Majin Bone Episode 9
What They Say:
Now, in the modern age, the creator of the universe, Majin, has revived suddenly. At the same time, visitors from the darkness have descended to Earth. As danger nears the Earth, three men pursue a young boy. “Is he a match? Could he really be humanity’s last hope?”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With it now pretty much settled that the whole issue with what’s going on is that it involves aliens, Majin Bone… pretty much stays the same. While we get the cast dealing with the revelations in the previous episode and a bit of action to help cement it, it doesn’t really change anything in the big picture. It just provides a little more context for what’s going on, the hunt for the Dragon Bone and the way things are. For the viewer, it changes even less because it felt like aliens was pretty much a given since the first episode, which kind of makes the revelations moot, for me at least. The last episode at least gave us a little more variety with the enemy as they got some better stylized designs…
One of the advantages of working with the institute comes into play here as we see how they have the ability to keep tabs on those participating in the other-dimensional fights, both in terms of health but also what they say. With the fight that gets underway here at the start of this episode, with Shougo on the outside watching with the scientists, it plays out well to give it a bit more of a dynamic and involved feeling, even as Antonio and the others end up taking quite the beating by their wolf and tiger themed opponents. With Shougo unable to transform and join the fight, the strain he has to deal with is decently presented, but he takes it pretty far in an effort to try and wake the Dragon Bone in order to participate and help those that he now calls friends. Will it work?
Of course it will, and that leads to Shougo getting in on the game and providing the good fight, albeit it takes a bit for him to really find his groove and stand against his opponents that are a fair bit more experienced. This makes for a pretty decent fight overall and there’s some solid choreography to it that allows it to be fun to watch, but like past fights it’s also a bit empty because it’s angling towards the goal of making sure that Shougo has the Dragon Bone since he’s managed to connect with it whereas others haven’t. The fight naturally leads to the whole near-group-hug moment towards the end as they all come together well, but it’s so by the numbers that even decent character designs and animation layouts can’t help salvage it from utter predictability.
In Summary:
The arc involving the institute comes to a close here as Shougo gets what he needs to be the key to everything – what else is the Dragon Bone but that? – and they’re ready to head off to their next adventure. Acknowledging the alien aspect while learning that there are regular humans involved as well gives us a little more to chew on, but the bulk of this episode was either simply action or the drama involving Shougo making his claim for the card so he can participate in the action. Predictability wins again in a big way.
Grade: D
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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