Wow, we're over halfway through the series. This week's episode concludes the Jake Martinez arc. I feel that it is a pretty feel-good episode to finish it up; I definitely prefer this format over the episodic Criminal of the Week. Though, those episodes seem to provide character development, so I don't mind them too much.
I guess I should touch on something that has been on my mind for the passed couple of episodes. Is Jake Martinez really the killer of Barnaby's parents? Jake never explicitly says that he killed them. After what appears to be Barnaby remembering, we're at episode 13, and they still prefer to show the killer as a shadowed figure instead of pasting Jake's face on him. What's more is that the killer uses a gun. Given Jake's pride as a NEXT with creating a utopia for NEXTs and all, I would think that Jake kills using his NEXT powers (see Hans Chuckman). Perhaps he used a gun so that he wouldn't be caught as easily, though I doubt that for the pride reason. There has also been this wild theory that those machines that Barnaby and Kotetsu go into implanted the memory that Jake is his parents' killer, courtesy of Mr. Maverick. Who knows.
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| Rawr. |
When I first saw this, I thought, "Isn't that kind of cheating?" Using his Hundred Power for accelerated healing is pretty badass, but it could be easily abused by the writers. I'm glad that it only seems to heal the scratches and bruises on the surface, but doesn't really help any serious internal injuries that probably take much longer to heal.
Meanwhile, Barnaby is fighting Jake. I was actually quite surprised that Barnaby was unable to come up with a strategy to take him down, given his reaction to Tiger's fluke kick from last episode. He's just charging in there, saving his Hundred Power for a pinch. Kotetsu, however, gets what Jake is hinting at.
Kotetsu shows that despite being a bumbling "old man," he still has some smarts when it's needed. This plan is based entirely on trust, something that was lost between them during the previous episode. Of course, this plan works because it ironically tricks Barnaby, and thus fools Jake, catching him off-guard as well. It was nice to see that Kotetsu pays attention to details and caught the clues during his own fight with Jake.
Girl power; hell, yeah. I found it pretty cute that Dragon Kid thought that Blue Rose was referring to her when she said one of them wasn't a girl; tomboys are cool, too. I was pretty impressed that Blue Rose, Dragon Kind, and Fire Emblem were able to to take care of those powered exosuits, because they seemed to be struggling quite a bit in the beginning.
"Kotetsu-san." We're finally getting some breakthrough character interaction, so it's only fitting to be halfway through the series. With this, the bond between Kotetsu and Barnaby has strengthened. However, I'm pretty sure that Barnaby calling Kotetsu by his name is just a one-time thing, and will revert back to calling him "old man" in the next episode. They definitely won't change the the character dynamic between the two, because that's one of the highlights of the show. The short moment when Barnaby was crying was quite touching, too.
Judging by the title of the next episode, we're going to seem Karina addressing her crush for Kotetsu. For those of who haven't already heard the second drama CD, check it out. As stated in a previous post, I highly doubt that her feelings will be reciprocated; it just isn't the direction the series is going towards. Maybe it'll even touch on Kotetsu's relationship with his late wife. It also seems like they are working on Karina's dance choreography; perhaps for one of her songs? While I don't mind Karina getting more development, I want to see characters like Antonio and Keith get more fleshed out. In the above screenshot, Kotetsu seems to be glowing red, hmmm. Though, that might just be lights inside his suit shining on him.
-Bern
