Oh no, he’s dead. We’re all going to die. Get revenge. Argh!
Kind of close to how this final episode of Angolmois ends up going but I guess I’ll give it a proper episode review before thinking about wrapping up this series.
We might be on the brink of death and all hope might be loss, but there’s always time for a decontextualised flash back about a character we hadn’t heard of before in order to re-inspire Jinzaburou to try to get back to the surface of the water (even though realistically he had already well and truly drowned by the time this played out). There was nothing actually wrong with the flash back and as another piece of Jinzaburo’s character is was kind of welcome, but episode 12 and mid-battle is not really the place for it. Not to mention, I don’t care about the kid or the tree so the whole thing just emotionally fell flat here.
On the island itself we essentially watch anyone left that we’ve spent any time with (not that I remember any of their names) getting killed off by the overwhelmingly stronger Mongol forces. I’m guessing some of these deaths were supposed to be touching but with little development of these characters plus the whole of episode 11 kind of doing the same thing, there is almost no impact to be felt and you are kind of just watching things play out and waiting for the curtain to fall.
And fall it eventually does with Jinzaburou back on land and fighting against that one Mongol guy who was a bit of a jerk before (yeah, I don’t know their names either). And apparently he did kill the pirate guy off screen last week so I guess we won’t be seeing him again. They duel, and then Jinzaburou does this badass walk through the middle of the Mongols and they all just give ground but it doesn’t matter. Almost everyone is already dead and this fight barely rescues a handful. The Mongols are leaving regardless as this was never their true target.
As to Teruhi, she’s nearly strangled to death by Kano who apparently just wanted to hide the Princess (though she’s very lucky she didn’t actually kill her). When Teruhi awakens she sees everyone dead and despairs but then she comes across Jinzaburou and we get some totally inappropriately triumphant music to see us through to the end where the other survivors regroup (no sign of Kano so I guess things didn’t end so well after the Mongols pinned her to the ground).
The episode ends with a statement that there’s some writing about exiles fighting on the island but nothing more. I”m guessing they just wanted to remind us this is fictional though has some historical basis. Not that any of that matters. I don’t regret watching this one this season, but its kind of run its course and I’m also kind of glad it is done. Full review coming soonish.
Previous Reviews:
- Episodes 1 + 2: Okay, You Got My Attention
- Episode 3: Ugly Filter Aside, This Is Pretty Compelling
- Episode 4: War is Ugly
- Episode 5: A Reason To Fight
- Episode 6: Division
- Episode 7: Safety?
- Episode 8: The Price of Betrayal
- Episode 9: Battle at the Castle
- Episode 10: Things Are Going About As Well As You Would Expect
- Episode 11: If Warriors Die To Learn Who They Are, These Guys Are Getting A Great Education This Week
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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I had a slightly more positive take on the kid, because from context you’re meant to figure out that’s Jinzaburou’s girl and that’s his wife in the background of the persimmon tree flashback (at least, I think so…?). A lot of this episode is simply meant to be inferred, which is kind of annoying for a final episode, but I did find the ending to be surprisingly optimistic for such a bleak show.
By the way, was it just me or did a shark “speak” at one point in this episode? (It said “Foolish child of man…” according to my notes.)
I got that it was Jinzburou’s family, just not sure what that mattered at that point and if I was supposed to care about them or not (and given I didn’t it just kind of at screen time and I wasn’t overly engaged).
And yes, the shark spoke for some reason and I haven’t quite figured out why or for what purpose.
I didn’t dislike this but just feel that it never quite managed whatever it was actually going for.
I had a more positive take on the story, I think. Maybe I’ll post on it later.
Look forward to seeing it.