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Episode 20: Investing One's Thoughts and Feelings
Air date: February 14th 2007
Channel: TV Tokyo
Length: ca. 24 minutes
Opinion
The previous week, three battles had to crowd into one episode, which works nice in a series like Busou Renkin, where the fighting is seldom dragged out, and every duel is usually reduced to an exchange of blows and a few decisive maneuvers.
Thanks to this, the longer battles automatically stand out. Here, an entire episode has been dedicated to the second fight between Kazuki and Captain Bravo. In contrast to the previous episode with its many plot thread and many characters, the twentieth only features a limited cast: Kazuki and Bravo, Gouta, Tokiko and Hiwatari, who only appears at the very end; it's a private matter between the main characters. It's an important point which is neither sped up nor interrupted by any other plot threads or characters.
In some ways, this battle makes me think of the battle with Shuusui in episode 10. Both times, Kazuki must face a strong and dangerous enemy, both times it's someone he considered a friend. The anime does its best in both cases to enhance the fights as much as possible: some sparring was added; the destruction of the landscape is shown quite impressively. Overall, it looks like some budget went into the animation as well, which makes sense as this is one of the emotional highlights and the most memorable battles of the series.
It is good to see that after the last few episodes' great changes to the manga, this episode is mostly taking place the way it did in the manga. Apparantly, we are back on familiar ground now.
There is not much else I can say. After all, this episode was almost exclusively about the battle between Kazuki and Bravo. I love this battle. I love the outcome. That's no surprise because I'm just a great fan of Kazuki and Bravo and their relationship. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and am dying to watch the rest.
(Written by Kaeli on February 19th)