[TF RyuShin]

Everyone is talking about how great Fukuzoe was that they forgot my boy, Yamashita. It's only after my second rewatch that I started to appreciate the amount of gag and comedy that Yamashita brought and also elevated Fukuzoe's moments. Fukuzoe and Shesta giving dogeza was nice, Yamashita also GAVE dogeza was perfection. He is firmly my favorite 'underrated' side character for me.

That aside, I agree with everyone's opinions on how great this as an penultimate episode. In the late stage of Zero-One, it's pretty hard to see a build-up and plot progression episode like this with such a concise precision and an enjoyable pacing. From the Fukuzoe Co. dogeza, Yua calming the Humagears protestants, Gai giving back AIMS in Yua's responsibility, Williamson's satisfied smile, and so on. Even with my critic for Fuwa a few episodes ago, undoubtedly it's fitting that Fuwa was the one who tried the hardest to bring Aruto back.

If there's one nitpick here, I don't like how they used Ikazuchi to stop Horobi. By the time, Horobi said what Ikazuchi would do if Subaru was killed by humans, Ikazuchi basically got a memory overheat after that. A bit of shame from an otherwise satisfying episode. It would be better if Horobi and Ikazuchi could engage in one last par, akin to Fuwa and Aruto. That could be used as a testimony for Horobi's Ark-Scorpion power later.




I wish I could put more images on my posts like Die did but it was a bit of hassle. This episode gave some engaging and acrobatic shots here and there. I LOVE the fight between Zero-Two and Vulcan here. It was less a fight and more of Aruto swatting a fly when he was trying to walk away. It was only after Aruto was fed up by Fuwa's constant meddling that the show used Ark-One's dark room visual. Seeing Aruto in that dark room with sparks were genuinely terrifying and heartbreaking. Kudos for Fuwa to be the ONLY one to land a clear hit to Zero-Two and even Aruto was a bit astounded that Fuwa's fist did land on him. Even small details like Zero-Two didn't move an inch when Vulcan was trying his best to give one final punch; Aruto had already read Fuwa's final fist won't land on him a second time.



One of my favorite shots in this episode was the shot when Azu was hugging Aruto from the back. That basically described Aruto's mental health that time. I think the biggest reason why Aruto perfectly accepted Azu's temptation was simply because he NEEDED Izu. The reason why Aruto donned the Ark-One's suit was simply to feel the presence of Izu, or at least someone similar to her. If anyone read Ark-One body parts on the Wikia, there's a part called Ark Signal One somewhere in the helmet. That part gave the user somewhat a calm and relieving sensation even if we saw how aggressive Ark-One was on the outside. That shot of Aruto and Azu might perfectly describe the sensation of Ark Signal One. Aruto could NOT move on from Izu's death and he let himself to be drowned in basically ecstasy just to feel Izu was on his side no matter how fake it was.