Helck

Episode 4

After an episode that was mostly exposition, this week gives us an episode that has a pretty even split of exposition, action, and suspense. I wasn't expecting the exposition section of this episode to be about power scaling and I genuinely grew at the idea but I like how it is sort of tied up in the overall mystery of the show. So before I thought the title of “hero” was sort of seen as just that, a title. But in the first half of this episode, it seems like the characters are using that moniker as a specific measure of power. Helck and his brother were considered heroes because of their overwhelming power. The winged creatures here turned out to be humans that have gone through some sort of awakening where they seem to exist somewhere between a regular human and the power of a hero.

How did they acquire this power? I don't know but certain context clues make it seem like these people went through some kind of ritual or experiment that only ended up working with certain individuals. The transformation also seems to be linked to battle. Maybe it works similarly to the way that power-ups work in Dragon Ball where the more you nearly die in battle, the stronger you get. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Helck was aware of this, which is why he stopped the finishing blow on his former friend. I kind of wish the show didn't so obviously frame that for the sake of dramatic tension if I'm being honest though. The pacing of the show is starting to pick up again so I don't know why we can't just speed through these suspicions when there's more going on.

There are some decent effect animations here, although that whole sequence with all the characters falling felt weird and janky. The setup for the end of the episode was pretty predictable but you could argue it will be a necessary step for the narrative. Getting Helck and Vermilio alone together at a far-off place away from the human and demon realm might offer a good opportunity for there to be some genuine character growth between the two. I'm curious to see where this goes.

Rating:

Helck is currently streaming on HIDIVE.