Bucchigiri?!

Episode 9

There's nothing wrong with telling an archetypal story. While being derivative is a recipe for boredom, sticking to well-worn ideas and themes isn't inherently a flaw. It just means you have to work that much harder on the delivery, because you can't rely on novelty or surprise to hook the audience.

I don't think Bucchigiri?! is flawed for sticking to tried and true themes of delinquent media when I say that every plot point in this episode feels old. It's fine that our main characters are obsessed with a simplistic idea of noble “strength” and that the conflict is all about succumbing to the weakness of fear that must be overcome by the power of friendship. With the right delivery, you could make an infectiously entertaining story about just that. The problem is that such a familiar and predictable plot progression isn't a satisfying payoff after weeks of repetitive build-up, while also being too light on character to make up for the wait.

The prime example is Matakara's episode-long struggle against Ichiya's influence. A kindhearted character in a bad situation being preyed upon by a malevolent force is a classic beat – probably the easiest go-to outside of mind control to get two friends to fight. The devil, however, is in the details. What parts of the character are revealed through their manipulation? Do they succumb right away or struggle against the devil on their shoulder? These are great questions for driving drama. This could be a key moment in defining Matakara's character or deepening our understanding of him, but there's just not much to the guy that we don't already know. Every button Ichiya pushes is one we've known about for ages, and even when he's convinced to fight Arajin, it's a sedate and reluctant affair. No sense of tragedy wasn't done better last week and with a lot more urgency. Even the state of Matakara's brother is muddled because it seems like he died off-screen – at least if everyone's dialogue about him is to be trusted. That's such a strange, muted way for it to happen that I must assume it's a bait-and-switch because otherwise, it would deflate half the drama of Matakara's arc.

Meanwhile, Arajin has distanced himself from Matakara so much that he has to be pushed into even speaking to his friend again. While that makes sense for who we know Arajin to be, and it's understandable considering all the baggage he showed off last week, it muddles the idea that his friendship is going to drag Matakara back from the brink. The Power of Friendship is only believable if the characters feel like friends, but everyone else in the show has been way more friendly to Matakara than our protagonist has managed through most of this show. When you're losing a friendship competition to a pack of violent teenagers and a toxic bro-con chick, you don't get to save the day. The worst part is, there's not much you can do to remedy the fact that Arajin spends half a dozen episodes avoiding contact with his friend, or how it kneecaps the larger drama at play. Doing that would require going back and rewriting the preceding seven episodes so that the pair's sense of camaraderie could develop organically.

That is the arrow to the heel of this whole endeavor. The drama we're getting is fine in execution, but too threadbare to make up for having to wait too long for it, or compensate for how much the characters have ardently avoided building the relationships necessary for any of this to work. The characters and conflicts being straightforward could work, but that simplicity means every plot beat is obvious from a hundred miles away. Without either stronger writing or a time machine, Bucchigiri?! is left going through the motions without leaving much impact.

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Bucchigiri?! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.