All Evil Dreams and Angry Words

This series' strength is in its emotionally impactful episodes, like the previous two. But it's also very good at the kick-ass fight sequences. Mizu runs a gauntlet that would send Indiana Jones fleeing in terror. I was thinking "right, they're ripping off Spielberg here" and then they throw in something from left field that goes beyond the imaginative level of the regular Hollywood action movie.

And we get some political scheming a la "Shogun" to provide additional interest to this already complex plotline.

It's pointless to complain that Mizu's fighting skills are superhuman or that she seems to be able to shrug off injuries that really should kill her in these days before antibiotics. This is all part of the fantastical dream logic of this story. They can get away with it because it's animation. If this were live-action, it would never work.

After watching the whole series 1 I have to say this episode was kind of disappointing.

In this episode we get lots of 3D cameras zooming around the Blue Eye Samurai during the fight in the castle, accompanied by western rock music.

After battling down some 30 or so guard and the giant she gets totally overpowered by her arch enemy singlehandedly - he throws her around like a doll. Even if the previous fights (and a gunshot) have weakened her, this was breaking immersion a lot.

They have a ancient CCTV system in the castle from which her fights were observed - made from lenses, mirrors and shafts. Really?? This thrifted into Steampunk for a while.

The show did its worst here, but keep watching.

This episode had me on edge the entire time! I was in complete awe and breathless by the time the credits rolled!

After the previous episode, i was fully invested in Mizu's character! Her resolve was insane! Seeing all that darkness and pain come to light, almost made me scared of her! Her face soaked in blood was something out of a horror movie.. or Kill Bill!

The action was some of the best I have seen! Crazy animation! Multiple sequences of long-takes that I cound barely believe.. so i had to rewind to see them again! Amazing use of colours! A feast for the eyes!

The end was bleak and shocking! I have no idea what happens next! After all this pain and suffering.. perhaps Mizu begins to reflect on Her journey, thanks to the people she met along the way!

Whilst the rest of the series are fantastical, but still believable, this episode is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. Only small redeeming factor are the visual effects halfway through the episode.

To me it looked like someone with a completely different vision of how the show should turn out directed this and took the opportunity to make a mark, almost spiteful and not cooperative with the rest of the team, or even trying to be cohesive.

A cheap gutter beer amongst otherwise pretty decent wines. Maybe budget was short or they needed to rush, who knows.

Angry words and probably an evil dream tonight.

Why all of a sudden does the protagonist turn into a superhuman? The number of hits she takes in this episode, some even penetrating her body, and she continues as if nothing happened.

The show, until now, had been pretty grounded in reality; the wounds seemed to matter, and the characters looked and moved like humans. However, in this episode, we had a mix of utterly dumb enemies who fought worse than Stormtroopers, along with some superhuman creatures, including the protagonist, as I mentioned earlier.

If this had been the case from the beginning, I wouldn't mind, but the show had already established itself with a lot of realism, and to me, that change was not justified.

I'm giving it a 3 just because the animation looks awesome, as usual.