Arata Kangatari - 04

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Arata Kangatari 04

A decisive Hinohara appears.

Kanate and Ginchi wake up in a strange arena-like place where the warden of Gatoya, Tsutsuga, orders them to fight for their freedom. In order to free Ginchi, Kanate purposefully riles him up until Ginchi hits Kanate. However, it turns out tat Tsutsuga a douchebag who then consigns the winner to death anyway. Luckily, Hinohara is there to intervene. He summons his Hayagami and manages to get through to Tsutsuga. It turns out, in the past Tsutsuga was also betrayed, which led to him turning into a tyrant.

Though Tsutsuga’s background did not really convince me of anything or draw out any kind of emotion, it’s nice to see that they’re sticking to the theme of trust and how having your trust betrayed by someone you care for can be corrupting. The show draws an interesting point about how Hinohara could have also become like Tsutsuga had he not had the trust of the princess and others to help him. We got to see a brief flash of the real world, which makes me wonder if we will ever get Arata’s side of the story.  I’ve spoken more about this in my last post though, so I won’t go on.

As predicted, it took a lot of yelling and feelings to make the Hayagami appear. It’s a staple trope that admit I wish was not as common as it is. I hope as the episodes progress we’ll have less of it to be honest.

Secondly, I was surprised that all the prisoners taken during Judgement were still alive and returned safely. I don’t know how long Judgement has been going on, but ho exactly did they stay alive for so long? Surely if Tsutsuga made people battle each other for their freedom, there would be deaths. Being unable to kill nameless characters always makes me wary. If you can’t kill the people in the background, will you have the guts to play for higher stakes?

Well, enough of my complaining. I will say, however, that I like Arata’s more decisive attitude in this episode. He really is shaping up into a hero. Seeing Tsutsuga in his state, I would have just put him out of his misery but then that’s probably why I’m not the chosen one. Hinohara, in true naive-hero fashion, decides to save Tsutsuga despite the fact that Tsutsuga has no arms or legs and there are pipes coming out of his head. I got some old-school RPG vibes from seeing Tsutsuga disappear into the light and Hinohara gain a new sword. It feels like old Final Fantasy games where you go around collecting crystals.

When I think about it, Arata Kangatari does have a very RPG feel about it right down to a good, old saving the princess quest. Hinohara has already amassed a party of sorts and escaped a dungeon. I guess it’s a good thing that I like RPGs.