Killing Bites

Episode 5

In last episode's review, I was rather critical of Announcer Lady, but several people stepped up to defend her for having the exactly the right spirit and delivery for the situation. With that in mind, I decided to give her a second chance in this episode and...nope, she's still obnoxious. But I've never liked hype announcers in any venue, so this may be a personal issue for me.

Fortunately this episode offers enough action, bloodletting, and general nastiness that I can easily overlook her and still enjoy it. Most significantly, we also finally get to learn what kind of Therianthrope each of the supporting cast members we've met happen to be. The young man with the glasses is revealed to be Brute Gorilla, with giant hairy arms longer than his body, but he looks so ungainly in this form that he isn't very convincing as a threat. Much more threatening is Brute Crocodile, who even manages to put a serious hurt on Taiga despite initially being knocked out by him, putting the Tiger in a bad spot. Meanwhile, Eruza gets herself into trouble against the Sumitomo lady who eventually proves to be Brute Gecko, partly because Gecko is a much more experienced fighter and partly because Mr. Rapist is also around, in the form of Brute Cobra. I know I've said this before, but this disgusting prick can't die fast enough. Still, the way Ezura gets abused does fit exactly with the tone of the series so far.

Of course this means that Yuya sends Hitomi to help out, a move that she doesn't complain about because she gets the match-up she desires. For the first time however, she finds herself facing opponents she can't overcome so easily with her standard tactics. Even though she's strong, fighting experience still matters, and the theoretically-weaker Brute Gecko has her outclassed. Given how relatively easy most of her victories have been so far, it was about time she got pushed to the point that she can't just gloat over her inevitable victory. Mere reckless courage isn't enough, and this experience should lead to her coming out smarter and stronger overall. Besides, seeing her fight alongside Eruza should be a treat and leads me to suspect that some kind of informal alliance is on the horizon.

On other fronts, Ui hasn't been forgotten, though she only gets brief and inconsequential treatment as we see her wisely hanging out away from the action. Meanwhile, Yuya gets scolded by Yoko and laughed at by the other players over his naïveté, though of course taking the moral high ground is going to pay off in the end. It also seems like not all of the other players are hostile to him; the reminder from the dignified Japanese woman to trust his Brute suggests that he might not be totally isolated on the field. Despite the effort to show off some strategy, I still generally find these master-focused segments to be the weakest in the Destroyal. The series works better when its Therianthropes are battling, and the more it keeps to that the better.

Rating: B-

Killing Bites is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.