Suikoden: The Anime ‒ Episode 5
Episode 5 of Suikoden: The Anime really twists the knife in our proverbial guts.
What an effective bit of television. The elements at play are rather simple on their face. We have light banter between supporting cast members in a city under siege, wondering how life might be if things had gone differently. Ultimately, a friend-turned-traitor undoes the defenses and is spotted at the moment of betrayal. Even the traitor commits the wretched act in the hope of saving more lives and praying mercy will prevail, but it is no use.
This is a familiar dramatic setup, yet it still lands well due to the effective execution. Annabelle and Viktor haven't had much screen time up to this point. Despite this limited exposure, they come across as believable adults who are world-weary but ruggedly determined. Annabelle's death stings because it's clear that even though Jowy's betrayal is tragic and terrible, there is an extra layer of melancholy on top. Viktor and Annabelle both knew this outcome was likely, in one form or another. It's clear that their duties, the trajectories of their lives, and the deteriorating conditions of the war have all conspired to drive a wedge between them. Perhaps, in another life, they could find a bit of the joy denied here.
The battle itself is only so-so, I'm sorry to say. There's nothing wrong with the conceptual aspects of it. The soldiers rushing through a side gate, the slaughter that ensues, Riliu using a big get-out-of-jail-free rune to save a scant handful of survivors—that's all good stuff. Exactly the kind of dramatic defeat you would expect this early in the narrative, one that creates a rift between our leads literally and metaphorically while getting the characters in motion. That said, the action itself is so bare it's almost non-existent. I'm all for using limited techniques to save time and energy for the big payoffs, but there wasn't really much of a payoff here. We have a few shots of mobs of CG soldiers running up steps or pushing swords in stilted duels, and that's about it. Most of the action happens off-screen, and most significant impacts of violence—magical or mundane—are relegated to figures falling over without much sense of weight. It's not unexpected to have these more barebones episodes throughout a season—that knowledge doesn't mask the fact that there simply isn't much worth looking at this week.
Rating:
Suikoden: The Anime is currently streaming on YouTube.
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