It’s so rare that a show I use for these seasonal writeups stays on course for an episode. I’m almost shocked.
Because this was, basically, what we’d expect out of Episode 1: the cast is all clowns, but do the right thing when its important. The Shinsengumi are tasked with escorting an important personage, and while they do we get some focus and development for Sakuya, who it turns out was once hired to kill the same person.
In addition to that more recent past, we also come to understand the start of Sakuya… being Sakuya, as it turns out that his father was physically abusive towards his mother and it doesn’t take a genius to realize what likely followed, as it’s confirmed towards the end of the episode that Sakuya killed him.
In the mean time, the team see a group of American warships and a demonstration of their cannons, which shakes them in different ways. Akira is disturbed that the age of the sword is likely ending, while Ichibanboshi seems determined to carry on in a changing world. They have a pretty decent scene, but again that’s not the main dish this time around.
After getting backstory from Sakuya and having Ichibanboshi stand up for him, Sakuya is contacted by his old assassin boss. Said boss tries to get Sakuya to return to the fold and kill the notable he’s currently bodyguarding, and when Sakuya refuses rather soundly, fights him man to man. Ichibanboshi, led by his magic/possessed sword, comes across the scene in time to hear that Sakuya killed his own father, but the episode ends before we see how he took it.
Speaking of which, one detail we get early is about the whole glowing sword thing, as Heisuke seems to think that the souls of his murdered comrades are possessing their swords, so it was the real (deceased) commander of the Shinsengumi lending Ichibanboshi his strength, and it could (will) happen again and could (will) happen for the others, or so Heisuke believes (plot logic, it’s true).
As one could guess from the length of the summary, the episode actually has a lot of grace notes. All the time that had to be spent last episode on just getting us into the scenario is largely spent on grace notes and character interactions that are… fairly basic, I suppose, but better than they could be. At the very least, there are mercifully few stupid comedy routines, keeping that to a level where it’s tolerable.
And one thing I am very much enjoying is the historical setting. This isn’t a nebulous period piece, it’s grounded in a very specific and important transitional point in the history of Japan, and is taking advantage of that. So some credit where it’s do with handling its themes there.
Next week, we’ll start to see how well it can sustain.