Maybe more than any series I know, The Fable strikes a believable balance in its depiction of the Japanese mafia as I roughly guess it to be like. Some of the people here are smart, some pretty dumb. There are those evil in a calculating way, rabid violence-addicted dogs, power seekers. Most of them are oddballs and social misfits. It manages to show us these characters as human beings and individuals without excessively romanticizing them. I don’t know why that balance is so elusive for animanga, but it definitely is.

Utsubo definitely qualifies as one of the evil ones, maybe the worst in the cast. I think it’s his arrogance that compels him to take on Akira, when someone as calculated and clever as he is knows it’s a bad idea. There’s an element of revenge here too of course, since Fable took out his brother. Ironic that, given that Utsubo has concocted the whole revenge fiction around Hina and her parents, who he killed himself in an attempt (failed) to draw out Fable. Akira didn’t seek out this fight – indeed he’s been true to his word and not really sought out any in this series. Utsubo was once his target – as Kawahira Kouichi – but that moment has passed. If Utsubo left Akira alone, Akira would return the favor.

For Suzuki it’s more about pride than arrogance (and there is a difference). The fact that he feels out the weapons dealer (Akira as a target is a boon for his business) about an overseas escape hatch (which will cost him ¥10 million) suggests he doesn’t see his future tied to Utsubo’s. There are potential double-crosses all around here, and that’s not even factoring in Isaki (whose usefulness to Utsubo is almost expired). I’m not convinced Hina is buying Utsubo’s lie about Satou having killed her parents. She may have asked for that gun because she’s waiting for the right moment to turn it on Utsubo.

Speaking of Isaki, how he plays into the final battle is still to be determined. What’s not TBD is that he’s kind of a fuck-up. Having lost Kainuma and then found his body at the bottom of a ravine, he dumps it into the river rather than try and get it up the slope. I couldn’t possibly be less of an expert on this sort of work but cripes, even I can see this is a lousy idea. Eventually he turns to Kuro for advice on whether people fish that river (Kuro has no clue, naturally) and later tries to get a car from the Maguro Group. Is he planning on fleeing himself, or does he have something else in mind?

When we saw Ebihara for the first time in ages, I was thinking Akira was actually going to try and work together with them on resolving this mess, but no – he just wanted the footage of Suzuki on Youko’s hidden cameras wiped. Utsubo comes flat out and tells Akira they’re at war, pretty much, and Suzuki has rigged up a Plan A – a grenade triggered by an infrared sensor and an RC car. For a normal human that might have been effective – against Akira not so much. Akira knowingly walks into a trap, such is his confidence he can avoid it. But boy, that grenade blast can’t be good for the neighbors. Not his fault I know, but collateral damage is already something we know he’s capable of feeling guilt over.

There’s no question Utsubo was right about that. He had Akira’s motivation down pat, and he’ll certainly feel he can use it against Akira. As we’ve seen over and over none of these people have any idea what they’re up against with him. Their risk assessments are calibrated against mere mortals – Akira breaks their scales. The only concern for him, really, is minimizing damage to others (a grenade makes that rather difficult) and resolving things for the innocents caught up in his fights. That proved a big challenge with Misaki and Koujima, and it seems likely to prove an even bigger one with Hina, Utsubo, and Suzuki.