Angolmois: Episode 12 – The Best You Can Do [Review]

By: v.o.lynn

Summary

Trigger Warnings this episode: Implied Sexual assault, the usual amount of graphic violence with blood, strangulation, existential dread in the time of warWelcome to the bloodbath that we started watching in Episode 11.Kuchii sinks deep into the waves, close to letting the great sea spirit in the shape of an massive shark claim him in his lumber. (We’ll get back to him later.)Meanwhile, above, exiles that we’ve come to recognize by face fight and die on-screen, while the remaining members of Sukekuni’s clan try desperately to protect the princess from being captured or killed.The Exile spy Amushi and young Toibarai girl Sana launch a daring guerilla attack to try to lead their small party to freedom. It works partially – the Toibarai girl makes it, but unfortunately Amushi isn’t so lucky. He gets a few moments of pure badassery before getting a hero’s death – spear through the chest, and then into the deep waters, with no actual sign in this case of being able to make it back to the surface alive.Meanwhile, The princess’ main guard, Kaitou Gonatrou, who has been taking arrows intermittently since the previous episode, because human pincushion number three in the series while drawing fire away from the princess. Kana takes the princess with her to flee, but after they fall off into a small ditch, Kana finds it kinder to strangle the princess than to watch her fall into enemy hands. She loses consciousness, and Kana leaps up to draw three soldiers who were within earshot away from the princess.What follows is the expectation of Kana being sexual assaulted, and a discretionary cut to the Cliffside, and then to Kuchii, sinking deep into the water, and the full memory of the persimmon tree.It’s actually his daughter, guarding the persimmon tree that she wanted in their yard, despite obvious safety risks – the tree could eventually be tall enough to provide cover for bandits and assassins. Despite that, his daughter bravely stays up all night to protect it.Kuchii wakes, cuts loose his armor, and returns to the surface, where the young boy who has been trying all series to revenge his father awaits. After a bit of a chat, Kuchii “borrows” the sword to go take on nearby soldiers. His roaring rampage of revenge is brought to a halt with the arrival of Ryuu Fukukou of the Mongols.The much-anticipated duel lasts for a bit, but it ends with a truce and the commander falling on his butt. The plot must need the commander for a later battle, as Kuchii shows mercy to the sitting Fukukou-sama, passing him by to go look for survivors.Regrouping with Teruhashi and the handful of remaining civillians, the next season promises to be an exciting set of episodes. Unfortunately, we’ve lost so many this time around that I’d like to give a moment of silence for their lives.[Reader, please bow your head for a moment and close your eyes if you are so inclined, for about 10-60 seconds, or as long as you are moved to do so.]

Review

The death count is high on this one, starting with the onscreen deaths of the remaining exile soldiers and ending with the casually-alluded-to death of Onitakemaru. Frankly, we were cheated of that battle. We got a taste of it in the first part of the season. We deserved more. It doesn't matter that the result would have been the same, the fight alone would have been worth the time.The children own a good portion of the focus in this episode. While we lose the valiant and wisecracking Amushi, we do still have Sana, and the other children rescued by Kuchii. The we also have the young boy who still needs to revenge his father. When the moment comes in this episode where it looks like he might finally have his revenge, he can’t. He doesn’t know how to properly wield a sword. He’s not old enough. He’s not ready.Even one of the leaders of the Mongol army states that Tsushima, the home of so many people that we have watched bravely fight and die, was just “practice” for the real march on the Japanese mainland.Simply put, that’s frustrating.May next season bring revenge. And LOTS of it. May it rain down on the Mongols from the heavens in the form of flame-tipped arrows, because I’m pretty much done with their attitude problem.