KADO Episode 8

Review:

I’m sure I’ve already said this, but if you haven’t given KADO a try this season, you really do need to. While the slow pace and dialogue heavy delivery won’t sit well with everyone, the ideas this show develops as the narrative unfolds are well worth it, plus it actually has a fairly excellent if simple storyline. It isn’t getting so caught up in being clever that it forgets its own narrative.

There’s too much going on at this point for me to really know what my thoughts on this episode alone are. I will admit, the low point of this episode was the ‘date’ Shindo went on.

Mostly my issue with this was the cheap comedy moment where the family assume the two are together but I also had an issue with Tsukai herself. She’s making a lot of assumptions about life and evolution and while her anti-change, protect what already exists, stance is recognisable as many people oppose change even if it is for the better, it just seems at odds with the life she’s just shown us. While she loves what her father does, her father describes her as someone who never listened and flitted off overseas and did what she wanted. It doesn’t seem like the mindset of someone who would actively fight against progress for the sake of preserving culture. That said, it isn’t as though she is wrong either. zaShunina’s changes are rapid and will result in violent destruction of the world that was if carried out in their entirety. That may ultimately be a good thing but I think most people would prefer to be eased in to such drastic changes.

However, one of the things I have loved about this show is the different responses we’ve seen to the arrival of zaShunina so this was just a deeper look at someone who wasn’t necessarily saying he was an evil alien out to the destroy the world, but still pointed out that his changes were going to lead to the destruction of the world as we currently know it.

The more interesting part of this episode came from the decision to broadcast Sansa. I wondered if, given they only needed to see the device, if the effect could be transmitted via video and this episode clearly tells us, yes it can. This leads to an interesting but very short discussion about whether sharing information is in itself wrong.

The language is quite emotive even though all up this exchange lasts less than five minutes of the episode it is once again  very interesting thought and one that can easily be applied to the real world. This is where Kado has continued to shine. Each dilemma faced by the characters has a real world equivalent and the range of viewpoints put forward are never that far fetched as we’ve seen their parallels over and over in reality.

Clearly though, they go forward. They have to at this point for the narrative to continue. Still, we’re left wondering as for the first time the show itself draws zaShunina in a potentially threatening manner at the end of the episode. Prior to this, viewers have been suspicious of him mostly because we’re humans and someone strange appearing and offering free stuff is naturally viewed as suspicious. But none of his actions or even the way he has been portrayed in previous episodes have actually given us any concrete reason to believe he was up to no good. It may be deliberately misleading, but the final scene this week really brings those suspicions to the foreground and once more I’m left desperate for the next episode because I want to know.

Once again, if you haven’t started this show, go watch it.

Kado is available on Crunchyroll.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.