Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Sengoku Youko
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MFrontier
Posts: 11370 |
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So now we've got our core four set up, Shaku got her new outfit, and their daily life together begins...Jinka continues to look down upon humanity and desire to be a katawara yet even he can be floored by humanity and be held back by his own, even if he'll never admit to it. He also really needs more self-awareness when it comes to both katawara and humans, but that's probably part of his character arc.
Meanwhile Tama talks of peace and kindness but will even throw hands at a kid if she feels she has to. I can't think they'd establish Jinka has a biological family and not develop that at some point even if he has no interest in them. Zanzou was pretty cool, I hope we see him again...especially with his sister set to be the next Dangaisyuu assassin. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11370 |
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Dang, I was kind of hoping Zanzou would get to train Shinsuke more. I liked what little we saw of their dynamic in this episode.
This season has been really bad about killing off Waifu antagonists voiced by Rina Sato, though she does an amazing job. Higan was cool if also deranged, too caught up in pursuing prestige for her family over what really mattered that it ruined her. Also the visual of her body becoming nothing but stone was quite effective. So the two Shaku's are Shaku (or Shakuyuku) and Kagan. The only mutual human-katawara hybrid. In a show exploring the distinction between humans and katawara, and whether there is one, they feel like very pivotal characters and not just testament's to the Dansaigyuu's experiments. I find it funny how Jinka immediately wants to be friends with Kagan and Kagan accepts Jinka as a friend because Shaku thinks of him as one...even though Jinka would probably never call Shaku a friend. Did not expect the OP dragon guy to show up and wreck everything. He even feels like the true Final Boss now that they're making their pursuit of the Dansaigyuu basically build up to defeating him. Also is Senya another human-katawara hybrid? |
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YourNameIsMitsuha
Posts: 61 |
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I've got no problems with the pacing in this show. Yes, it's fast, but it's all very easy to digest, so I'm never feeling confused. I don't mind being introduced to multiple characters and concepts in this 6th episode because we already knew more assassins are coming, so it's a bit of a relief not to have each episode be one new assassin at a time. They established that they still are a threat, then moved on nicely to bring us a more meaningful over-arching plot to focus the rest of the arc with. I'm very happy with this, and that dragon and he creepy kid friend look like some serious motivation for character development. That plus the fox spirits enthusiastic plan speech give us an outline going forward. You guys are free to rest and digest the series whenever you want, I'm hoping they keep the pacing fast and furious, because I'm loving it!
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InNeedOfAName
Posts: 164 |
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Mizukami has mentioned that they're all minors except for Shinsuke... kind of. He basically puts Shinsuke's age up in the air. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11370 |
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I'm getting "full season of training" for Shinsuke to master that magic sword. Will Jinka learn to respect him in that timeframe? Maybe, maybe not. But Shaku is rooting for him!
Douren seems like a really cool guy (Tetsu Inada!). He's obviously the tiger warrior from the OP but I feel like the inevitable confrontation with him will go much differently compared to their fights with the other Beast Generals. Wasn't expecting all that engrish. That was a powerful sequence with Tama and Fukou. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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The "kami" in the surname Mizukami, is not from the kanji for god (神). It is from the kanji for above/upper (上). Mizukami Satoshi - 水上 悟志 |
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 115 |
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Honestly, this is where I drop the series. I'm just so tired of fun femme characters getting killed off in fiction, I don't have the patience for it anymore. The episode itself was quite arresting and well done, absolutely, but I just can't. I was angry at the end because this happens so often. Shaku was the only femme combatant in the party, and already consistently shown to be less potent than Jinka, and they up and kill her off halfway through the series. This feels so bog-standard Shounen fridging the girl for manpain.
