Bullbuster Ep 9 Review: It’s Time For The Truth
This episode confirms a lot of things for viewers, mainly the origin of the Giant Beast and the direction of the series – what it is heading to. This series is certainly different from what we expected, but not in a bad way. They present some very interesting concepts and ideas that are common in Japan’s current workplace. The mecha/action aspect is definitely just secondary, and it’s all about the journey of the main cast.
First thing first – the origin of the Giant Beasts. We’ve theorized before that they aren’t naturally occurring, and we were right. They aren’t a product of Mother Nature or weird aliens or parasitic lifeforms. They are the by-products of the Shiota plant, and the merger with Namidome is them covering this up. This makes sense with how the big wig acted in the last episode. He was more interested in the Giant Beast rather than seeing the Namidome employees at work. And they didn’t care about anything when they proposed the financial backing. They just want to bury this with compensation and employee benefits. We’ve seen this often in office drama – even similar scenarios in the Mecha series, where the truth that harms influential people and organizations must be hidden at all costs.
The way President Tajima dealt with this is definitely not satisfactory for the employees, especially Arumi and Tetsurou. Namari is indifferent and still keeps his “devil may care” attitude towards the whole ordeal. I reckon he will only break out of the shell at the very, very last minute, but giving your character this sort of development isn’t ideal. If there are 24-25 episodes, I can give it time, but we don’t have time, just like Namidome. Arumi has been one of the best characters in the series, with a clear-cut conviction and the determination to stand up for what’s right. Tetsurou is also growing from just a robot fanboy trying to live a fantasy and get a paycheck to a caring and energetic employee – albeit still reckless and eager. The pair is what drives the plot forward and guides the story and the cast as well. Mizuhara has also been a fantastic support character. Almost everyone has fleshed out their characters except for two people: the secretary girl, who is obviously just an accessory now, and President Tajima himself.
He has been shown to have quite a painful past and has lost his family somehow. He is the only one aside from Tetsurou that we actually saw as his home. He’s been hinted to have an interesting backstory and will certainly be a key figure in the story, but we haven’t seen that yet. He has been playing the perfect “employee’s friend” type of boss until now, always putting his subordinate’s benefits on top. It might finally be his time to stand up to the plate and take charge of the situation. If the next episode preview is anything to go by, it seems he’s going to make a show out of it.
He has been shown to have quite a painful past and has lost his family somehow. He is the only one aside from Tetsurou that we actually saw as his home. He’s been hinted to have an interesting backstory and will certainly be a key figure in the story, but we haven’t seen that yet. He has been playing the perfect “employee’s friend” type of boss until now, always putting his subordinate’s benefits on top. It might finally be his time to stand up to the plate and take charge of the situation. If the next episode preview is anything to go by, it seems he’s going to make a show out of it.
Last but not least…we finally got a pretty mean-looking mech…and they call it the Bullduck. Like seriously? We got the Bullrover, which is a pretty standard-sounding name for a construction vehicle, and then we get Bullbuster, whose name is actually silly cool – like Gunbuster or Cannon Buster but with a more down-to-earth sense to it. And then with this amphibious mecha that looks pretty muscular and intimidating, they name it…Bullduck? It could have been something like AquaBull or BullMarine or something less…corny than smashing 2 animal names together. Well, either way, the next episode will no doubt spark the flames of the final conflict between Namidome and Shiota – and then a final “extermination” operation will take place at the end, no doubt.
Aaron
Aaron
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