[Traece]

Originally Posted by GoldenLand

The decision to have Gino's arm torn off is one I dislike. It's very clear, thematically, but it's just too unsubtle.

As far as I could tell his arm wasn't even close to torn off. He ripped it out from under the crate and tore it up and dislocated it. Probably broke something too. I was actually really impressed with that scene. Normally he would have just screamed and been trapped, instead of going into an adrenaline-fueled panic and rushing to his dad, and severely damaging himself in the process.

Kougami's straightforward attitude towards Makishima is a refreshing one to see. Yep, he just wants him dead, unlike vice versa where Makishima wants entertainment.

Akane has gone through a serious shift here, and it's true that she doesn't quite seem like the same character. But I think it's understandable that she's acting the way she is. She's very focused, everything about Sybil's been revealed and she hates it, she thinks that there is only a faint sliver of hope, and so forth. I'm very pleased that she's getting the chance to analyse the situation and make predictions. She was always cool-headed and logical even earlier in the series, but now things have got tougher, she's really rising to the occasion. Sybil was right, she really was suited for the MSWPB!

It's gotten to the point where things have gone so horribly wrong in every way. On the Makishima front, the MWPSB has had, literally, no successes. The closest they came to victory was Akane clocking him over the head (like a badass, I must add). Even that ended up being pointless, as he managed to elude containment with ease. Honestly, I have doubts about Makishima surviving.

I hope she's going to shoot Makishima with the paralyser-Dominator sometime. Hey, he should be happy if she does! Isn't it what he wants, to be part of society and be recognised as someone Sybil should want to shoot? I can imagine a scene where Akane sees a stand-off between Makishima and Kougami, Akane chooses to zap Kougami with the Dominator, Makishima laughs at her and thinks the Dominator pointed at him is useless, and then get shot...

Since he knows about the Sybil System, I doubt he'd be terribly surprised at this point. At least he might be surprised to see Akane being the one to do it. I'm sure he's realized at this point that Sybil has full control over the Dominators.

Incidentally, I wonder if what Yayoi said this ep means that she was avoiding working with Akane before? After all, if she was worried that Akane wouldn't have her back in a pinch, she'd hardly be keen to go on a mission with her.

I was actually a bit surprised by this scene. Yayoi has had little to no role throughout this series, with the exception of some back story. The primary reason for that was her lack of involvement with Akane. Now we know why. It wasn't a particularly meaningful scene, but it was still interesting.

On that note, I was getting really irritated with all the: "Woah, Akane is doing shit now," comments from the characters. I feel like it would have been better expressed in expressions, rather than dialogue. In Gino's case with his little flashback montage and his inner realization that Akane has become self-sufficient (and vengeful), it was also somewhat acceptable.

If you look at the story as a whole, having people in addition to Division 1 move to capture Makishima would have been strange. Although the threat to Japan is very real and very possible, it's one that can be solved by a single group who has actually captured Makishima once before. Honestly, the situation was actually worse when Akane managed to arrest him, in terms of opposition. This time it's just Makishima, and they have the whole division (minus one) there to do it. Bringing in more people would mean a greater potential to destabilize the ranks of the MWPSB with classified information, a greater loss of life (it's an anime. Everyone else would just die in the end in one way or another, or not even be allowed to participate), and would honestly be a diminishing return when it only even took two people the first time. Sure, the stakes are higher, but at the same time the threat is technically lesser.