I'm just really disappointed. I'd heard this writer was really good and subversive, but this feels bog standard in the worst possible ways. |
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 464 |
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To be fair to the author, this was one of their earlier works from 2007. But they also had already finished Biscuit Hammer which started in 2005, so... Biscuit Hammer also had early deaths among the main cast, but the cast was much bigger and the first made more sense as spoiler[a male mentor figure, if I remember correctly]. Here, Shakugan had a lot of potential, and I'm disappointed that she was underdeveloped compared to the others. She even started to push Shinsuke in the right direction, and I don't think taking her away will help that. |
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 115 |
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Yeah I know my friends adore Biscuit Hammer which I haven't really read but it sounds far better managed than that. Shakugan dying just feels bad because she was just starting to be explored and it all just feels like it gets thrown out to facilitate the growth of the male co-lead, so very much the classic "fridging". It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2460 |
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If spoilers might change your opinion: spoiler[she's not dead. She will be back, but it will take a long time. You are correct in that this is mostly used as fuel for growth for the male characters though]
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 513 Location: Poland |
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You seem to be way too obsessed with tropes to acknowledge good writing happening to female characters. Was Ben Kenobi fridged? Or Gandalf? Most shonen do not kill female characters because those female characters just don't mater, so I don't see at all that " bog-standard Shounen fridging". Shaku got cool death like Boromir from LotR, one that showed she already achieved what she wanted in her life despite her previous failures and hardships. Your attitude and similar ones shown in Apothecary Diaries threads are IMHO most harmful to creating good female characters, because they're not allowed to fall into many tropes freely allowed for male characters because it would be "fridging" or "Manic Pixie Girl" or "She was beautiful all along" or whatever. Let female characters have the cool roles they have, even if they're not exactly the ones you hoped for. EDIT: I have forgotten that author did basically same thing with male character in other series, including romantic feelings about to be reciprocated shortly before tear-inducing brave death. It's not shonen writing of female characters, it's just shonen writing that happened to female character, which is somehow bad because girls can't have cool deaths. Last edited by a_Bear_in_Bearcave on Fri Feb 23, 2024 2:06 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7343 Location: Maine |
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Yeah, this episode was a gut punch of emotions, but one way to look at it is Shaku paying things forward. First they all saved her life and now she's saving the lives of those babies. What I wasn't expecting was Jinka's reaction to everything going on. He went from hysterical laughter one moment to hysterical bawling the next. He may not want to be a human anymore but he sure is losing ground on that progress.
spoiler[I kinda assumed this would be the case, if you're going to turn yourself into a big rock then where better than a place full of living rocks?] Emerje |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11370 |
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I guess Biscuit Hammer prepared me for Mizukami making a character so likeable, giving you a ship with them you want to root for, only to take it away so tragically.
Seeing Shaku in the OP for the rest of this cour is going to hurt so, so much. Douren continues to be a standup guy and Resshin is a complete and utter scumbag. I hope Jinka and Douren can get a proper match-up and Shinsuke is the one that puts Resshin down for good. I guess took the death flags for granted (the baby being named after either Shaku or Kagan, her basically confessing to Shinsuke - or Kagan forcing her into doing it), yet at the same time I guess there's a beauty in Shaku using a power that she sought for herself but only ended up causing death to be used to save lives...and let her and Kagan live on in those twins. |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 498 |
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I do think it's worth noting that, even setting aside potential spoilers, Sengoku Youko has already been confirmed for 3 cours. We're 1/6 of the way through the series, not halfway. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11370 |
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Wow, Shinsuke's really become a completely different character, even if he's battling his new vengeance and bitter-drivern characterization with the old version of him that Shakugan loved/respected. He's not the chew toy of the main cast any more and isn't taking any of Jinka or Tama's @#$% any more.
I can kind of see the logic behind why it would be better to honor a deal where a katawara effectively protects a village at the expense of one human life every four years...but that's a statistic, and a life is a life, and any village that would rather put their fates into a supernatural being and sacrifice an innocent for their own sakes, doesn't deserve that protection. Is the sword actually sentient or is it all in Shinsuke (or Takekichi's) head? Could go either way on this show. Resshin being a Barry is priceless. Shinsuke beating the snot out of him was so satisfying. Oh hey, Ayahi Takagaki! I wonder what's up with this Goddess. And they're dealing with Jinun and Senya faster than I expected. |
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