Ringing Fate Ep 2 Review: Take me in, Master!

January 22, 2025Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
After a very fast-paced and interesting start, we slow down a bit on Kaname’s journey to her 2nd chance at life again. In the last episode, she was struggling to win the fight, and the only person that offered her “help” turned out to be a despicable man, so now, she has to find another place to stay, as well as getting stronger. And she found the perfect “person”, I mean…bear to study under.

We start the episode with an impressive fight by Ookuma – a bearman with a knack for boxing. You know how people said weight-class is more important than “build”? That raw, explosive power is more important than a well-toned and muscular body? Well Ookuma is the perfect example of that. Dude’s limbs are 1/5th of his body length, and his width is the same as his height (and length), but his shimmy is top-notch. His footwork put others to shame, and he just need a pair of steel boxing gloves to take down a big-ass piloted mecha. And from the fight, Kaname has found her Miyagi-sensei.

The bargaining and pestering sequence was pretty hilarious. Ookuma try to resist Kaname’s “pleas” but in the end, her cute and innocence demeanor managed to melt the giant bear’s heart. Kaname is innocent, sure, but she sure can act lol. Her personality reminded me of another pink-haired child: Anya Forger. Both of them have so many meme-worthy moments. Young viewers will probably find her funny, and older ones will find her like their daughter perhaps.

Of course, Kaname can’t train with Ookuma right off the bat, considering she isn’t a seasoned fighter, and Ookuma would just floor her in seconds. So queue the Rocky training montage! But for a young girl like her, her moves aren’t bad! In just a short time, she has improved a lot in terms of technique and speed. And she was able to spar with Ookuma and landed a lucky hit on him, which means Ookuma has to train her now, and she’ll improve even more. The animation of the “hand combat” is very fluid and nice – and it’s all 3D which really shows that 3D is capable of making really good looking human. And we have even more proof through many other Chinese’s Donghuas – some do look like crap, but some does look very nice – on par with 2D even. Maybe Japan will finally train up some 3D human animators in the future.

Ookuma’s subplot in this episode is also pretty cool. He’s trying to have a rematch with his long-time rival – Qing Sun. From what he told Kaname, I think Qing Sun and Ookuma used to be rivals in the ring, boxing it out for supremacy. But she switched to using a Mech Suits instead, thinking it is superior. Ookuma wants to demonstrate that boxing isn’t inferior to any metal robot. He wants to prove that his fist is just as strong as any giant metal knuckle with a thruster. Well, let’s see how his endeavor will turn out. But taking in Kaname might give him the extra push he needs to clinch the win later.

And of course, we gets to see another of Kaname’s fight. The pacing for this episode is basically an entire Rocky movie rolled into 24 minutes – but we don’t really feel weird at all when viewing it. As long as what’s happening on-screen is entertaining, it will keep us engaged without distracting from the events happening on-screen. And this fight was pretty amazing – especially the part where Saburo put up the shield to protect Kaname. That is absolute cinema! The VFX and the pandering shot looks really amazing. And of course, the ass-kicking is really good as well. The video-game like effect when there’s an impact on-screen may be a bit overwhelming sometimes, but I guess one can get used to it. To be honest, I’d suggest playing the combat scenes slower – about 0.9 speed to really appreciate all the details and choreography.

With 2 episodes, the series has featured 3 battles (technically 4), that is A LOT for an anime. I really like that the series develop Saburo and Kaname’s relationship during battle as well as out of it. They really use every single chance to bring characterization while making ample screentime for the eye-candy. Next time, I’m really interested in seeing more Eden, since he was treated like a secondary protagonist in the series, and he seems to be an “in-the-know” person that hides more than he show, so he can be a pretty interesting character down the line.

=Aaron=
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