Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Kiba – episode 8

May 25, 2006 on 11:00 pm | In Kiba | 1 Comment

“Betrayer’s Whereabouts”

Insanity is always a good reason to commit bad acts. So, too, is anger towards your parents. You can add to that list confusing story telling that obscures a characters’ allegiance even as it reveals it.

Spoiler warning: No Face Impostor’s Identity Revealed!

“No Face” sends a letter informing the authorities that he plans to steal Zed’s spirit. To prevent this, Robes decides that he will move in with Zed and company. It is all a trap, however, and the fake No Face places his mask upon Robes, leading to his arrest in the face of overwhelming evidence.

I was slightly concerned that the government would have arrested Robes by the simple virtue that he was wearing the mask when they found him, but the arrest was thankfully justified by a search of his manor, populated as it was by acres of stolen jewels.

Anyway, loath as I am to say this, there was some clever work afoot in this story. The flower motif was desperately indicating several clues all throughout the episode, and I simply wasn’t smart enough to figure them out.
That being said, we’ve never really been given a reason to suspect Dumas of being a fake No Face because he has always been a man of gruffness and light, who wouldn’t harm any beast, etcetera. That he was the villain is a surprise after a history of good deeds and the fact that he slaughtered all of his countrymen when they tried to revolt against Tempura On High.

This would have been straightforward if the “Dumas is bad” revelation had no coincided with scenes of people breaking into Jimoto to rescue Princess Rebecca. Dumas spends this time talking about fighting for that which he loves, or something, which leads to the natural implication that he loves Princess Rebecca who is … I think the imprisoned Princess of Jimoto. Except he’s been taking orders from Hugh, who appears to have imprisoned Rebecca in the first place, as Graujia thinks she should be killed.
I don’t know: Jimoto at this point is little more than a collection of names.

What I want to know is, is the woman saving Rebecca supposed to be Zed’s mother? The voice didn’t sound like Inoue Kikuko, so I’m calling out some help here.

The other parts of the story! When you get over the whole “hilarious” story of Robes going from riches-to-rags, or roughing it, it turns out fine. I particularly liked the meeting of the council, which involved one cabinet member saying “I think that we should torture the truth out of him.”
“Torture goes against our country’s moral codes!” says one of the sages we’re supposed to like.
“I come from Neotopia originally,” says another sage, “I’ll do it.”

The lesson that we can draw from this is that, if a certain cultural practise is unacceptable in your country, simply employ someone from a more permissive society. It’s an important lesson we’re learning here.

Finally: if Jimotoans can simply manifest in Tempura with no problems … what’s the deal with that? We know almost nothing about this series, you realise.