If this was the day I settled on a decision (yes) with Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes, I’m still not quite there with Angolmois: Genkou Kassen-ki.  I certainly enjoy it more than the vast majority of new shows this season, but there are still a few quibbles which trouble me enough to stay on the fence.  The story it’s telling is one hell of a tale though, that’s for damn sure.  And that’s a pretty solid head start.

A lot of this really comes down to that very point, though.  The reality (or at least the most widely accepted version of it – that’s survived the telephone game of historical documentation of legendary events from this era, anyway) is fantastical enough.  The less we see of characters catching arrows in their teeth, and the less Jinzaburou’s “strategy” is to charge into the Mongol camp outnumbered 50-1 and come out unscathed the better.  There are other loose ends – I’m still not sure how I feel about the parchment filter effect NAZ is using here, which seems a little more obtrusive every episode – but nothing that strikes me as a potential deal-breaker.

This episode was as if someone had a seiyuu convention and a Mongol army invaded.  Hayami Show, Sakurai Takahiro, Koyasu Takehito…  It’s quite a group.  And it’s about time the Mongol hordes started to have a few more faces, because this was not a mindless mob but a brilliantly-led strategic strike force that systematically conquered much of the medieval world.  And they’re clearly not a united front – there are divisions within the ranks, those engaged in their own pursuits rather than meekly following orders.

For all his success in making his tiny band an irritant to the Mongols, Jinzaburou seems to have no overarching strategy beyond stalling for time until his reinforcements arrive.  He does receive from unexpected help from the Toibarai – supposedly a group of secretive descendants of ancient guardians of Tsushima who don’t answer to the Daimyou and rarely leave their mountain fastness.  As far as I know no such group existed or was ever purported to exist, and this does come off as one those fictionalizations that Angolmois really doesn’t need.  Their intervention (it’s hinted on orders from the Emperor) buys Jinzaburou enough time to allow his men to rescue most of the women and children prisoners about to be taken to the Mongol ships, including Sasamaru, the son of the man who stabbed the princess as part of selling out to the Mongols to try and save his family.

The problem for Jinzaburou and his allies is that he has to stall for a full seven days – an eternity on an island occupied by a huge invading force.  A journey across the mountains to the capitol reveals a terrible truth – the Mongols have beaten them there, and razed it to the ground.  Where this leaves the survivors is an open question – trying to hang on by hiding in the mountains, occasionally harrying the Mongols in guerrilla fashion?  That doesn’t necessarily strike me as the best basis for a narrative, so I suspect the hero is going to come up with a more direct and proactive strategy – hopefully Angolmois will do a good enough job of keeping it real to avoid a total historical disconnect.  Whether it can pull that off is probably the most important unanswered question about this series.