Okay, I’m going split this episode into two parts: “The Dazai Part” and “The Explosion-y Fight Part”. And before I start getting into it, I must say that this show has really not been doing it for me. A lot of the characters are pretty stale and one dimensional, and Atsushi is becoming (or already is) a Mary Sue. The comedy is tired, consisting of mostly characters acting silly or shocked with cartoon-chibi face bubbles to express the absurdity. We haven’t gotten a good Dazai suicide joke in a while either. The action is mediocre and the plotting has been a series of awful setups with only decent payoffs. I’m having a hard time enjoying this show, and the logical leaps I have to take only hinder my experience further. And I know I’ve given a lot of claims without much evidence, but that’s because I’m saving my final thoughts for the full season review. This was just a sort of glimpse into how I’m feeling about the show right now. But I digress.

The Dazai Part

So this was hard to follow. Dazai planned to be caught and sent a letter to the executives of the mafia to ensure his safety. The reasoning here is that he has dirt on them and if he were to die it would all be released. Now, I’m a little skeptical about this part, because the way it was put made it seem like the mafia actually does have to hide from the law. The information leaked would be enough to prosecute them. But the thing is, up until now it didn’t seem like the mafia was hiding from anyone. They cause bombings and shootouts in broad daylight, sometimes directly in front of a police station. Also, they have super powers. So my question is: Who would prosecute them? The Agency can’t seem to squelch them, so what could the government do? And even before all that, why hasn’t Dazai just leaked the information already? Isn’t he supposed to be a good guy? It could be because Dazai holds that information to cover his own ass, or has some other plan in mind. I don’t know where this is going, and although that may be on purpose, at this point it just seems nonsensical and annoying. The one good thing that comes from this part is that we get a glimpse at what seems to be a greater villain and scheme in the overarching plot of the show. That’s good, because Port Mafia seems like a bunch of ineloquent pricks. Just because they’re bad guys doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to relate to them on some fucking level. I don’t even know what their motives are. It’s assumed to be greed, like most evil groups, but I’ve never seen them steal anything besides Atsushi.

The Explosion-y Fight Part

Speaking of Atsushi, he’s apparently an excellent fighter now. Could’ve at least used a training montage beforehand, but I guess he’s just a natural when in a pinch. The major plot hole before this fight is ridiculous. We just pick up where Kyouka breaks him out and she apparently rigged bombs on the ship at some point in time too. Then Kunikida comes in when Atsushi gets away from Ryuunosuke and there’s this really phoned moment where Atsushi has to make a choice between saving himself and saving the girl. And then he says “she said the crepe she had with me tasted great”. Okay. *looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong sigh*…You know what? No. It’s not okay. What a stupid line.

On to the actual fight, it’s also full of lame one-liners. There’s a lot of lackluster dialogue going on during this, because you can’t just have a cool fight with no words being spoken, right? (sarcasm) There needs to be some sort of theme to drive home. And that theme is self-worth. I guess it’s one of the major themes of the entire show, which I probably should’ve seen coming. I mean, that same orphan flashback played like 20 times so far. But yeah, the bad guy tells the good guy that the cute girl was worthless and that made the good guy think about how people once called him worthless and that gave him even more strength to push on and win this fight even though he was impaled like twice. It’s a decent looking fight, but the writing coated it with some very mediocre paint. The one thing I did like about it was the tie-in to Ryuunosuke and Dazai. They have a history and Ryuunosuke apparently loves him or something so it kills him when Dazai says that his new subordinate is better. It’s a tad more interesting than anything else going on here.

And that’s all I really have to say about this episode. I really hope it gets better because I don’t like having to write a negative review week after week. But what do you think? Do you still like this show? Or are you kinda falling off like I am? I’d love to hear other opinions, so feel free to leave them in the comments below. Other than that, thanks for reading and be sure to come back next week!

Ooooh, a loli! Maybe this show will get better!