Giant Beasts of Ars episode 6 takes the necessary steps to up the emotional stakes for the season, but the show still doesn’t quite manage to knock it out of the park with this one.
The good parts here are unquestionably solid. I think we all knew that the moment Kumi broke out of a secret laboratory, there would be some sort of reveal about what was going on there. Also, the numbered entry in her name indicates that she was a test subject for some kind of experiment or program involving a large number of other specimens. So the reveal here that she has an antagonistic twin is not terribly surprising. She is visibly shaken by the revelation that there are others out there just like her, and that’s to be expected when you run into your surprise twin hurling dark magic around willy-nilly and baying for your death.
The episode also makes some smart choices in upping the stakes in terms of power. The shots of the magic deleting small creatures and the Mountaineers are pretty shocking. It is particularly upsetting to see the Mountaineers being slain, as they were an interesting group and the more personal scale of the worldbuilding behind them was good stuff.
The issue I have is that the battles are still too muted. Another giant generic bug shows up and completely fails to impress. Similarly, Jiro and Facade’s fight just doesn’t feel impactful enough. They trade a few blows, but it feels like the whole thing could have been more exciting. Three spear thrusts does not a memorable fight make.
Similarly, the macro-level scheming of the imperial ruler types has yet to feel like more than filler. It’s all so distant and uninteresting at this point, which, combined with their obvious mustache-twirling, does little to add much intrigue.
Curious to see what the priests in the red-lined room were about though, that looks interesting. Hope we see more of that down the road.
Rating:
Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.
Giant Beasts of Ars is currently streaming on
HIDIVE.