… his hat or something. Tiger was also making the homosexual jokes easier than usual in an episode about Fire Emblem by taking pictures of himself and hiding them on Barny’s phone. The squabble at the end was also a head slappingly bad moment.

Regardless, overall, this was much more of what I’d like to see from the show. Less CG and more superhero. It needs to get the basics of the genre right before it starts doing anything else and this was (finally) a very good step in that direction.

Preview:

Flame on!