Uninvested fights
Cyberspace looks like garbage
Surprise villain why?!
Ex-Arm once again screws up in ways I
wouldn’t even have expected. Pretty much the whole episode is just a
brawl between Beta (who manifests as a stupid little worker robot
with knife hands and has the yakuza guy, his granddaughter, and
smiling man captive), Auctioneer Skeletor (who isn’t explained and
seems to hate Beta) and the boots on the ground all fighting for
their own reasons. This includes sneaky glasses guy’s army or robot
catgirls, the vengeful Arabian prince who doesn’t want to let Beta
kill the old man before he can, and the police plus Ygg.
The fighting in here has actually
gotten better, as in we’re at PS2 Fighting Game quality. Maybe
something like an old Soul Calibur game? But even then some really
janky motions come out now again to remind you that you’re not
holding a controller, this is Ex-Arm, and it’s incompetent.
After way to much setup we FINALLY get
our lead hacking again, except this time cyberspace is visualized as
a stony labyrinth he’ll have to navigate while he and Ygg are wearing
off-brand plugsuits in the attempt to find and engage Beta. The main
character does, and gets engaged with Beta (the crazy Ygg-eyed
version of himself), earning a long-winded speech with some confusing
exposition about how Beta is a second Ex-Arm 00 (no answer as to if
he’s another human brain or a digital copy) and then the typical
villain stuff about how humanity is evil and destructive and how the
hero has no chance… you know, typical second-to-last episode
breaking speech, except we get it here in Episode 8.
Ygg comes out of the woodwork to “beat”
digital Beta while a rescue is attempted in realspace, but the
digital fight isn’t over despite being disengaged for the moment, and
in the physical fight Beta’s stupid robot takes off Smiling Man’s
head.
Except it’s revealed promptly that
Smiling Man was actually some sort of cyborg (His eyes open and light
up after he’s beheaded) and also apparently was under the control of
Beta since long before this arc began? This makes absolutely no
sense. The characters react as though it should have been obvious,
but then why did Beta off what was basically himself? It’s not like
he needed to keep a masquerade going.
Soon enough, the government drops in a
new threat, a giant Spider Tank with laser cannons, while Beta brings
in an army of his stupid little robots, baby-talking all the way.
Auctioneer, despite having some really powerful Ex-Arms that he used
and a grudge against main enemy Beta seems to have vanished in the
transitions, so I don’t know if he’s just off camera or if he’s
actually fled.
And honestly? I don’t care and neither
should you.