Reaper Time, Part 2

Synopsis

The Shinigami goes with ‘plan 16’ and pretends to hold Irina hostage, with that surprise factor, he’s able to trap Koro with the kids. Shinigami then threatens Koro to flood the place. Karasuma sees this as a good opportunity to kill Koro, but it would also kill the students. He remembers that the government gave him that decision to make if it arose. He decides to save the kids and fight instead.

Shinigami doesn’t particularly want to deal with Karasuma so he retreats and sets up traps instead. He orders Irina to shoot Karasuma from behind. But when Irina manages to only stall Karasuma, Shinigami blows up the ceiling above them more than willing to kill Karasuma and Irina along with him.

Karasuma survives the blast and gets  Irina to safety. Meanwhile the students and Koro pretend to have escaped by camouflaging themselves against the wall and this tricks Shinigami out into the open. Irina switches teams again and keeps Shinigami occupied long enough that Karasuma is able to drag him away for a 1v1 fight.

Shinigami pulls out a hidden gun in his finger and shoots a tiny bullet through Karasuma’s heart. But Koro feeds tomato juice as fake blood to Karasuma through a tentacle and lowers Shinigami’s guard enough to land a kick into his crotch.

The students forgive Irina and with an addition to the bounty on Koro’s head, i.e. that if any of the students are hurt during any assassination attempt the bounty will not be paid, class E return to normal again.

Thoughts

With Irina’s halfbetrayal last episode, I thought it’d be a more Irina focused episode of the usual clichéd backstory and more character development as she remembers her original goals etc etc. Whilst it was half of that as we saw Irina character development, considering she hasn’t had much at all, it was also an episode focused on the forgotten badass threat that is Karasuma.

The small Irina backstory was much needed, although it was highly predictable and by the book. Still, it showed us how she views the world, and sure she’s happy go lucky and enjoying a peaceful time in class, deep down she knows that there’s work to be done and happy days don’t last.

We also see Karasuma’s character development coming in quite well too. He seems to have softened up a little, sure his body is as hard as a rock, but his heart’s not. Though perhaps it’s just him believing in his class to get the job done. And if you think about it, if the other assassins can’t take out Karasuma, what hope do they have against Koro. Sure you can use underhanded tactics but Koro’s not someone to roll over so easily.

I was thinking through all the minor exchanges and the fact that the shinigami turned and ran, that Karasuma could take him in a 1v1 fight. After all, Karasuma’s a trained fighter whilst assassins, know some hand to hand combat, mainly operate in the shadows and kill when you don’t realise it. Sure Karasuma needed to land a kick in the crotch to secure the fight, but hey fight underhanded tactics with more of them.

Through all the tension, we still get some classic assclass comedy with Koro’s licking, which obviously was nothing but meant to throw a cheap laugh in. Also the faking Karasuma being shot was quite funny, and I don’t know if they meant it, but shinigami’s face falling off had me laughing too. Pretty sure they didn’t mean it, but slapping a deathly face on a person that was meant to be intimidating because of his casual nature made it seriously out of place and hilarious. Oh and let’s not forget the play by play from Koro, really enjoyable.

With the addition of the clause from Karasuma, it means we’ll get no more Takaokas and Shinigami, but actually, I think this is a nice place to leave these plots. Don’t want them to get stale and lose what has been built up already, i.e. that assclass can handle tense plots well. As they say, quit whilst you’re ahead.

The romance that was started last episode eventually went full circle with another flower, from the enemy no less, quite appropriate for the field that the two work in. Unfortunately there’s aren’t anymore major developments. Still, it managed to move forwards, if only slightly, so perhaps this isn’t the end of this relationship, it may be just the beginning.