Episode Fourteen Thoughts
Yes, I am back. Took me a while, but we back. It’s now time for episode fourteen! Up until this point was on Hina and her story, with the brief mention of Rei’s eventual match with Touji Souya. However, unlike Hina’s arc which you can tell was very well thought out and planned to perfection. It felt like we were suddenly jumping back into the match between Rei and Souya. Which doesn’t feel as planned as the arc that came before it. Now my understanding is that this battle should have a significant impact on the direction of the story, however the lack thereof build up to it is unsettling.
As a matter of fact, episode fourteen felt very comedic. Which is something I usually welcome if it fits within the overall atmosphere the anime has created. However for this particular anime, 3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season is a drama and so my expectation is that each episode will more or less be emotional in one way or another of varying degrees. That has been my biggest issue with this anime. While it is important to break things up every once and awhile, I think it’s very troublesome and annoying to have these overzealous comedic scenes. It’s even more annoying when they happen in-between two emotional scenes or take up the majority of one episode, that is also something I dislike. I prefer things within anime labelled as “Drama” to be continuous with each scene seamlessly flowing into one another. I also expect that the mood set by the episode be carried out from beginning to end.
Episode fourteen was the weaker of the episodes in large due to the fact that it felt very incomplete and rushed. One thing that I associate with the 3-gatsu no Lion Series is how well thought out each arc was. Each arc felt like there was a gradual build up to it’s climax before the anime moved to the next one. However this shogi battle between Rei and Souya lacked all of this. Immediately after Hina’s arc, we immediately jump to the commencement of their match. I will admit, this was something I was extremely disappointed by because I was looking forward to a build up, but nope, they just threw it at us immediately.
All that aside, there was something I found interesting and this was how the anime and the characters involved in this particular scene painted this Touji Souya figure as some sort of god-like being in the Shogi world. He’s treated as the final boss that no one has yet to beat. Not only is he treated as a god-like figure, but with how he’s portrayed in this episode his personality felt very robotic. He knew what to say and how to say things to the media. He knew how to act and what to do, Souya basically felt like someone who has done this so many times to the point where everything feels very fabricated. But Souya also felt like a puppet, trapped in the world of Shogi and made to be the face of the sport. It honestly felt like Takanori Jinguuji was using both Souya and Rei to help him with his own aspirations because if I remember correctly, Jinguuji just straight up told Rei he was going to have a match with Souya out of the blue. AND, his reasoning was because people wouldn’t want to watch a Sakutarou Yanagihara vs. Kai Shimada match.
Boring match (Sakutarou Yanagihara vs. Kai Shimada) = less watchers = less revenue and sponsors. verses hyped up match (Rei Kiriyama vs. Touji Souya) = more watchers = more revenue and sponsors.
Anyway, that’s my two cents on that. Episode fourteen was a ‘meh’ episode, probably a ‘C’ letter grade at best. Hopefully episode fifteen will make up for this episodes shortcomings.
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