Utawarerumono – episode 10
June 18, 2006 on 9:04 pm | In Utawarerumono | 2 Comments“The Mercenary”
The episode also known as “I have large breasts and pert buttocks. I am going to have to kill you.”
With a genuinely compelling opening featuring a lady assassin, followed by interminable scenes of horrid, horrid moe, I have no idea how seriously I am supposed to take this series. When you’ve got scenes of council that are framed to crop off the top half of the subject’s face, that’s trouble. I expected better of Utawarerumono, although I suppose the letters “T” and “A” are in its title.
Karura, “the definition of T&A”, is a mercenary who has been forced into slavery by the bastard government of Na Tunk (apparently the only good countries in this world are Tusukuru and the Onkami Yamukai land). The people of Tusukuru take her in and eventually decide “hey, maybe this large breasted impossibly strong woman can help our cause”.
The mathematical equation proposed by this episode is “Quality + moe = no quality”. Seriously, watching Eruruu in this episode instilled in me a strong desire to punch her in the face, and that is not a good thing. I like the character of Karura, though, and I enjoy the fact that her collar is comparable to Hakuoro’s mask. I am uncertain as to whether she says it can’t be removed for purely aesthetic reasons or a matter of being literal, but it’s fine either way.
The other highlight of this episode is that Benawi is actually a very good warrior and can put on a good show with Karura, but the story undermines itself by not having any idea of how to present the situation: Karura’s awesome power ultimately seems to be played for laughs, or is at least represented in a stupidly comical fashion.
I overall liked this episode, but my notes suggest that the series has committed “moe suicide”. Can Utawarerumono decide whether it is serious or a really weak comedy? Let’s stay tuned and find out.
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considering that karura can slaughter entire armies/break chains with her bare hands, it would be pretty difficlt to capture and enslave her. Also the winged gal who seems to be a big official knows her pretty well it seems. And all that drinking, as if Karura is trying to forget smthing???
imo, Karura probably willingly submitted herself to slavery, maybe in exchange for something. And killing all the ships crew was prolly as much to conceal evidence of her escape as revenge etc.
The fact that she herself submitted to slavery is why she says “It (the collar) cant be removed” or to remind herself of the past etc. in any case tho she could remove it with her bare hands, she keeps it as a soveniour.
Comment by rmel — July 25, 2006 #
But if she submitted herself to slavery, why would she try to escape?
Comment by Animefan — November 7, 2007 #