I expected this part of the arc to pop off and they certainly did not disappoint. While I do admit that there were parts that felt a bit stiff in animation and weirdly shot, overall, it was still a good fight scene. The arc was definitely building up to Yor essentially taking on the entire legion of assassins who are after her client and boy what a spectacle it was. Not to mention incredibly BLOODY for this episode in particular. Guess they didn’t want to skimp out on how gruesome Yor’s work can be.
I was honestly really worried about how this was all going to go down. Especially how it essentially started as a stealth mission and as we all know, babies + stealth never end well. Stealth missions with freaking babies in the pictures always makes me so anxious because you can’t control a baby’s volume and if something agitates the baby in any way, they are going to let you KNOW, which would get everyone into trouble. Though I will admit the baby did pretty well for a while until it got spooked by the fireworks. Though thankfully, before things could get even more serious, the mom, baby and… guardian? I actually don’t really know what he is. Either way, they were able to get to a safe area in an enclosed safe room of sorts And thankfully due to the guy’s quick thinking, he was able to protect both the mom and baby from being shot at the last second. Good thing he was wearing a bullet proof vest lol.
Now that Yor didn’t need to worry about protecting her clients, she was able to go ALL OUT. And go all out she did. Though I did have to laugh at how her superior complained about how he had to clean up after her mess. But in this situation, I really don’t think they have the luxury of killing without causing a mess so they just did what they could lol. Though I do admit it was surprising to find that the Garden Assassins seem to hold very different perspectives compared to the other assassins. The assassins trying to kill Yor’s client would take on any job as long as they were paid to do so, no matter what it was. However, the Garden seems to specialize in only targeting “rotten” people who were deemed to be a liability for the safety and peace of the country. Which is very interesting because it seems like WISE, The Garden and the SSS all have the same goal in mind but view each other as the enemy. It’s ironic honestly since they’re all trying to keep the peace in their own way but are all on opposing sides. It makes me wonder how things would be if these three organizations were working together. Probably would be more productive. But as they said, as long as people continue to exist, there will always be conflict. So it could be impossible for all three groups to see eye-to-eye even if they are working towards the same thing. Which is actually pretty tragic now that I think about it.
But holy crap, the glasses wearing assassin really pisses me off. I think it’s just the way that he talks as if he’s in the right while also talking down to Yor with that smug smile and no-it-all calmness just makes him so punachable to me. Not to mention it feels like he just lets everyone else do the dirty work in fighting while he just stands on the sidelines watching. I’m so looking forward to seeing him get humbled because we all know that it’ll eventually happen.
While the action was fun to watch, I think my favorite part had to be when Yor started to unpack her true feelings on the matter of her being an assassin and her place in the Forger family. Especially when we find out that a lot more hinges on Yor getting this job done. If she were to get incredibly hurt beyond explanation, she would be forcefully removed from the Forger family. I think we all knew that Yor wasn’t really doing her assassinations for the sake of her country. We’ve known for a while that Yor doesn’t really care for that many people outside of Yuri and it’s only been recently where she’s grown a strong fondness for both Anya and Loid. Especially shown when it seemed as if she was going to die, the things she immediately thinks about are the things she won’t be able to do for Loid and Anya. She even resonates with Olka’s wish to live a peaceful and quiet life. It seems as if her world has gotten bigger from just wanting to give Yuri a peaceful life devoid of suffering. She wants to extend that to everyone else.
I was about to write off that random Yuri part at the end, but it kind of ties into just how much the siblings care for the other and that they are both working towards making a world where the other can live peacefully. It also just goes along with the thought I had earlier about how different sides are working towards the same goal but are still at odds with one another. It does make me wonder how the other would react upon learning that each of them are on opposing sides but believe they are working towards peace for their country. Would they still clash? Would they work to try and see things from their perspective? It’s honestly hard to really theorize on this as Loid, Yor and Yuri can be very unpredictable in different ways. I’m sure Yuri would immediately jump at the chance to take down Loid, but with Yor thrown into the mix, it would be hard to envision what Yuri would do in that situation and vice versa.
This episode was definitely a fun one with a surprising amount of feels near the end while also thought provoking especially in regards to where everyone is in their careers and relationships with one another. I’m wondering if next episode is going to wrap up the arc, guess I’ll just have to wait and find out lol.
