00:00Taujin Anki, episode 20 review. One-dimensional fights are such drags. Again, shattering my
00:07expectations, Taujin Anki episode 20 provided nothing substantial but a generic shonen fight
00:14that nobody asked for. Where is Shiki versus Mikado? Taujin Anki is really pushing that out
00:20until the very end of the season, and my hopes of getting a cliffhanger-esque finale are slowly
00:25getting dimmer because of it. As for this week's episode, it honestly felt like a drag. Not
00:31exactly filler, but the whole episode focuses on one single fight, which wasn't even that
00:36interesting. It could have been if the characters didn't act so predictably. Still, the highlight of
00:42the episode has to be Shinya getting caught red-handed, and his one-trick pony move finally
00:48not working this time. And how did that happen? They used a freaking VR set to trick him. Like,
00:54geez. Sure, it was innovative as a counter to Shinya's CCTV camera ability, and seeing him
01:00run, because even he knows he doesn't stand a chance in a face-to-face fight, was honestly
01:05satisfying. But then came the same shonen slop. The big fight turned into a generic shonen slop.
01:13Now, by big fight, I'm not talking about the Shiki versus Mikado fight. That's just not happening
01:18any time soon. Even though they teased that it might happen in the next episode, I'm already
01:23getting skeptical about it. Anyway, the big fight here was Ikari versus Asuk, the two overconfident
01:30individuals. I mean, on paper, it could have turned out to be a fascinating clash, but even
01:36if I ignore the fact that some scenes had janky CGI, the characters are just so one-dimensional
01:41when they fight. I thought we'd moved past that era, but I guess some people still enjoy
01:47that earnest, straightforward style of combat. Even on the antagonistic side of things, Tsukiyomi,
01:53Asuk, and Mikado were all like, OK, let's have a fair fight. Mikado even split up the battlefield
01:59so he could 1v1 Shiki. Asuk tried to rematch Mudano, revealing that his technique is basically
02:05copying. And honestly, whenever a shonen character uses a copy ability, they usually end up super-op.
02:12But Mudano was like, I'm not fighting a copycat, and just sent his students to deal with him.
02:18Asuk resisted a bit at first, but it didn't look like he was struggling much either. Still,
02:23as any typical shonen plot goes, the fight didn't end up going in Asuk's favor once Ikari stepped in.
02:29This was certainly Ikari's episode, but at what cost? The way characters are introduced in
02:35Taujan Anki, I honestly don't care about who gets to shine next. I'm just waiting for Shiki versus
02:41Mikado. That's the only thing I care about. So, Ikari going up against Asuk was supposed to be hype,
02:48since it was basically his moment in the story. And so, in another stereotypical fashion,
02:54Ikari actually won. Of course, not on his first try, because the rule of thumb in shonen fights
03:00is that the eventual winner always loses the first round. Naturally, in the second half,
03:06Ikari literally turned into a bird with blood-transfigured wings. With all that in his
03:10arsenal, Ikari finally got his long-awaited W in the storyline. However, it left him bleeding so badly
03:17that he might not even survive, but would he actually die? I think we can all predict how that
03:22usually goes in a typical shonen like this, right? Now, let's just wait and see when Shiki versus
03:28Mikado finally happens. Taujan Anki is currently available to watch on Netflix.
