Rating: B+
The series has been cycling through members of the Seven Shades for feature treatment this season, and this episode is Alpha’s turn. What we learn about her here is quite interesting and, honestly, a little heartbreaking. It’s hard not to sympathize with her given how Cid/Shadow/John Smith handles the situation.
To this point, Alpha has always been portrayed as cool and collected. She is the operational leader of Shadow Garden not just because she is first among Shadow’s followers or the strongest, but also because she takes his BS more to heart than anyone else and has the powerful will to turn that into action. Cid may have come up with the concept, but Shadow Garden is what it is because of Alpha. However, this episode shows that even she has her vulnerable points. She has literally defined her life on Cid’s words and her perception that she is executing Shadow’s will, so she is understandably shaken by learning that Shadow has taken on a different name to execute a scheme which not only has nothing to do with Shadow Garden but, in fact, seems to be at odds with the organization. Her strength comes in part from knowing that she serves a purpose, that she is useful to the young man who saved her and gave her life meaning, so why wouldn’t she become desperate when Cid shows that she’s only in the way this time?
Alpha isn’t the only one being thrown off here, either. Beta is still lapping up Shadow’s theatrics (the note he makes about closing the window next time on a cold day is one of the episode’s funniest moments) as she makes a report earlier, unaware that Shadow’s thoughts are running on a different track. Delta isn’t fooled for long by John Smith because she is keyed in to his scent, but she has to be distracted to keep from interfering, so why not send her to “hunt” Juggernaut? (I’d love to see how that plays out, but sadly, the anime probably won’t show it.) And, of course, Gettan has no clue what’s really going on – or, rather, why it’s going on. He has no idea that this scheme is actually at least partly about his ex-fiancée Yukime (i.e., the nine-tailed fox), whom he tried to kill years earlier, seeking to ruin him. Her mid-episode flashback fills in the gaps from last episode, showing that, yes, Yukime and Gettan were strongly connected and implying that Cid in his masked bandit-hunter identity was, indeed, the one who nearly offed Gettan after Gettan nearly killed Yukime. (This is clearer in the subtitled than dubbed version.)
Although the counterfeiting scheme is being successful at pushing the Merchant Alliance towards ruin (and, ironically, hurting the Cult in the process, even though that was never part of Cid’s intent), Cid’s flights of fancy are starting to conflict with one another. He’s become so enamored with playing out his fantasies that he isn’t bothering to consider how that affects the people around him, and frankly, he’s coming off as a jerk in the process. Granted, he didn’t actually physically hurt any of his subordinates, but he still clearly hurt Alpha on multiple levels, and this time his “you’ll understand when I’m done” stunt may not be enough to smooth things over in the end. I’m actually more interested at this point in seeing how that plays out rather than the grand scheme he’s executing.
Of course, part of the reason that this is playing out the way it is is probably just to give a chance for Shadow (er, John Smith) to have a couple of flashy fights against his most melee-proficient subordinates. Though not as fully-animated as I’d like (and certainly not on the same level as recent fight scenes in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End), the sequences against both Alpha and Delta still provide some satisfying flash and pop.
The flashback in the middle of the episode bogged down the pacing a bit, but otherwise this is another fine, entertaining episode.
USA Anime 