Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 12: Solstice Festival ]

Balsa must appear to be one of the hottest moms in the village. *nods*

This was a nice little episode. Nothing to really do with the plot but it dealt with some more development for Chagum’s character and even Balsa’s. I really enjoy the nice life they’re having now, living as a mother and son. It’s a pity that it has to come to an end at some point but it’s also good since that means more plot advancement and battles in the future. Chagum encounters some arrogant kid from a country named Rota. They get into a conflict and, of course, Chagum challenges him. He gets some advice from Balsa on how to beat someone who is bigger and stronger than he is (though she already told him that they can’t go to the festival because they might get spotted by someone they don’t want knowing they’re alive). Chagum beats the kid and Balsa steps in when he (the Rota kid) tries to slip out of his promise and ends up fighting the kid’s dad. Of course he’s beaten without much effort on Balsa’s part (go Balsa!).

Things look like they’re going to heat up soon though. There was some foreshadowing in this episode that’d go unnoticed if you didn’t look close enough. The most obvious one had to do with the snake and the frog at the very end of the episode. They didn’t just put that scene in there for filler. It pretty much suggests that something will happen soon. There’s also a guy in red (he stands out for some reason) who gets up and looks at Balsa when she defeats the arrogant kid’s father in a match. He probably knows something of a woman with strength in the region who once lived or something similar to that and might show up again (probably in the next episode or so).

Overall though, I loved the episode for its further development of our two main characters. It’s stuff like this that makes me love well-told stories.