[Sh Ranger]

Inoue had a tough act to follow this week, coming after Geats' exciting premiere, especially considering how atypically unexciting last week's lame recap was.

But damn, this episode has everything! An honorable fight to the death is like the peak of romanticism and both parties are equally serious about this event (take notes, Kinoshita!), albeit with some lament over the tragic circumstances of their rivalry. In the 3 day interval before the fight, Sonoi trains with an unmorphed handicap against his fellow Noto, to get used to Don Momotarou's speed, while Tarou opts not to train due to his pride in his job and sportingly, he's prepared to accept the possibility of his loss if Sonoi seriously proves to be the superior fighter.

Despite the heaviness that comes with an honorable fight to the death, there are still a lot of comedic moments that made me smile. Like the exaggerated way the number of tumbleweeds increases the longer Sonoi waits for Tarou to show up. Or like, how their first attempt at a duel gets sequentially interrupted by virtually every character in the show in the most comically contrived way, you got Jirou, Murasame in his first appearance since Episode 21, Sayama and the Jyuto, the former Shurikenki becoming Mahouki (similar to Sakuma going from Another Faiz to Fourze, also a reference to Aoninjer, another magic-user ninja) to continue his vendetta on Tarou, prompting the other Donbrothers and Noto to intervene. That whole scene was crazy and awesome!

Other than that, we get a little exposition from Sonoi about the origin of the Jyuto, artificial lifeforms created by the Don Clan as livestock that got out of control. It's pretty appropriate that we learn this now, as Tarou and Sonoi treat their wounds, since that incident is probably the reason why the Noto and Don Clan became enemies, their conflict sadly inherited by Tarou and Sonoi who otherwise wouldn't need to fight.

Instead of postponing their duel until their injuries were healed, they were still determined to honor their commitment. Ultimately, Tarou kills Sonoi in "one good strike", a parallel to the ending of Episode 13. Except this time Sonoi got what he wanted, even though he didn't win, he got a fair and true fight without deception. It's a tragic victory for Tarou though, who feels no gratification in killing someone he cared about, but it's a victory he accepted nonetheless, as a way of giving Sonoi the honor he deserved. However, with Murasame taking his corpse, there's a chance he might come back.

The direction and choreography of this ending scene was especially stylish as well, happening silently and nonchalantly to the backdrop of their cool shared insert theme, What The Moon Knows. Overall, I'd consider this episode to be peak Donbrothers, providing a fitting conclusion to Tarou's and Sonoi's rivalry that still leaves open the possibility for Sonoi to come back somehow, if the plot's going where I think it's going.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rabbitman

Sorry if this has been brought up before, it probably has, but the Japanese word for ?Moon? is very similar to the word for ?love.?

So what do they keep showing with Sonoi and Don Momo? What do they sing about in their duet?

If any of you guys played Great Ace Attorney you might recognize the following name (or if you uh, just know Japanese literature too): Soseki Natsume is involved in a pretty good historical anecdote about talking about the moon instead of saying ?I love you.?

Tsuki -> Suki. Nice observation! I think that implication about their hidden feelings adds an extra layer of tragedy.