GARO – Vanishing Line #16 — Punching Bullets

February 2nd, 2018

 

I can't take characters named Pedro in Japanese media seriously.

Both Beatless and Killing Bites's episodes this week were pretty godawful. They shared the theme of "What if we do something theoretically cool, but overcomplicate it and spend all our time talking about the rules instead." Throw in a few rape overtures, and a cliffhanger declaring that now the cool part is going to begin, despite all indications otherwise, and there you go. Two shows on Friday is fine. I think for the rest of the season, I'm just going to make posts on random things on Tuesday or Wednesday to pad out the week while praying that next season will be less horrendous.

Impressions:

Another decent, if not particularly noteworthy episode. This one was more focused on Sword's past than the future, which is never really my preference, and I don't think that it's something that needs much expanding on, but it continues to hint and insinuate, rather than bludgeon with the cudgel of having characters simply recite, so probably gets a pass, especially this season. The B Plot, however, was pretty lame. Sword and Sophie have a spat, but they both realize it's a spat, make up and move on by the end. It should've been predicated on something less petty though, and Sophie really needed something more to get to her ephiphany than a little pep talk from Gina, who existed this week to go au natural in her laciest underwear.

In the meantime, Sword finds a pseudo kindred spirit with similar beats to his own past who he helps by spiriting him away once while in danger, and then punching a bullet through a window. I kind of feel like they should've worked the horror angle into that story a bit more, perhaps with Pedro-but-not-Pedro in danger of becoming one if he gave in to revenge, but that could've also taken away some of the more humanizing aspects of it. The end also got a little excessive, both in breaking down into a sobbing wreck rather than continuing on with the understated drama as it had, and for the pig trampling scene. It really needed some kind of cathartic capstone to it, and neither of those gave any kind of real finality to those plots.

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