After all the running around the Yellow Head base by everyone last week, it all did come to a final fight on the roof top as I thought it would. The biggest surprise was that Lan Di was there. He came in from a helicopter in honestly one of the coolest looking scenes possible. Then again, a bad guy is supposed to have the coolest entrance scenes possible. He was there and then he was gone after a quick fight with Ryo, who Lan Di still squashed without question, the guy just left after hearing about the information he wanted on his helicopter. Like every villain ever where the protagonist is not on his level yet, that was all fantastically executed and made me so happy.
With that comes the rest of the fight on the roof with Don Nui still being a big threat, everyone else on the top hoping not to die, some henchmen Lan Di left behind to supervise, Ren who was ready to fight, and Ryo still out of it from failing to achieve revenge so soon. After Ren was able to get Ryo to focus on his present and not just one person in the form of Lan Di, who was still watching from his helicopter spot, Don Nui was completely decimated by Ryo in a matter of seconds. You know, after the usual Don Nui being a big guy and doing his own squashing. Ren, of course, took care of the supervisors off screen and then the day was saved. That was half of the episode and boy, certainly a lot of things did happen in some really exciting moments.
The last half was a really fun way of saying goodbye to our Hong Kong cast and seeing how each of our characters have grown before Ryo sets out for Bailu Village just like Lan Di is. Xuiying is promised that Ryo is searching for the truth of his father and that her brother might still be alive, Wong starts selling bananas instead of stealing from people, Joy visits her parents grave, and so on. Ryo knows about the phoenix mirror he has and he wishes to reunite it with the other mirror and possibly restart the Qing dynasty…which is a thing that magic can cause to happen maybe. I am going to miss this cast because they were just so much fun. The last bit with Ryo in Bailu, meeting Shenhua, the cave and so on, were a fun cliff hanger for a next season if they happen? Who knows.
This episode was fun just like a lot of the season was fun. Over all, the whole thing was fun too. Considering that this is a video game adaptation of 2 of the games with the third one still hanging around, I expected a cliff hanger like this to further the mystery of what is going on with the mirrors because the mirrors have barely been a focus, just a plot point. But this show had a great cast of characters and gave our local himbo Ryo a really solid arc of growth from his journey. From his martial arts to discovering himself, its a wonderful journey. Some bumps here and there on the anime, but over all the product was solid.
Now, to pencil in the full review of this and Blade Runner: Black Lotus onto my blog review schedule so I know that both of them will happen. Thanks for enjoying my episode review journey.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 