Generally speaking, Revenger still seems to be a pleasant surprise. After what was a very strong premiere, this ep passes the test with flying colors as good follow-up, having given us a general idea of what the heck is going on in this world.
Revenger is a squad connected to the Church – their goal being to help those who parted make ammends with their repents left in thos world. To do that, said person has to leave a bite mark into a gold coin, representing their will to have the one(s) holding their grudge purged. Why it exists and why it is even allowed to exist is not made clear yet, but it slightly hinted that is originates from a doctrine from said Church, even if its belief might not be as widespread as it would seem.
Anyway, the group is paid for their latest mission and are forced to have Kurima join the party now that the Church is aware of his samurai involvement job. It seems to me like this played too much perfectly to Usui’s side, as his interest in having Kurima join is pretty suspicious. As we meet the rest of the team, we are exposed to the case of the week (I have a feeling this is going to be our formula in this story), when Mana, a woman who had everything robbed from by her husband Inohachi, pledges revenge to Murakami, resident doctor in the team. Turns out the two men have ruined a lot of women’s lives in the village, fooling and forcing them to prostitution.
With everything that happened, Kurima is having a hard time moving on, and Usui’s invitation to join the team doesn’t make ot any easier. Simply put, he still sees the Revengers’ actions as pure murder, and as a samurai, that’s something he’d never abide to. It’s interesting to see how Usui puts it, believing that their acts are justified in the name of the greater good, which is to give to those souls some sense of closure they couldn’t ever receive otherwise because most likely this gonna be the lens the story explores this from.
But after seeing the situation with his own eyes, he is left with no choice but to accept it and enrolls in the mission with the team, ultimately concluding their goal and bringing peace (as they put it) to Mana’s soul.
Like I said before, this was a good follow-up to the first ep and did a good job establishing the world. For now, the show is entertaining enough, but I do wonder if there is gonna be any real exploration about the moral line of Revengers’ actions. Sure, from what we’ve seen so far, their missions align with the people they avenged, but how would they know if someone held a false gruge and was simply ordering a murder? And even if not, are they simply OK when killing the way they currently do? Basically, everything is clicking with this anime (so far) so whichever the direction it chooses to go, I’m certainly more grounded into giving it a chance.
OTAKU SPACE 