Majin Bone Episode 6
What They Say:
Now, in the modern age, the creator of the universe, Majin, has revived suddenly. At the same time, visitors from the darkness have descended to Earth. As danger nears the Earth, three men pursue a young boy. “Is he a match? Could he really be humanity’s last hope?”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the introduction of Gilbert in the previous episode, Majin Bone brings us our foreign aspect of the show with the snarky blonde kid genius who can’t believe someone like Shougo is involved in this. It’s hard to imagine that the two might have a grudging respect for each other someday based on what transpired when they first met! The show did some decent things in integrating him into the group, but the more interesting part is that as it moved on and they all fought, we got to see something different out of the enemy that had them talking a bit more. But it also had a change in that the enemy came in its last attack simply to provoke rather than to take their Bones, which means something very different is going on here with the enemy.
All of this adds a new layer of tension for things within the group that has formed around Luke and there’s a sense of uncertainty among the more experienced members. When your opponent makes radical shifts like this compared to what they did before, it doesn’t quite make a lot of sense. Luke is trying to put it all together and figuring out ways to counter it, which includes coming up with a way of summoning a Majin themselves through a particular style. But while he’s doing this, there’s just the general uncertainty going on with Shougo himself since he’s still new to all of this and the whole thing continues to just feel kind of surreal to him going by his expressions. It doesn’t help in some ways that he ends up spending more time with Gilbert doing some basic fight training, though it does at least give him a little something to focus on.
This goes on for a bit and we also get more of the tension surfacing with Gilbert going at it with Antoine, which just raises things up in a way that complicates things in a simple way. Luke has to try and settle it all, but it again points to the way that Gilbert is just plain trouble with his style and attitude. Also not surprising is that the show eventually pushes us towards another encounter with the enemy that has them all being forced to work together and come up with a plan that requires real teamwork. It’s almost like the tension at the beginning was planned to lead to this kind of result! Oh, sarcasm… Suffice to say, the episode plays out the usual early episode predictability material in that the tension, which will exist in some form no matter way, gets blown up and then fixed so that everyone can grow and bond better.
In Summary:
Majin Bone hits all the expected notes here that you could see when Gilbert was introduced and the show is on pace overall. It’s certainly not breaking any new ground and it’s doing things in a familiar enough way that you can map out most of the season without straining yourself. There’s some appeal still in the animation – though some of the character designs are either getting a little ugly or just off-model this time around – and the curiosity to see if there is anything interesting going on with the enemy as more of their story is revealed. But it’s more sort of a just idle curiosity rather than a craving kind.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
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