Tokyo 24-ku (06)

Episode Synopsis

Hunted by SARG, Ran grieves Kunai’s death and works to understand what caused his friend’s tragic downfall. Shu tries unsuccessfully to help his friends reconcile, while Koki becomes more deeply entwined in his father’s plans for the ward and the secrets behind Hazard Cast as the system’s next expansion begins.

Episode Review:

Picking up right after the tense climax of episode 5, Ran narrowly manages to escape from Koki and SARG with the help of the other members of DoRed. This leads us into a more contemplative episode where Ran and Koki both look back on their past and ponder how they ended up in this situation, with a friend dead, trust shattered, and an irreconcilable outlook on how to help the ward. It’s pretty heavy stuff, and Ran and Koki both do some serious soul-searching as SARG becomes more aggressive in its prosecution of the slums. Shu, on the other hand, feels like a third wheel once more, providing little of substance in this episode as he continues to fill the centrist role in the trio and avoids taking any stance beyond, “help my friends”. The setup for a faceoff between Ran and Koki with Shu trying to find a third way forward is being laid on a solid foundation, so I’ll be looking forward to whatever payoff comes of it.

Besides the interpersonal drama, the focus of this episode is on revealing more about Hazard Cast. Koki decides to confront his father about the calls he and the others have been receiving (leaving out the superhuman abilities), and his father immediately takes him to the heart of the system to reveal its innermost secrets. It feels very abrupt and supervillain-ish, especially for someone whose desire for peace and order does seem genuine. I’m fully onboard with the idea that someone can be so blinded by their ideals that they can’t see the harm they’re causing, but some of the lines the Mayor delivers are so over-the-top that it’s hard to take him seriously. This also leads us to the Big Reveal(TM) about Hazard Cast, and while I won’t spoil it directly, I don’t think it will surprise anyone. On the one hand, I appreciate that they’re getting straight to it and not spending a ton of time trying to obfuscate things, but on the other hand, I’m not sure if there’s enough going on for 5-6 more episodes of RGB fighting the powers that be and Carneades at the same time. Similarly, rather than having our intelligent, highly inquisitive heroes dig into Kunai’s recent activity and discover the reasons for his actions, they just listen to his confession video on the afternoon news, which spoon feeds us his motives in total. I wonder if there will be any follow up to this, or if the Mayor’s declaration of it being fake news (for real, that’s the term they use) will be enough to quash any further investigation. I just feel like we might be missing an opportunity for our protagonists to reach their own conclusions naturally, rather than just being shoved forward by the plot, whether it’s this video or more calls from Asumi. While there are some points that bug me, episode 6 is pretty good overall, and sets up the next stage in the story well. The stakes and tension have been ratcheting up, and I expect/hope we’ll be seeing fewer distracions like the food festival as our heroes have to deal with serious threats to their homes and freedom.

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