[DreamSword]

Episode 8: Weak No Longer

It was really easy to tell that Kobayashi was the one who wrote this episode.

Because here's the thing, if this show had at all any amount of better setup in regards to the events of this episode, this would've really worked.

Why? Because unlike the past few episodes, this one actually attempted to give a crap about its characters, ontop of having an appropriate amount of atmosphere to the carry its emotional weight.

It's just that, unfortunately, the character interactions and events of the previous few episodes make those of this episode really ring hollow. Seriously, this episode felt like a continuation of some alternate draft of Blassreiter that never got put to animation.

This whole episode is chock full of little character moments that almost amount to something. Like Amanda talking to the guy with hair covering his eyes about why he always wears a bullet on his necklace. This would be cool we ever got any idea at all about who he is. Or like Malek wanting revenge for Yohan, which would be all well and good if not for Yohan being a terrible piece of crap.

Heck, even this episode's' whole stint of "Amalgams are people too" would've worked so much better if the last few episodes hadn't gone explicitly out of their way in saying that "all Amalgams are doomed to be monsters." Which, by the way, the origin story of the Amalgams is given a big highlight here, in that it's a huge ripoff of shows like Tekkaman and Detonator Orgun, two other anime you could easily be watching over this one.

This episode also got me really wondering about how exactly this anime came to fruition, because outside of Urobochi and Kobayashi, there's a third writer credited as co-creator; Ichiro Itano. So, I looked into his credentials and let's just say that if he was infact a huge influence, then that explains alot, because this guy isn't a writer. From what I could find, this is the first anime he's ever actually written for, as everything else he's done has been animation and directing. And it doesn't seem like he's written for anything else since.

If Kobayashi takes over for the majority of the show from here on, I think Blassreiter could be saved, but again, not getting my hopes up for it.