天下制覇

The bare chests filling this episode go out to all the ladies.

Impressions:

I'm once again having trouble understanding the setting. I suspect that this episode's bounty of rippling pectorals was for the female fans, which seems to assume the existence of any fans, and I'm not sure I'm on board with that assumption. The whipping of a shirtless Hank at the start? Definitely a sex thing. Why is he not just telling Blondie everything anyway? "Why did my brother go crazy?" Well, kid, as you've seen, being transformed into a half-human half-monster and being sent out to murder everyone in your path with a group of other monster murderers has an effect on people. Also, the person who did this to him was planning on killing him, so he killed her instead, and she was my girlfriend, who also tried to kill me. But we're tsundere for each other, I guess, so, going to sit here and sulk at each other with smoldering gazes. Yeah, definitely a sex thing.

And then there's the monster of the week. It's easy to understand how a dragon dude, a behemoth dude, or some monster with magic powers is a threat. Hell, it's easy to understand how even just one random monster dude with slightly enhanced physical abilities is a threat to random peasants. But here? Here we have a dude who's a horse. With a bow. And a lance. Yes, the army has an entire squadron of dudes with jetpacks, flamethrowers, gatling guns, etc, but they're no match a dude with the power of being part horse. Maybe it's because they stood in a circle around him while shooting at him, a fact that seems to have escaped the director's understanding as to why that would be a bad thing. I suppose he also shrugs off bullets… right up until he doesn't, and what eventually brings him down? Tripping him with a rope. So much for the vaunted powers of a horse, eh?

Next Episode:

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