MAO ‒ Episodes 5-6

Apologies that there wasn't a review last week—not unlike Nanoka, I must've taken a wrong turn and entered a space where time doesn't quite flow the same. Indeed, before I knew it, there were two whole episodes to review! One of which (six) is obviously a lot meatier than the other, but that doesn't mean there was nothing to chew on in five.

So, to give some space to episode five, this episode was good. Unfortunately, it's hard for it to not feel completely and utterly overshadowed by the tremendous episode that immediately followed it. Still, the flea nun monsters were as unique as they were hilarious, and I like that Nanoka is actually going out of her way to do some actual research about the time period that she's been visiting.

But as I said earlier, it was the sixth episode that obviously had a lot more going on than the previous one. Have you read Rumiko Takahashi's newest art book? I sure have. And something that really stood out to me in this book was Takahashi talking—on a few occasions, no less—about how much she emphasizes having fast-paced openings to all her manga. Anyone who's read any of them—Ranma ½ especially, and she talks about the pains she went through for that intro in the book as well—can certainly attest to that. And yet, these fast intros tend to stand in contrast to stories that, after that dust of the intro has settled, tend to meander, and take their time soaking in the comedy, the adventure, or whatever else have you.

I mention this to emphasize how completely off-guard I was caught by this newest episode, where we finally meet the Byoki, and learn more about the truth about what happened to Nanoka the day that she lost her parents. Furthermore, we've learned a lot about how Nanoka's daily life clearly has more going on than what meets the eye. And the first thing I noticed about what I was feeling about all this, was how surprised I was that things are moving this quickly. It's only the sixth episode after all. Takahashi would be more than forgiven if she had taken longer to get to what's obviously such a big moment—and yet, here we already are.

To be clear, this is a very welcome surprise. Not to say I don't enjoy the fluff of her other work (I know it's the anime and not the manga, but nonetheless, I'll go on the record any day saying that Ranma, especially, broadly has some of the all time best filler in all of anime), just that this is a good change of pace. And maybe it's because things are so much faster paced this time around, the series feels kinetic—like there's more going on, and more yet to come. And that's a really exciting prospect.

But all this, and I haven't really talked much about the actual contents of the episode yet. Right off the bat, I love Byoki's deep, scratch-y voice. Throw away the receipt, because I'm absolutely sold on Takashi Matsuyama as Byoki. Next up, I like that the passage of time between “worlds,” at least at this point (I'm sure Nanoka will figure out some trick to learning about the flow of time in each world later), doesn't seem to be consistent nor convenient. Not only does it help keep the story moving faster, but it also makes the time travel element of it all feel less like window dressing, and more like something that's got some depth to it that we'll learn about later.

Finally, there's the whole fight between Byoki, Nanoka, and… well. I've been good at keeping my Inu Yasha references minimal, right? Let's just be honest with ourselves, there's no way we all looked at full Byoki-mode MAO and didn't think, “Hey, that's just Inu Yasha going full demon mode, just like. A bit hairier.” The more things change, the more things stay the same, I guess.

In any case, Takahashi's always been good at dramatic stand-offs-turned-fight-scene, and MAO is obviously no exception. She's got a flair for the dramatic that's in full, absolute maximum force, with present day Nanoka, who we learn could also be a vessel for the Byoki. We have the Byoki, suggesting that there was more to what happened between himself and MAO than even MAO seems to realize, despite the fact that he's been brooding about this for nearly an entire millennium. Entire empires have risen and fallen over the course of his cursed lifespan, which he's spent obsessing over Byoki, so the prospect of there being even more to it is really fascinating, even if we've seen Takahashi do this sort of thing a handful of times now. Still, the fact that it still works proves that if it's not broke, don't fix it! And because that's obviously nowhere near enough, sure, the whole place is on fire because the Great Kanto Earthquake just happened. …Oh, what's that? Still not enough for you? Okay, fine, child Nanoka is there. No dispensary in the world could make these stakes even higher. And more than ever, I'm at the edge of my seat, excited to see what happens next.

The series is really starting to come into its own, and feels like it's firing on all cylinders. Combine this with a mystery that we've been seeing built up for just long enough now, and it's easy to get to the end of this new episode and feel more drawn in than ever. This is easily becoming one of the biggest highlights of the season for me, which is wild considering the caliber of shows it's competing with.

Rating:

MAO is currently streaming on Hulu.