I’m pretty sure the filename for this episode was labeled “Daughter of Twenty Faces – 06” but it seems like some prankster has swapped an episode of Baccano! for this episode.
At any rate, the overwheming promise the series showed from the start, what with the quaint episodes of “aww, look at Chiko grow up to be a master thief!” seeming fairly far removed from, well, episode six. I’d noticed a ton of hits for “Daughter of Twenty Faces sometime around when episode six hit the usual places, which probably means that I should have squeezed in time to watch it earlier than I am. Of course, now that I’ve watched it, I’m wondering just why I didn’t watch it the intstant it finished downloading (although, since I only managed to get HD working on my ancient computer two days ago, I was able to see this episode in full HD glory, so that was one benefit). And, having seen it, there is now no reason not to watch this series, as everything has been totally upheaved.
In a way, it was expected: the series was moving entirely too fast in terms of developing Chiko from “innocent girl who really likes mystery stories” into “hard-boiled thief” (that alone took a whopping three episodes), and now we’ve got lots of things going wrong all at once: namely, the death of just about every character in the series, ever. I’m pretty sure Ken is alive, though, unless Japan wants to deny me again with men with eyepatches (Lockon ;___;). It’s also not entirely clear whether or not Twenty Faces himself is alive, although being wrapped by flames is certainly an indication that one may be dead. But, this is anime, so there’s always that slight chance that he’s alive. It doesn’t matter, as the actual plot is about to kick in; namely, Chiko searching the world, either to exact revenge upon a world gone awry, or to find any information that will lead her to Twenty Faces. Or something else entierly. We find out next episode, I presume.
Also, you have to hand it to Chiko. Despite spending most of the episode attacked by Angie (with an axe, no less), she is still incapable of sacrificing her humanity when she’s blown away. Twenty Faces spend most of his screentime in this episode either a) dying or b) talking about how horrible the war was and how inhuman people can be and his Plan to Save the World (by Installing Himself in Charge of It), and, of course, his need to have someone to succeed him, which Chiko overhears. She is apparently pretty dense, as she immediately thinks “man I wish I were his successor”, as if she weren’t already. At any rate, by reaching for Angie as she flies off the train towards a certain death, Chiko demonstrates that she understands that just because someone is trying to kill you doesn’t necessarily mean you have to reciprocate, or deny them humanity. Chiko even had a great chance to grab Angie’s axe when it landed right in front of her face, and yet she didn’t: the entire battle was Angie on the offensive and Chiko merely evading her attacks (although I think she got a couple kicks in here and there, but they were defensive kicks). It’s an odd kind of humanity to have, one that restrains you from killing someone who is obviously trying to kill you, and even feeling regret when they die while you’re trying to save them.
What implications this will have for later episode and the rest of the series remains to be seen. Daughter of Twenty Faces was already on my A-list after the first 5 episodes; episode 6 merely cements that it’s going to stay there.
And I still want my Detective Girls. The ED will be hilariously out of place until they show up and start detecting. And they better wear that hat Sherlock Holmes wears, and they better wear it all the time.
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 