The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After an almost constantly hectic first three episodes, Blast of Tempest finally calms down a little in this episode, using much of it to tell the story of how Yoshino and Mahiro met and became close. Scenes of this from each perspective are cut between scenes of the present, with the two of them telling ...
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After an almost constantly hectic first three episodes, Blast of Tempest finally calms down a little in this episode, using much of it to tell the story of how Yoshino and Mahiro met and became close. Scenes of this from each perspective are cut between scenes of the present, with the two of them telling the stories to Hakaze as a way to show the story and connect it to current times without blatantly speaking to the audience. The episode is virtually void of any characters other than the three of them, save for a few incidentals walking by, ignoring their warnings, and/or contracting black iron syndrome, along with those from the past, slightly more significant to the story but only relevant for these select flashbacks.
With the constant intensity of the series thus far, I was happy to see last week’s preview show that a flashback episode was coming. Although there weren’t any real surprises, I may have been expecting it to be a bit more of a solid flashback taking up most of the episode, other than the very beginning and maybe a little at the end, rather than how it turned out, with about half of the episode taking place in the present, and the scenes of the past being shown as Yoshino and Mahiro explain them to Hakaze. Still, this did work out pretty well.
The two of them leave the city, but there are still a few people around here and there. They try to warn some of the curse, but get brushed off just as quickly. A couple of children are solidified with unsettlingly pained looks on their faces, becoming a monument that each character ends up returning to later in the episode. Yoshino shows a little humanity that he seemed to lack in earlier episodes. He at least attempts to stop the old couple from continuing on, and while he certainly could’ve tried a little harder to keep them where they were, I can understand that at this point he doesn’t really see the point when the entire population of the city has become a group of statues. Obviously they have to reverse this process, and keeping one old couple in the middle of nowhere instead of letting them join the rest doesn’t really do them any good for reaching their goal. He also leaves his umbrella with the children, and at the end of the episode, Mahiro does a similar gesture in leaving them with the one bottle of water he actually paid for. The character development isn’t incredible, but there are some nice touches to go with the pasts that are being revealed about the two characters and the origins of their relationship alongside these scenes.
As it turns out, Yoshino was kind of forced upon Mahiro as a child, due to a number of circumstances surrounding Mahiro’s situation at the time and Yoshino’s family. In some ways, I feel like Yoshino was a more likeable character back when he was a little kid, as he has a certain fresh wit that doesn’t really seem to make itself prevalent in his current personality. However, it’s perfectly believable that a kid with no great real-world problems to worry about can keep an optimistic view on life a little better than a young adult who has been thrust into turmoil and despair. Mahiro was always a bit of a jerk, but when it was brought up that he didn’t really have any friends, he showed that he was really little more than an unsociable little kid who just wants a little of the interaction that all the kids around him get.
Although Mahiro refers to everything about his past with Yoshino as stupid, the small amount of the story that he tells Hakaze proves that Yoshino’s impression on him was exactly what he needed, and has kept him going up to now. Yoshino convincing all the kids who were afraid of Mahiro that he was really a good guy who deserves a chance was a nice, sweet little moment that you can tell makes Mahiro feel warm inside when he thinks about it, just as any audience member is meant to.
There’s not a lot of plot progression or action in this episode, but the next episode looks like it will provide plenty of both. There’s also more of Aika. Will it be more flashbacks, or is she alive still and/or again? I’m curious to see.
In Summary:
This flashback was welcome after three episodes that threw a lot at us at once. The boys find some brief peace outside of the city while Hakaze seems to be enjoying herself just fine on her little island, listening to each of the boys tell her about how the two met each other in the past, and how they ended up becoming the friends they are today. There are some nice moments in both the past and the present, and it helps to develop each character a little bit, which is definitely needed at this point. The future looks to have some more plot and action, so hopefully taking a step back in this episode will let the staff focus on making these episodes a little more cohesive from now on.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
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