Nanbaka

Episode 17

I found this one of the easiest, most engrossing Nanbaka episodes to watch. It's not hard to see why: it's a mystery! The episode starts by setting up several disturbing elements, and the second half has the characters slowly put the pieces together. By the end, we still don't know what exactly is happening, but we have enough for an intriguing multi-episode saga.

It picks up where the last one left off: Rock and Yamato both come back from Building 5, and they're not acting like themselves. They're completely silent, and more upsettingly, they keep attacking their friends. They're basically mindless zombies. Before anyone can get to the bottom of this, they have to dodge Rock and Yamato's attacks. They also seem to be powered up by whatever is controlling them. Does Rock normally knock Jyugo out that easily? I don't think so—Rock is the Building 13 inmate with the most brute strength, but Jyugo is agile and has special powers. The guards are able to knock Yamato out fairly quickly (he's a skinny guy), but the inmates struggle to subdue Rock. This continues even after Tsukumo comes by to help out.

As each group finishes, they discover a mysterious talisman on the back of each "zombie." It's exactly like the one keeping the Building 5 inmates' powers in check. Rock's says "control" on his, but we never see what Yamato's says (or at least, it's never spelled out by the subtitles). Either way, they're clearly both under the control of some nefarious power, since these talismans would have an even more powerful controlling effect on regular people. So who's doing this? And why?

The best mysteries are made up of several interlocking questions, and Nanbaka is good at stacking these. In contrast to the previous weeks' pacing struggles, this one nails it. Sure, there are still moments when it slows down to plod through some tired joke. This is particularly true toward the end, when Building 13 investigates Building 5. Overall, this episode is solidly plotted in a way that's become pretty rare from this show.

The other guards and inmates suspect Samon, since he controls the talisman distribution, but we know this can't be the case; Samon looks in the drawer and is surprised to find his talismans missing. Clearly, someone else did it—someone else who knows Building 5 and its office storage well. Unfortunately, Samon looks pretty suspicious to the other players who didn't see what we saw. Nanbaka seems to be building to a confrontation between him and the other Nanba residents, which explains the sudden Samon backstory focus last week. He's about to become a far more important player in the story.

This also brings up Samon's brother's fate. Rock and Yamato's behavior this week is not unlike when his brother killed the inmate—or what we saw of that, at least. We've been reassured repeatedly that the behavior is unlike him. Rock and Yamato also weren't behaving like themselves, attacking people they normally consider their friends. There are a lot of threads connecting these stories. Is the person stealing talismans up to something bigger? Have they been at this for a while? What exactly is their goal? Are they connected to the German scientists who are after Jyugo and Musashi? Then why are they attacking not only a completely different inmate, but also a guard?

I could be wrong, and this could be totally disconnected from that plot. Nanbaka likes to jump back and forth between different multi-episode arcs, but that story was left unresolved, and we're gradually approaching the end of the overall series, so it makes sense that this would come back in some way. Even the bloated New Year's Tournament was ultimately connected to a bigger story, since that's where we first learned about Jyugo and Musashi's powers. I don't know if Nanbaka can pull it off, but I'm eager to see where this goes. I hope it's tied into a larger story—and I hope it does this well.

Overall, this episode was juicy and thoroughly satisfying. There are still some repetitive gags, but it helps that the biggest generators of those—Momoko and Hitoshi—are off-stage this week. Nanbaka pares itself down to its best elements and gives us a tight story this week. Hopefully, next week can maintain this momentum.

Rating: A-

Nanbaka is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.