It’s another week of the same vibe with Nomad.  A really, really good episode that leaves me quite unsettled about where things are headed.  I was starting to feel a little better until the last few scene of the ep brought it all crashing down.  It’s not my place to tell the author what he’s about to do is thematically inconsistent, but from my perspective if the series ends where it’s suggesting it will that’s a hard development to reconcile with the first six episodes.

There are a couple of threads running strongly through the story.  One is the matter of a legacy.  That was central to Nanbu’s role in both the original and the sequel.  It’s an essential part of Chief’s story too, and we heard Abuhachi-san wax lyrical about it this week.  Another is the idea that “the past is the past”.  It holds a power over us, but we shouldn’t let it rule our lives.  We can’t return to it, and we can’t change it – all we can do is learn from it and try to do better.

That’s the one I’m having a problem with, if this goes where it seems to be going.

At this point Sakuma is pretty much being set up as the big bad (which I think Nomad was more interesting without in the first place, but that’s just me).  He’s trying to sell BES to the military, which is pretty low-hanging dramatic fruit.  Yukiko knows this stinks to high heaven – she lets herself be dragged along anyway.  Sakuma is feeding her doctored data about Mac, whose symptoms are worsening.  Mikio has gone on full offensive against BES and it seems as if Sakuma is going to try and take him out in some fashion – discredit him academically, or maybe worse.

Meanwhile Liu has survived and is conscious and apparently in possession of all his faculties.  But he’s been told he’ll never regain full mobility, which Yuri blames himself for.  The fact that Liu being a candidate for a BES chip isn’t even the most troubling plot twist being set up is testament to how troubling the other one is – it’s pretty troubling in its own right.  I really don’t want the story to go there but it seems inevitable at this point.  Hopefully Joe will be a voice of reason and try to talk Liu out of it but at this stage he basically has no idea of the truth behind the chip.

The dynamic between Joe and the kids remains the strongest part of the narrative.  Joe struggles to save the partially-rebuilt Team Nowhere gym from the latest typhoon, and everyone but Sacchio (who’s apparently now winning a few matches) pitches in to help.  What’s clear at this point is that while Joe made some serious mistakes, Sacchio is pushing him away because of his guilt over his own instrumental role in Joe’s departure.  The adults are trying to get Sacchio to leave boxing behind and pursue his original dream of being an engineer, but that won’t satisfy Sacchio’s obsession with being a better Joe than Joe.

Sacchio is being kind of a jerk at this point, but Joe’s hands aren’t clean either.  Nanbu knew him better than anyone and his words to Sacchio are eerily prescient, but Sacchio isn’t ready to forgive either Joe or himself yet.  Meanwhile Mac has forgotten most of his fight with Liu, he can’t sleep, and he’s quite dismayed that his son finds his ring persona terrifying.  Mac seems more or less sincere I suppose – it’s the chip that’s the problem.  He’s ready to quit in fact – he’s terrified of hurting more opponents and if his son doesn’t take any pleasure from seeing him in the ring, what’s the point?  But Sakuma leverages Mac’s past admiration of Gearless Joe as a means to keep his human billboard fighting.

The hummingbird and the nomad keep popping up throughout the story, this time in the book Mac reads to his son (what’s up with that scar?).  And I don’t think the symbolism is consistent with a grand climax of Joe and Mac duking it out in the ring in a rehash of the S1 finale, but it sure seems as if that’s in the cards.  Past glories can’t be rekindled, and sometimes the most noble thing we can do is compromise with time and embrace that which is possible at the expense of that which is ideal.  Maybe Nomad will find a way to square that with the direction it’s taking the plot – the quality of the writing with this show is certainly exceptional at its best.  But it’s set itself up one hell of a challenge if that’s what it intends to do.